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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (1044580)

12/23/2017 8:48:24 PM

From: Brumar89

Respond to of 1577946

Ten things you actually should know about FBI General Counsel James Baker, removed this week by Chris Wray—all of them actually true.

[ The vile President and his co-conspirators are plotting to destroy a good man who spent his career serving his country honorably. The lie is that he leaked the dossier to David Corn. Corn has said openly Baker was NOT his source. His real sin is that he was one of those that Comey told about the President's request for personal loyalty and to obstruct justice to protect Michael Flynn. ]

Benjamin Wittes?Verified account @benjaminwittes

1) He was the counsel for intelligence policy at the Justice Department—which was the office that ran FISA warrants before NSD—in the period just after 9/11.

2) This was an incredibly grueling and tremendously important role that put him at the center of the process of bringing the warrantless wiretapping program under the FISA. It was also a role pivotal in bringing down the Wall between intelligence and law enforcement.

3) He is not, whatever the fever swamp may be concocting about him, a partisan. I have known him for a long time. I have no idea what his politics are except some vague sense that they are moderate of some variety. He has worked comfortably in administrations of both parties.

4) He is one of the most deeply respected national security law practitioners out there. The very best of the very best think of him as a peer.

5) He is not a leaker. The idea is just silly to anyone who knows him.

6) He has been a mentor to lot of extremely fine people. A while back, he emailed me to ask me if—as a favor to him—I would mean with a protege of his, then in law school, to help think through how to run a journal. I agreed. @togawamercer is now managing editor of @lawfareblog.

7) @togawamercer is not alone. A great many young people have benefited from his teaching at @Harvard_Law—even while he was in government—over the years. They are devoted to him. That should tell you more than what anonymous House Republicans tell @politico.

8) Yes, he is part of a close-knit circle of people who are close to Jim Comey. That group—from Chuck Rosenberg to Dan Richman to Jim to others—are all major figures in their own rights. It says a lot about Comey that he attracts these people—and that they stay with him years.

9) Chris Wray has reassigned him to advise on “strategic projects”—which is almost surely code for warehousing and marginalizing him within the context of civil service rules that protect him.

10) Jim Baker is an altogether kind and decent human being. My strategic project advice for Wray is to stop buying yourself time with Trump and Congressional Republicans at the expense of such people.