The usual leftists and media people are going nuts on Twitter because of the response by the White House to a document request from Congress concerning the investigation of former national security adviser Mike Flynn. The headlines all scream that the White House denied requests to produce documents on Flynn. The headlines, however, are wrong. Here's what actually happened.
1. The House committee sent a letter about a week ago seeking a number of categories of documents regarding Flynn.
2. The White House responded to each category. A) For some categories, the response says that the documents are at the Defense Department and refers the committee to the appropriate persons there. B) For other categories, the White House says it has no responsive document. C) For one request, the White House takes issue with production. This is a request by the committee for all records regarding communications between Flynn and any foreign country or citizen. The White House says that it doesn't have any such communications prior to the inauguration. Then it points out that after Flynn became the national security adviser, much of his job was to communicate with foreigners. The vast bulk of those communications are classified or even compartmented documents. These are the documents which the White House did not turn over. It did not refuse, however, to turn over some documents if the request were more limited. The congressional committee could easily draft a request that is limited to documents that might be relevant to the investigation rather than to ask for essentially all of the foreign policy classified documents held in the White House for that period.
No doubt, we will get the usual hysteria from the media on this stuff. It's important to know the truth.
1. The House committee sent a letter about a week ago seeking a number of categories of documents regarding Flynn.
2. The White House responded to each category. A) For some categories, the response says that the documents are at the Defense Department and refers the committee to the appropriate persons there. B) For other categories, the White House says it has no responsive document. C) For one request, the White House takes issue with production. This is a request by the committee for all records regarding communications between Flynn and any foreign country or citizen. The White House says that it doesn't have any such communications prior to the inauguration. Then it points out that after Flynn became the national security adviser, much of his job was to communicate with foreigners. The vast bulk of those communications are classified or even compartmented documents. These are the documents which the White House did not turn over. It did not refuse, however, to turn over some documents if the request were more limited. The congressional committee could easily draft a request that is limited to documents that might be relevant to the investigation rather than to ask for essentially all of the foreign policy classified documents held in the White House for that period.
No doubt, we will get the usual hysteria from the media on this stuff. It's important to know the truth.
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