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Bond, Hoekstra, GOP Leaders Claim Ignorance on FBI Procedure

Evidently out of patience with attacks on the Obama administration for reading would-be Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights, John

Jul 31, 2020188.2K Shares2.6M Views
Evidently out of patience with attacks on the Obama administration for reading would-be Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights, John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism chief, called out the Obama administration’s conservative critics for what he described as selective outrage. Brennantold ‘Meet The Press’:
On Christmas night, I called a number of– senior members of Congress. I spoke to Senators McConnell and Bond. I spoke to Representative Boehner and Hoekstra. I explained to them that he was in F.B.I. custody. That Mr. Abdulmutallab was in fact talking. That he was cooperating at that point. They knew that in F.B.I. custody means that there’s a process then you follow as far as mirandizing and presenting him in front of the magistrate. None of those individuals raised any concerns with me, at that point.
Sure enough, Sen. Chris Bond (R-Mo.) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking Republicans on the congressional intelligence committees, insistedthat Brennan never specifically told them the FBI would Mirandize Abdulmutallab. “If he had I would [have] told him the Administration was making a mistake,” Bond said. The entire Republican leadership, including fact-averse Sen. Mitch McConnell(R-Ky.) and House GOP leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) echoed Bond’s claims in one form or another. Apparently these men, who claim leadership on national security, know less about FBI procedure than the average movie-goer. Obviouslythe FBI Mirandizes suspects in their custody.
Update: This post has been edited to fix a sentence fragment.
Rhyley Carney

Rhyley Carney

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