Washington Free Beacon senior writer Adam Kredo in a TV appearance Monday explained Congress' threat to de-authorize sensitive spy operations unless White House leaks stop.
Kredo appeared on One America News Network's "Tipping Point" to discuss an article he wrote last week about key lawmakers threatening to "cancel the authorization of sensitive U.S. spy operations until congressional leaders investigate efforts by former top Obama administration officials to leak highly classified national security information."
Host Liz Wheeler said that it was great to see the House Judiciary Committee show some spine on this issue by standing up to the leaks. She then asked Kredo what the implications would be if FISA section 702, which provides the authorization, was not reauthorized.
Kredo said that he has seen this story framed as "Republicans attempting to undermine national security and NSA operations." That is because they would be holding hostage a key passage of the FISA law that allows the U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on foreign nationals and conduct intelligence gathering.
"These lawmakers I think have a very simple point here that until there's proper oversight and investigation into how leaks from the former Obama administration got out there, how they unmasked officials that are close to Trump. They don't want to reauthorize a program that might be inappropriately used to spy on Americans and allies of the Trump administration," Kredo said.
Later in the interview, Kredo pointed out that Democrats, specifically those loyal to former President Barack Obama, were being hypocritical for saying that Republicans were holding safety in the United States "hostage."
He said that Democrats have weaponized national security leaks to hurt their political enemies and have even leaked classified information that reveals what allies of the United States are up to.
Wheeler asked Kredo why Congress cannot just subpoena some of the former senior Obama officials who are suspected of leaking confidential information.
"I think we are moving in that direction, but we're not quite there yet," Kredo said. "The Judiciary Committee [and] the Government Oversight Committee, they have some sort of jurisdiction in this matter."
"They have subpoenaed as you said, [Susan] Rice. They have subpoenaed [Samantha] Power. They have subpoenaed [John] Brennan. [Ben] Rhodes not yet included in that ... But I think that the more that members of Congress bang on this drum, the more there will be an appetite to either subpoena these individuals or have them meet in a classified setting with the intelligence committee," Kredo said.