Mr. “Nonpartisan”

On January 5 the putatively nonpartisan Congressional Research Service issued a widely covered report written by Elizabeth Bazan and Jennifer Elsea. The report addressed presidential authority to condcut warrantless electronic surveillance to collect foreign intelligence information. John’s long post criticizing the report and the Washington Post’s coverage of it is “They’ll be okay if no one reads the report.”
The Congressional Research Service followed up with yet another report on January 18, this one by Alfred Cumming on the statutory procedures under which Congress is to be informed of intelligence activities. According to the Washington Post story on the report, Cumming found that the administration “appears to have violated the National Security Act by limiting its briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to congressional leaders[.]” Here are a few citations of Cumming’s report touting its nonpartisan auspices:

Sen. Schumer: “The CRS, Not Partisan

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