As PJ Media helpfully points out -- Schiff is claiming to have classified some House Intelligence memoranda. Under what authority would he be doing that? There's a complete list of people with original classification authority here. They're all Executive Branch. Who delegated authority to a Congressman?
Did anyone?
He coded them SECRET SQUIRREL. Using his decoder ring from a box of Rice Krispies.
ReplyDeleteThat's one alternative. Another: someone did delegate to him, perhaps precisely to allow him to keep his fellow Congressmen from using the information in the public debate. Someone, perhaps, at CIA? FBI? Someone impacted by the IG investigation, or perhaps a friend of the so-called whistleblower?
ReplyDeleteEither way, the answer will be illuminating.
Typically, although I don't see it in the EO--it may be a blanket delegation--the originator of the document also gets to classify it up to the level of his own classified access.
ReplyDeleteI would be surprised, though, if the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (along with a significant subset of Committee members) didn't have that sort of classification authority.
Eric Hines
And, not just anyone can delegate classification authority; it would have to be a MFWIC or near-MFWIC--a John Brennan before he...left...or a Dan Coates or a James Clapper or someone in DoJ or FBI--Comey, Yates, Holder, Lynch, McCabe, etc. Impactees, all.
ReplyDeleteEric Hines