Former NSA lawyer debunks Laura Ingraham’s bogus claim that Adam Schiff used the agency to obtain Devin Nunes’ phone records: 'Not how the law works'

Throughout the Ukraine scandal and the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham hasn’t been shy about jumping through hoops to defend the president — and she recently claimed that House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, during the inquiry, abused his power by working with the National Security Agenda (NSA) to obtain Rep. Devin Nunes’ phone records. But according to former NSA attorney Susan Hennessey, Ingraham’s comments have zero basis in reality.

Ingraham made her claims about Schiff when far-right podcast host Sara Carter was a guest on her show on December 6. Ingraham asserted, “A knowledgeable source tells ‘The Ingraham Angle’ tonight that not only did Schiff get dirt from the secret subpoenas that he sent to phone companies, he also got help from the NSA. All Americans should be shocked by this and more — and demand a full and immediate investigation.”

Hennessey, on Twitter, responded that Ingraham doesn’t even understand how the NSA works. Now a legal analyst for CNN, Hennessey tweeted, “Hi, former NSA lawyer here. This is not how it works. At all. It’s not how the law works. It’s not how NSA works. It’s not how phone records work.”

In a separate tweet, Hennessey posted, “It’s honestly astonishing. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more uninformed conversation about NSA or intelligence collection in my life. And I once had a relative corner me (at) a wedding to say NSA was blackmailing John McCain into supporting immigration reform. SO THE BAR IS REAL LOW.”

Jerry Lambe, in a December 7 article for Law & Crime, notes that Hennessey isn’t the only one to call out the Ingraham/Carter segment as nonsense. Bradley P. Moss, an NSA attorney, tweeted, “This is pathetic. Delusional.”

Lambe also points out that Patrick Boland (spokesman for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee) told the Daily Beast that impeachment investigators “did not subpoena call records for any member of Congress or their staff.”