In the News: William C. Banks

William Banks, professor emeritus in the public administration and international affairs department, says "the House investigation was beset by partisan overtones from the beginning," about the House Intel Committee's investigation into the Trump administration, in an article for WIRED.

"There's a Justice Department regulation that says that the independent council special prosecutor can only be dismissed for cause for misfeasance in office. Certainly, Mueller can't be reasonably accused of that," says William C. Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"If the Guard is deployed as it has been in the past, there would be little those troops could do to stop crime along the border," says William Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"Going after these records will provide more details about relationship of any Russian financial interests and any Trump business ties," analyzes William C. Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs. 

"If the facts are read, the FBI was balanced in making its request to the FISA court, as they always have been," says Professor Emeritus William C. Banks.

"These indictments remind us that the Mueller investigation has always first and foremost been about Russian interference in the election," says William C. Banks, professor of practice of public administration and international affairs.

William C. Banks, professor emeritus, of public administration and international affairs, spoke with several media outlets about the Nunes memo, how the FISA process works, and what the controversy means for the Trump presidency and the U.S. intelligence community.

"Carter Page was doing business in Russia, talking to Russian diplomats who may have been involved in intelligence activities directed at the United States," says William C. Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs. "Game over. The standards are incredibly open-ended." 

"Executive privilege is an amorphous concept," Professor Emeritus William C. Banks says. "It has never been tested the way it could soon be tested."

William C. Banks, professor of practice of public administration and international affairs says, "Trump has already said certain things that support at least a serious inquiry into whether obstruction has been committed. Whether [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions tries to stonewall with the privilege claims or some other, the facts are going to be discovered by the Mueller team in the not-too-distant future."

William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, discusses the House’s passage of an extension to the Foreign intelligence Surveillance Act.

"It is fair to wonder about the [Christopher] Steele dossier and how it came into the hands of our intelligence community," said William Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs. "The bottom line, however, is that whatever role this dossier has played, our intelligence community had other sources that would have led them to the information about the Russian interference in the election even if Steele had never tried to share his dossier with the United States."