Category Archives: Congress
Strzok Grilling
FBI agent Peter Strzok insisted he was able to ignore his bias against Trump while investigating him. But congressional Republicans weren’t buying it during a circus of hearing on Friday.
Strzok Grilling
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, was so moved by Strzok’s grilling that he told him “If I could give you a Purple Heart, I would.”
No FBI Bias Here
Inspector General Michael Horowitz looked into the FBI investigation of Hilary Clinton’s email server. He released his report on Friday and testified before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday.
Some of his more interesting findings included text messages from lead FBI agent Peter Strzok. He referred to Hillary as the “future prez.” Strzok also said he would “stop Trump.” Still, the IG found no FBI bias in the investigation results.
No FBI Bias Here
Here’s Trey Gowdy asking how Jim Comey could draft an exonerating press release six weeks before the FBI’s interview with Hillary took place.
If you’ve got some time on your hands watch the entire I.G. hearing here on C Span:
Rosenstein Extortion
Deputy A.G. Rosenstein is finally getting tough about the Mueller investigation. He’s not going to let the House Intelligence Committee extort him. Here’s how he responded when the committee’s demands for more information this week:
“There have been people making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “They should know by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted, and that any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job.”
Rosenstein Extortion
So here’s what former Bill Clinton advisor Mark Penn has to say about that:
I suppose he meant to say, “Only we here at the Justice Department do the extorting, with special counsels, daylight raids of people’s attorneys, bankrupting people with legal fees, threats to prosecute family members, and questionable wiretapping of Americans.”
Finally, the WSJ’s Kimberly Strassel wants Paul Ryan to get tough with kingpin Rosenstein:
Mr. Ryan’s committee chairmen have done remarkable work exposing FBI behavior, and they deserve backup. The quickest way to get Justice and FBI to comply with these legitimate requests is for Mr. Ryan to state strongly and publicly that he has zero qualms about proceeding down the road of contempt or impeachment if House demands are not met. This is the people’s government, not the Justice Department’s.
The End is Coming
Republicans pushed through a pro growth tax cut. But then they passed a budget full of deficit spending. On Face the Nation Rand Paul called his party hypocritical.
The End is Coming
Kevin Williamson at National Review calls Senator Paul “fantastically bitchy.”
But he also says “the end is coming.”
Adam Schiff Leaks
Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has prepared a four page memo. The memo is a summary of thousands of pages of information the FBI refused to turn over to the committee until it was threatened with contempt of Congress. The committee is responsible for oversight of the FBI.
Nunes says the public has a right know about the information in the memo. But the FBI is fighting its release.
The summary is said to reveal the quality of evidence the Justice Department presented to a FISA court. The FISA court has the power to authorize spying on Americans, including members of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
Adam Schiff
Adam Schiff is the ranking Democrat on the committee. He says Nunes is trying to distract from Special Counsel Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation by releasing classified information. And he now claims Nunes altered information in the memo.
Trey Gowdy says the memo will be an embarrassment to Schiff.
Until now Schiff has shown little interest in obtaining information about FBI efforts to spy on Americans. Except when it suites his purposes.
