Posted on 03/11/2018 4:30:21 PM PDT by EyesOfTX
The Evening Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends)
There isn’t much worth reading in the #NeverTrump enclave that is The National Review anymore, but there are exceptions to this rule. Anything written by the great Victor Davis Hanson is one such exception. Anything written by Andrew C. McCarthy is the other.
McCarthy, who is himself a former federal prosecutor, published a very interesting piece at National Review on Saturday. It’s long, but well worth the read, as he provides an excellent synopsis of alleged FBI and DOJ abuses in both the Clinton email scandal and the whole Trump-Russia “collusion” fantasy play, and concludes with a strong and interesting recommendation on how Attorney General Jeff Sessions should proceed to have both matters investigated and, if warranted, prosecuted.
In brief, McCarthy is no fan of the special counsel law in general or of the specific and growing calls from an array of congressional Republicans for the appointment of a second special counsel to “investigate the investigators”. He believes the special counsel law is structured in a way that pretty much ensures out-of-control investigations with no investigative sidebars or budgetary restrictions, ones that inevitably end up causing an amazing amount of political and societal disruption, ruin lives, and whose end results tend to be a handful of convictions of minor functionaries for process violations that may or may not have any relation to the supposed reason why the investigation began in the first place. See the results of the Robert Mueller investigation thus far as a primary example.
Rather than repeat this prosecutorial circus with the appointment of another special counsel, McCarthy proposes the following approach:
Here is what should be done. Attorney General Sessions should assign a U.S. attorney from outside Washington to conduct a probe of how the Clinton-emails and Trump-Russia investigations were handled by the Justice Department and FBI…
…the designated U.S. attorney would handle this investigation along with the rest of the work of his or her office — this would not be a prosecutor whose only assignment is to pursue a single target or set of targets, and who thus faces great pressure to file charges, no matter how far afield from the original focus of the investigation, in order to justify the appointment. Unlike the inspector general, the U.S. attorney would have full jurisdiction to convene a grand jury; investigate any crimes attendant to the Clinton-emails and Trump-Russia probes; issue subpoenas and seek other court process (such as search warrants) to secure evidence; and prosecute any violations of law by persons inside or outside of government.
I find this specific recommendation, coming on this specific weekend to be fascinating, because McCarthy’s recommendation for investigating DOJ/FBI conduct in these two scandals/non-scandals essentially amounts to an endorsement to the approach Sessions himself told Fox News’s Shannon Bream on Wednesday that he is already pursuing in looking into alleged DOJ/FBI abuses of the FISA process (Jeff Sessions Dropped a Bomb – Hardly Anyone Noticed).
To quote Sessions:
“I have appointed a person outside of Washington, many years in the Department of Justice (DOJ), to look at all the allegations that the House Judiciary Committee members sent to us; and we’re conducting that investigation.”
And, as I pointed out in that piece on Thursday:
Unlike [DOJ Inspector General Michael] Horowitz, this unidentified special prosecutor would have the power to convene a grand jury – and may have already done so – and quickly begin issuing subpoenas based on the recommendations contain in the Horowitz report.
Let’s also remember that, over the course of three weeks in December and January, Sessions let it be known that he has taken a similar approach to forming DOJ investigations into the following Clinton/Obama era scandals:
Uranium One; The Clinton Foundation; Felony leaks coming out of DOJ and the FBI; The Obama/Hezbollah “Project Cassandra” scandal. Combine all of those investigations with the OIG Inspector General investigation, along with multiple other likely ongoing investigations we don’t even know about yet, and you have a very busy Justice Department indeed.
What’s so interesting is the way in which Sessions has gone about letting all of this be known, always casually mentioning the existence of this investigation or that in the middle of interviews, almost as an afterthought in response to a question. He’s done it in a way that has prevented the media from engaging in feeding frenzies around any of them, and has also prevented any leaking to the press around any of them.
He’s done it so quietly that it has led many to accuse him of being a do-nothing, lazy or even compromised in some way by people who are simply unaware of everything that is going on. I was one of those people up until last November, in fact. Even as astute an observer as Andrew McCarthy appeared, in his piece from yesterday, unaware that the method he was suggesting for investigating one scandal was in fact the method Sessions has been employing all along related to other investigations.
Boiling the frog. That’s what they call it in the DC Swamp when one side is inexorably turning up the heat on the opposition so slowly that the opposition doesn’t notice until the time has passed to take any effective defensive action.
If that really has been the strategy, it’s been amazingly effective. Hopefully, the IG report will finally drop soon, and we’ll begin to find out.
That is all.
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I wish that once, just once, one of these historic earth-shaking stories of intrigue would be true.
It would be fun.
I've been watching DJT and have seen he is a new animal in the mix. I suspected that DJT is a shrewd man and thus far he has proven to be so. My gut has been telling me that "something" unique has been occurring since Nov. 2016. That is a faith that stills my restlessness.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have heard (not read) the same, pertaining to a specific Clinton enterprise.
The Uranium One deal is also tied to her duty as Secretary of State, which can legally be investigated by the DOJ, despite the fact that Russia gave the Clinton Foundation money. Plus, the Clinton Foundation is already being investigated by the DOJ/FBI.
You might want to bone up on federal statutes of limitations, which are much longer than you seem to realize and may even be waived under certain circumstances.
The Possum
"The Recuser" would actually be a nickname based on fact.
In the year 2525
Sure. But the point is that Sessions is recused on those matters, and he's left us with Rod Rosenstein, as the acting AG.
That's the problem.
Interesting...
I agree with everything you just wrote except "Sessions had a plan all along." It was clear to me when DAG Rosenstein appointed Mueller (the day after President Trump had interviewed Mueller) that Trump and Sessions had a plan all along, and I believe it is playing out brilliantly.
FBI launches new Clinton Foundation investigation
The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill.
FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in the coming weeks.
The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.
The probe may also examine whether any tax-exempt assets were converted for personal or political use and whether the foundation complied with applicable tax laws, the officials said.
One witness recently interviewed by the FBI described the session to The Hill as “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough” and focused on questions about whether donors to Clinton charitable efforts received any favorable treatment from the Obama administration on a policy decision previously highlighted in media reports.
The witness discussed his interview solely on the grounds of anonymity. He said the agents were from Little Rock and their questions focused on government decisions and discussions of donations to Clinton entities during the time Hillary Clinton led President Obama's State Department.
What makes you think this apparent epiphany of Sessions is his work and not that of Rubenstein?
RitaOK, do you realize which president nominated Rod Rosenstein to be Deputy Attorney General?
Hint: It was announced on January 31, 2017. At that time, Rosenstein was serving in his 12th year as United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.
We’ve been hoping you were right, but we’re on the outside and haven’t yet seen the fruit of what we hope is an effective strategy.Meanwhile, anyone who is still in the thrall, as I was for far too long, of the “objective journalism” con don’t know anything. Most of them don’t even suspect anything.
Bingo! That is the jurisdiction of the Eastern District of Arkansas, where Trump's man took office last October 10.
We don't need to appoint another special counsel, which would only tie up and further delay justice. We need what we now have in place -- aggressive new United States Attorneys building and prosecuting criminal cases. Justice is served by grand juries and trial courts, not by leaks and press releases. Many of us don't recognize justice because we haven't seen it in years.
> Screw all you Sessions bashers. Hope you choke on crow.
Amen. I trust Trump, and Trump clearly trusts Sessions, or he would be gone. You know I read that Trump was aware that he was going to recuse himself prior to getting the A.G. nod.
>>Jeff Sessions as Attorney General is the biggest danger to the Trump presidency. He is not protecting or serving the interests of the President.<<
I and many others here have been saying this for a year now, while Sleepy has continued to confirm our thinking every day since his recusal. Yet there are many here who earnestly believe he is hot on the trail of all the criminal Deep Staters.
I believe the pot will start to bubble this summer and go into a full boil after the November elections.
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