Posted on 12/20/2017 5:17:00 AM PST by SJackson
The special counsel threatens the rule of law by stealing Trump transition documents.
The unprecedented theft of thousands of likely privileged Trump transition emails by Special Counsel Robert S. Muellers investigators is yet more proof that the open-ended fishing expedition is continuing to move forward with its effort to reverse the results of the 2016 election.
News of the misappropriation of the email tranches comes weeks after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) urged that Mueller quit or be fired, saying the independent prosecutor has indisputable conflicts of interest.
We are at risk of a coup détat in this country if we allow an unaccountable person with no oversight to undermine the duly-elected president of the United States, Gaetz said, echoing earlier remarks by writer Michael Walsh who asserts the Left is engaged in a rolling coup attempt against President Trump.
Monday on Tucker Carlson Tonight, author Mark Steyn said, I see no reason at all why a guy who is supposed to be investigating Russian interference in an election that took place on November the 8th should be able to seize, effectively, an incoming governments entire confidential communications between each other in the period after the election took place. That seems to be entirely unwarranted by Mueller.
Trump himself was more restrained in his rhetoric.
He said a lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad, in reference to the purloining of the transition records by Muellers office. Not looking good. Its not looking good, Trump said.
Its quite sad to see that, Trump said. My people were very upset.
I cant imagine theres anything on them, because as we said theres no collusion, he added. There was no collusion whatsoever.
Until somebody delivers a coup de grâce to this disgraceful coup attempt, the push could last the entirety of Donald Trumps presidency. The end of the investigation is nowhere in sight. Although White House lawyers had said Muellers probe would conclude by years end, members of the independent prosecutors team reportedly said recently that the investigation will spill over into 2018 at least.
Commissioned to investigate the Lefts ridiculous Trump-Russia electoral collusion conspiracy theory, Mueller, with his scorched-earth, shock-and-awe tactics, remains the Lefts best hope to drive the 45th president of the United States from the White House. Democrats still refuse to accept that the irretrievably corrupt Democrat Hillary Clinton was flattened by Republican Trump in the election 13 months ago. Working with the Deep State, former President Obama launched his own insurrection against the Trump administration even before it came into being.
Although there is still no evidence of wrongdoing by Trump or of an underlying crime, Obama loyalists like former attorney general, Eric Holder, are threatening to lead potentially violent large-scale protests if President Trump fires the out-of-control special counsel. This is not, as the leftist chant goes, what democracy looks like. These people are in effect screaming at their own straw man after Democrats spent the last few days whipping up hysteria that Trump was on the verge of firing Mueller, something he steadfastly insists he has no intention of doing even though he has every reason and every right to give the swamp-dweller the boot.
The presidents lawyers reportedly realized Mueller had obtained transition team emails from the General Services Administration (GSA), which hosted the 73-day-long transition's "ptt.gov" emails, when prosecutors started using them as the basis for questions posed to witnesses. According to Axios, the fight between Muellers office and the White House involves emails from the accounts of 12 officials, including members of the political leadership and foreign-policy team. One of the accounts alone includes 7,000 emails.
The GSA, among other things, helps to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. The Presidential Transition Acts of 1963 and 2015 authorize the Administrator of GSA to provide the President-elect and the Vice-President-elect the services and facilities needed to assume their official duties.
Mueller bypassed Trump transition officials and lawyers by taking it upon himself to seize thousands of emails owned by the transition authority but held by the GSA. According to the National Archives materials that [presidential transition team] members create or receive are not federal or presidential records, but are considered private materials. The GSA signs agreements with transition teams, agreeing to delete all data on [computing] devices used by transition officials.
When Muellers people found out that the transition records were not yet deleted, left-wing public interest law professor Jonathan Turley writes, they demanded their surrender despite the fact that Trump officials claimed that the material held privileged information that belonged to the transition team and is subject to protection from discovery.
Trump transition lawyers say Richard Beckler, at the time GSA general counsel, agreed that the transition records were the property of the transition and that his agency had no right to access or control the records. They also say Beckler assured them that any demands for records from Muellers people would be forwarded to transition lawyers. GSA now denies Beckler made any such declaration. He was hospitalized in August and has since died. Trumps attorneys claim that Muellers investigators took advantage of Becklers illness and seized the emails while he was in the hospital. Muellers people say they followed the rules.
But Turley does not seem convinced the GSA had the authority to hand over the records to a third party and warns that it may be impossible to prosecute any crimes that may be discovered because the evidence would be tainted.
The move was legally unprecedented and strategically reckless, Turley writes. In a gratuitous muscle play, Mueller may have added a potential complication to the use of evidence that could contaminate much of his investigation in any later trial.
All Mueller needed to do was follow the proper protocol and request access to the transition emails through channels and he would likely have gotten much of what he wanted.
But that is not the Mueller way, writes former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy, as we saw with the utterly unnecessary pre-dawn raid on the home of [former Trump campaign manager] Paul Manafort busting in with a search warrant and guns drawn, at the very time Manafort was cooperating with congressional committees, and when he was represented by well-respected lawyers through whom Mueller could have requested production of whatever materials he was seeking.
Muellers investigators must have known that Trumps transition entity, Trump for America (TFA), asserted ownership and control of the presidential transition team (PTT) records, McCarthy suggests.
The main issue here is not whether Mueller had the legal power to request that GSA, the third-party custodian, voluntarily turn over all the PTT records to the special-counsel investigation. It is also not whether GSA had the authority to comply with the request. The real question is why did Mueller choose to proceed in this sneaky manner?
This sneakiness was wholly unnecessary.
By following the correct procedures, McCarthy notes, in the end Mueller would have gotten whatever files he was entitled to review, and Trumps counsel would have been permitted to withhold anything that was truly privileged.
But why follow the rules when the mainstream media treats you like a rock star?
Mueller thinks he is above the law. And so far no one has held him accountable.
If the Dems were running the Senate and the House, none of this would ever see the light of day.
Think about that before you sit out an election.
Plus the media is rooting for Mueller to vanquish Trump.
Arkancide? Let me guess...he mysteriously died of a heart attack after years of heart problems!
Trump is putting his agenda above politics for now. He is showing that he cares about us and not revenge.
Revenge will come at the polls, and we dont mean NBC/WSJ polls.
IMHO, Sessions is a timid fellow but POTUS is not. There is much the President can (and must) do aside from grousing “very sad!” Mueller’s lawlessness cannot be allowed to stand.
The presidential transition act says that the records are private and that the gsa is merely a facilitator.
It isn’t even a close call.
Time for Congress and the AG to supeona all the emails and texts of Mueller and his band of lib cronies.
I saw on TV last night someone reading articles from the NYT that were really enthusiastic about how the Clinton administration was going about discrediting Ken Starr. One article even quoted James Carville as saying that “we are at war with Starr.” Now, that same paper is up in arms about the Trump administration attempting to discredit Mueller, so much so that they are saying that by doing so, it could cause violence, and a national crisis.
Trump signs the tax bill today and tomorrow fires Rosenstein . Merry Christmas
Arkansas ALERT !!!
He [Richard Beckler] was hospitalized in August and has since died.
Time for the Congress to write legislation assigning US Marshals to enforce their subpoenas.
Richard Beckler.... What was his history at the DOJ?
Surely, he left footprints at the DOJ.
Another thread clearly laid out previous Supreme Court rulings that prove Mueller was 100% wrong. This could even taint the Manafort effort. This was really more of a spying effort than a investigative effort. Mueller was looking for anything that could be used politically.
Whistleblowers have started to come forth regarding the last administration’s misdeeds. As people see no retribution for coming forth, the floodgates will be opened and many, many misdeeds will be exposed. Several relating to treason and conspiracy to commit treason. Material support to terrorists will be prominent.
We can fully place the blame of Muller’s wild search for any information to torpedo Trump’s election on Session’s failure to fulfill his duties. It’s time to get rid of him and have someone who will perform the duties of office as required.
Ricard “Dick” Beckler.... Legacy.com obituary
**snip**
...He was recruited to the Justice Department in Washington, DC. and after seven years, became chief of the fraud section in the criminal division.
Eventually switching to private practice, Dick spent the next 37 years in white collar criminal defense for the firms Fulbright & Jaworski, Howrey LLP, and Bracewell & Giuliani mostly representing corporations such as Halliburton but also many individuals such as Bill Casey- CIA Director under President Reagan.
He also served as Independent Director of Rosetta Resources, Inc. from 2005 - 2013.
Most recently Dick began a new role in May 2017 as Chief Legal Advisor and General Counsel of the General Services Administration under President Trump.
**interesting fellow***
Do you know how he died...I mean...How they say he died?
Not my area of interest.
Look at his pedigree.
He has worked in some interesting shops and may have had some unique insight.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?pid=186815656
All your emails are belong to us (the Feds) should alawys be the operative principle in any communication.
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