Amid new signs that special counsel Robert Mueller is pursuing an obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress have intensified their own investigations of the Justice Department's and FBI's handling of inquiries into Trump’s ties to Russia.
Tuesday brought several dramatic developments in the Russia saga, including the news that Mueller recently interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the first Cabinet official known to be questioned in the investigation. The New York Times also reported that former FBI Director James Comey was interviewed by Mueller last year.
But even as Mueller showed apparent momentum, Republicans made new charges of political bias and even potential criminal misconduct in the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
On Fox News, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House committee that oversees the Justice Department and FBI, alleged an anti-Trump “conspiracy” by FBI agents whose text message exchanges have been made public in selective bursts by GOP lawmakers.
“Some of these texts are very disturbing,” Goodlatte said, adding, “They illustrate a conspiracy on the part of some people, and we want to know a lot more about that.”
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans pushing to release a secret memo they have drafted based on classified intelligence — which they claim reveals anti-Trump bias in the FBI — got a boost on Tuesday from the White House, which called for “full transparency” on the issue.
Separately, a GOP lawmaker on the House Judiciary Committee indicated that there were plans to recall Comey to testify about his handling of the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton.
Congressional Democrats say it’s no accident that the GOP probes have escalated as Mueller has homed in on Trump’s top allies. Reps. Adam Schiff of California, Jerry Nadler of New York and Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrats on three GOP-led committees unearthing internal FBI documents, say the Republican efforts smack of a partisan campaign to protect the president and sully the investigators who have questioned his behavior.
“Republicans are now attacking the FBI in order to undermine Special Counsel Mueller and protect President Trump, but their claims are directly at odds with the facts,” the three Democrats said in a joint statement on Tuesday afternoon.
AJ adds: Let's set the record straight. The top echelon of the Dept. of Justice and the FBI conspired to spy on the Trump campaign. They also hatched a plot (they called it insurance) that Trump would not be inaugurated. They have met off campus to carry out part of the plot. They claim that relevant communications between the plotters were lost. These are now established facts Reps Schiff, Nadler and Cummings. It is you that are trying to overturn the results of the election.
Let us also state the fact that:
1. The President has the authority to fire any employee he feels is detrimental to him carrying out his duties:
2. The President has the authority to initiate investigations and stop investigations (after all he can pardon even people who have been convicted).
Thus, Republicans are acting lawfully from continuing the perverting of the FBI into a partisan, political agency. It is about time.
Tuesday brought several dramatic developments in the Russia saga, including the news that Mueller recently interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the first Cabinet official known to be questioned in the investigation. The New York Times also reported that former FBI Director James Comey was interviewed by Mueller last year.
On Fox News, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House committee that oversees the Justice Department and FBI, alleged an anti-Trump “conspiracy” by FBI agents whose text message exchanges have been made public in selective bursts by GOP lawmakers.
“Some of these texts are very disturbing,” Goodlatte said, adding, “They illustrate a conspiracy on the part of some people, and we want to know a lot more about that.”
Meanwhile, congressional Republicans pushing to release a secret memo they have drafted based on classified intelligence — which they claim reveals anti-Trump bias in the FBI — got a boost on Tuesday from the White House, which called for “full transparency” on the issue.
Separately, a GOP lawmaker on the House Judiciary Committee indicated that there were plans to recall Comey to testify about his handling of the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton.
Congressional Democrats say it’s no accident that the GOP probes have escalated as Mueller has homed in on Trump’s top allies. Reps. Adam Schiff of California, Jerry Nadler of New York and Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrats on three GOP-led committees unearthing internal FBI documents, say the Republican efforts smack of a partisan campaign to protect the president and sully the investigators who have questioned his behavior.
“Republicans are now attacking the FBI in order to undermine Special Counsel Mueller and protect President Trump, but their claims are directly at odds with the facts,” the three Democrats said in a joint statement on Tuesday afternoon.
AJ adds: Let's set the record straight. The top echelon of the Dept. of Justice and the FBI conspired to spy on the Trump campaign. They also hatched a plot (they called it insurance) that Trump would not be inaugurated. They have met off campus to carry out part of the plot. They claim that relevant communications between the plotters were lost. These are now established facts Reps Schiff, Nadler and Cummings. It is you that are trying to overturn the results of the election.
Let us also state the fact that:
1. The President has the authority to fire any employee he feels is detrimental to him carrying out his duties:
2. The President has the authority to initiate investigations and stop investigations (after all he can pardon even people who have been convicted).
Thus, Republicans are acting lawfully from continuing the perverting of the FBI into a partisan, political agency. It is about time.
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