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.
Follow me on Twitter at @GDBlackmon
Today’s news moves at a faster pace than ever. Whatfinger.com is my go-to source for keeping up with all the latest events in real time.
“I get the obvious, the art playing going on, by Trump. It’s just not remotely related to Justice Department.”
Why do you say that? I think everything about the DOJ screams “things are not what they seem”.
If you watch law and order mysteries, the prosecution vs the defense cat and mouse game is anything but straight forward. One side never wants to show the other side what they have. Details of the case are kept under wraps. Witnesses are put in safe houses, etc..
Public statements are masterfully engineered and timed for maximum effect.
> Source?
Well certainly, Trump’s public statements, as reported by the MSM do not support my assertion. And typical web searches are only going to give me MSM results. So, unless I can recall where I saw it, you best consider the statement that Trump knew of Sessions recusal in advance of his appointment as either wrong, or at least unverified. If I come across it again, I will post it to you.
Thanks.
I wish I had an answer for you.
OK. Here's your resources: Everyone working in your department, and all related departments and agencies is crooked and wants you dead.
I think that there are various levels of 'thought' on the Sessions issue.
The Haters are probably trolls.
Next is the impatient group, who demand he DO SOMEHTING NOW or GET OUT.
Most posters seem to be in the middle zone, the WHEN WILL HE DO SOMETHING zone.
Then there are those who are convinced that HE WILL DO SOMETHING, just not this instant.
Each have their own justification for their particular position.
Yes, I agree that Sessions has announced an outside prosecutor.
Yes, he was able to cough up some “consideration” of a Special Counsel as his answer to a persistent, and now screaming, Congressional appeal for one.
Our difference is only in regard to Sessions. I see him on the Rubenstein leash and Rubenstein very possibly on the Mueller leash. I see that deference has been given to Mueller and it obscures how little Rubenstein and Sessions have produced, in 2017.
At FBI, there is deference to the Inspector General and that Wray gives sworn testimony to oversight and Intel Committees, where he answers ”No”
to having any knowledge about evidence these committees picked up, in their own investigations.
So wth is FBI doing? They seem to hide behind the months long IG work to obscure how little they have initiated. I don’t get it.
Both institutions have been totally and completely absorbed their manpower into getting Trump, while totally and completely avoiding the lopsided magnitude of evidence against Hillary. Somewhere along the line Arkansas may hold key on the Clintons, by digging into the Clinton Foundation, but that investigation is so old that I have forgotten by now who it was that even initiated that investigation.
It’s curious that JD and FBI only now they find a heartbeat to peek at Fast and Furious and Eric Holder’s revolution inside the JD. They’ve been sitting on top of his records ever since they walked in the front door of the Justice Department, Where they could have just waddled down the hallway and snoop through them. Weird.
It has become a pointless endless discussion that will only end when Sessions does something or...something else.....or nothing?
Pointless.
That was never gonna happen.
That sort of thing is how insurrections get started.
The question is what he and Trump are doing behind the scenes (and in public as well) to respond to what California is doing.
Sounds like I'd need to call in the Marines!
You are correct.
I think the Republic is nearly finished - the deep state corruption has gone on too long - perhaps they’ve done too much damage over the last 50 years to expect a recovery.
Ideally, Trump would do two things:
1) drain the swamp, fix the republic, make it accountable to the people again going forward for our children and grandchildren.
2) punish those responsible, bring them to justice (the most recent ones anyway, those that are still alive).
But let me ask you a tough question: if you had to choose either number 1) or number 2), which would you choose?
It’s a no brainer - number 1) of course.
Number 2) would be sweet, but not if it jeopardizes number 1).
Trump is a tactical thinker and a deal maker. He is disciplined and capable of giving up something that would feel good in order to increase the odds of securing what is important.
Our problem is without # 2, there is no #1.
We had a two tiered Justice Department dogging a NAVY guy for taking a photo (classified “confidential”) and a crime syndicate running out of JD, under Eric Holder. Years later, here we sit. No thanks to Sessions, who clipped his own wings. And then there’s Hillary who skates away with aplomb.
Maybe you’re right, I sure would like to see Clinton and her minions locked up. Maybe that’s the only way to really drain the swamp.
Let me ask you something RitaOK....you always seem reasonable and level headed.
Do you ever think there is something “off” about the level of Sessions hate on FR?
Even if he turns out to be a big dissapointment - don’t you think the sheer level of hate is little over the top? It seems so relentless and kind of “group thinky” the way all the haters use the same words to mock him, and to mock anyone that doesn’t go along with the hate?
I’d be curious to know what you think. It seems almost like a coordinated attack - every single thread is turned into a Sessions hate fest.
Is Jeff Sessions’ treatment here on FR proportional to his actual evilness?
I do. I wonder about it.
Sessions endorsed then-candidate Trump in February 2016. He was an important catch for Trump.
<< Do you ever think there is something “off” about the level of Sessions hate on FR? >>
It’s not hate. Most just viscerally disagree on Sessions and will meet up again, together, down the road.
Sessions was always held in the highest regard around here, admired and appreciated by everyone, for keeping his head down and lending great senatorial arguments to conservative issues. (He sent his researcher and young guru, Stephen Miller, to Trump’s campaign where he remains today, in the administration as a loyalist to Trump.)
A few things happened.
Many saw the Sessions recusal as a disaster that paid tribute to Sessions own fine principles, but betrayed a president and a nation that needed him to forge the way to DRAIN THE SWAMP.
A few others saw the recusal as a saintly act made by the good boy Sessions.
Both are true.
The defense of Sessions by his supporters didn’t sell around here. Too much hurt, disappointment and the feeling of rank betrayal, and a stab in the heart to our hope of blowing up the Swamp in warp time.
Arguments got heated and eventually it followed that some Sessions defenders added to their arguments the assuring opinion by “Q Anon” and The Conservative Treehouse (which I also read) that Sessions & Trump were simpatico.
The argument emerged that Sessions and Trump were in a grand scheme together, using theatrics, and mis-direction, all of it to execute the Swamp draining goal and prevail.
It will be fun if that turns out to be true, but for many of us, the social media remains a maze of mystique and lure, but full of dust bunnies that you can’t ever quite get your arms around. None of it really helps Sessions, but it remains an argument for his defenders, because CTH and “Q” both support the theory that Trump & Sessions are in cahoots.
The rest of us like to see flames before we believe victory is ours. There is simply no victory without justice, trials, convictions and jail time for corrupt elites and so far, it’s intrigue, reams of words, rabbit trails, but no justice, yet.
We’ll get there.
Pompeo may be the one. Maybe he can lead a charge to sanitize the corruption at Justice and the FBI. There are good men and women still in those departments that don’t like what has been for years going on, in either department.
The meme that I resent the most is when people conflate support of Sessions with Q fanaticism.
I have always thought the whole Q thing was silly. D&D meets Lord of the Rings. I couldn’t be more outspoken about how silly I think the Q thing is, yet the minute I come to Sessions’ defense, I am accused of being brainwashed by Q.
The other annoying meme is the whole 5D chess straw man. The idea that to suggest that Sessions is accomplishing things unknown to the public, or that Trump may have a strategic purpose for saying things - that it would somehow be farfetched. Such behaviors are not far-fetched -
They are standard operating procedure.
Anyway, thanks for the straight answer with no insults, hyperbole or non sequitor - I appreciate it. I suppose I disagree here and there, but that’s par for the course!
“...if Sessions is not fired, relieved of duty or for some reason resigns, by say November, I’m going to think a whole lot more about this 5D chess business.”
I think November is a reasonable time frame. And if he is fired by then, I’ll concede I was wrong
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