Posted on 01/05/2018 5:54:59 PM PST by Olog-hai
Two Republican senators have made the first known criminal referral in congressional investigations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, targeting the author of a dossier of allegations about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday they had referred former British spy Christopher Steele to the Justice Department for investigation about false statements he may have made to the government. Graham is the chairman of a Judiciary subcommittee that is investigating the Russian meddling.
The referral comes after Republicans in Congress have made several attempts in recent weeks to undermine the credibility of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the Justice Department and the FBI, charging there is anti-Trump bias within the ranks of federal agents and prosecutors.
In a cover letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray released by the committee, the senators say the referral relates to “certain communications between Christopher Steele and multiple U.S. news outlets regarding the so-called ‘Trump dossier.’” The rest of the referral is classified and was not released.
Lawmakers cannot prosecute, but generally refer any criminal violations they find to the Justice Department. On Friday, Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said the department had received the referral and will review it. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
“The referral comes after Republicans in Congress have made several attempts in recent weeks to undermine the credibility of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, the Justice Department and the FBI, charging there is anti-Trump bias within the ranks of federal agents and prosecutors.”
I have come to realize, based upon the quote above from this article by the AP, that I am not their intended audience.
“Two Republican senators have made the first known criminal referral in congressional investigations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, targeting the author of a dossier of allegations about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.”
Fake dossier. They forgot the word fake. Apparently I am not one of their audience either.
CORRECTED.
I’m pretty sure this referral was supported by more than only two committee members, Grassley and Graham.
The majority on that committee are not potted plants and are of course Republican, who would have given assent to the referral.
These swamp reporters are stenographers and no-nothing morons, capable of giving no background on committee rules and procedure.
Everything these goofballs do is 3 steps removed from any sort of consequential reality. Grassley has been pretty good lately but I guess he wanted to get in good with Linseed so he’s going along with this stupidity. Or, swamp-dwellers are making these guys make diversionary moves that just cloud the issue(s).
SO WHAT if the guy who wrote the dossier is a liar? What if we knew with metaphysical certainty that the dossier was completely fabricated? Then what, we’d have a Brit who we probably cannot prosecute but if we *could* prosecute, so bloody what? What if he was a murdered? How would that matter?
The issue is not the truth or falsity of the dossier; it is that the FBI used it to scam the FISA court into generating a warrant that allowed them to surveil Trump et al for open-ended purposes. Issue #2 is that the DNC or HRC or both of them paid Fusion to create this dossier and that is apparently of no consequence; but DJT Jr has a meeting in Trump tower where no money changed hands and no information changed hands and over which DJT Jr has testified twice with apparently no problems but THAT, THAT is treason because a fully discredited author looking to pump a tell-all book whose contents are largely fabricated.
Exactly. The point they are making is that neither the FBI, or the Mueller team, found or prosecuted this lie, as they were too focused on their mission to destroy the President, to even care if they evidence they were using was sound to begin with. Their cover is now blown, this is just an official mechanism to prove it.
But I would disagree with you on the following grounds:
If Steele is a liar, a car thief, a money launderer or however much a bad actor he may ultimately turn out to be; OK, having determined that, we can now SUSPECT or even prove that his dossier was BS, and that the FBI was slipshod, negligent in believing the dossier to whatever extent they used it to obtain the FISA warrant. But this is in no way establishes a crime, there is no mens rea, no “guilty mind” as long as the story can be told that the FBI legitimately believed that the dossier was real. The worst you or I can accuse them of is goofyness. And nobody can determine mens rea, and if they do, then Comey, the director at the time is out, thus the problem is automatically fixed. So this is a nothing that can only lead to nothing, exactly like everything else we have been force fed up to now. More of the same. That’s why this is a stupid waste of time, a delaying and misdirection tactic designed to push any sort of day of reckoning yet farther out into the future.
Mueller’s investigation is the target, not Comey. The special counsel was setup to investigate whether Trump colluded, the basis of which was the dossier. An honest broker would have first verified the dossier, and it’s creators, first. Mueller did not. He rushed into arresting people he wanted to flip, to get to Trump. But this shows the foundation of the investigation wasn’t sound, and Mueller was incompetent, or biased, not to notice.
I agree that may not be criminal, but it is likely to be a key piece to show Mueller acted inappropriately, and his evidence is damaged, if not inadmissible. It will help limit his investigation, if not lead to it eventually getting shut down. At least that is my best guess of what this means. The liberal talking heads are saying the lie was obscure from the core of the case, and it may be, which likely means it’s just being used to damage the evidence, and those that handled it, and was never strong enough to make a criminal case in upon itself, other than the process crime of lying to the FBI, which may be hard to prosecute against someone outside the country.
The only reason they want him investigated and locked, is because they believed the BS in the dossier and hoped like hell, that it was all true. Thus, they could see the President brought up on charges. Much to their chagrin, it’s being proven to be a complete lie.
However, at the same time it’s being exposed as a lie, it’s being exposed that corrupt members of the obama admin, DoJ, and FBI were so eager to get the President and so biased, that they threw any, honesty and integrity they may have had, out the window.
On the otherhand, I think Steele is kind of a genius. He was able to come up with some absolute pure fiction. Got the most “respected and feared” law enforcement agencies, in the world, to believe his BS, and, Got Paid in the Process.
Did he con the f*ck out of all of them? Yes, sir, he did. But, what did he sell them. At first it was the result of a detailed investigation. When exposed it was changed to, Opposition Research. If they believed it, that’s their problem. At this point, I’d like to know how much they paid him and who authorized it.
Did he profit from that con? Yes, sir, he did. He told a story and they bought it, literally and figuratively. His story is/was no different than any movie or tv show.
So, someone tell me, What crime did he commit, other than embarrassing members of the American Political machine and the leaders of the nations Intel apparatus? I don’t think there’s anything in the Federal Code about, embarrassment.
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