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Congress’ Threats Lack Teeth And DOJ Knows It
Big League Politics ^ | 6/16/2018 | Larry Schweikart

Posted on 06/17/2018 8:12:01 AM PDT by bitt

In the war over documents between the House and Senate committees investigating the FBI and other intelligence abuses and the FBI/Department of Justice, you might wonder why Congress keeps whining. After all, they say “We asked for these documents a year ago and still don’t have them!” “Why weren’t these sections included in what we requested?” And so on.

You have probably heard that Congress has “oversight” powers over these executive departments and agencies. In a sense that’s true, although there was no Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1789. Indeed, there is no Department of Justice mentioned in the Constitution (and it didn’t appear until 1870—interestingly, recent scholarship suggests, not so much as to handle all the leftover Civil War cases but to streamline and reduce the size of government). The first Attorney General, Edmund Randolph, took office in September 1789 after Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 that created the Office of the Attorney General. It is tenuously through that Act that Congress maintains any control at all over the AG’s office, the staff of which is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.

(Excerpt) Read more at bigleaguepolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: congress; doj; dojdocs; igreport
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Thanks, LS!!
1 posted on 06/17/2018 8:12:02 AM PDT by bitt
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To: Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; 2ndDivisionVet; azishot; ...

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2 posted on 06/17/2018 8:12:40 AM PDT by bitt (t\\)
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To: bitt

But the DoD now has it as of this past Monday.


3 posted on 06/17/2018 8:15:56 AM PDT by DarthVader ("The biggest misconception on Free Republic is that the Deep State is invulnerable")
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To: bitt

It appears that the President can’t even order unredacted documents be released.


4 posted on 06/17/2018 8:19:52 AM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: bitt

There were very good reasons for the founders to exclude the children of foreign nationals from being President.

The Kenyanesian Usurpation should be proof enough to anyone that they were right.


5 posted on 06/17/2018 8:22:30 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: bitt

All congress has to do is say the documents will be on their desk or the DOJ budget will be cut by 10% and it will be cut another 10% per day until it’s received.


6 posted on 06/17/2018 8:23:32 AM PDT by McGavin999 ("The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood."Thomas Jefferson)
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To: bitt

So, if Congress won’t do it and neither will the president, the DOJ effectively becomes a fourth branch of government and one that is wholly UNACCOUNTABLE. Basically a rogue agency allowed to bully and intimidate the representatives of the people — and the people themselves.


7 posted on 06/17/2018 8:23:45 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: DarthVader

No all DOD has returned back to them is responsibility for security investigations for clearances. Which is something they never should have lost in the first place.


8 posted on 06/17/2018 8:25:02 AM PDT by Reily
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To: McGavin999

Absolutely right. A budget evaporating by the day will get their attention. Nothing else seems to.


9 posted on 06/17/2018 8:25:05 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: DarthVader

LS is quite correct, the deep state knows congress has given up their role in oversight. At first they voluntarily gave it away through laziness and corruption, now the deep state, as shown in the ongoing 2016 election corruption coup has taken it away through the use of the states intelligence powers. Blackmail, bribery etc... is now the way the games played. Only Trump is the only one not being pushed around and standing up to this unelected, unlawful and unanswerable fourth branch of government, the bureaucracy. We can in no way ever mock or condemn another South America or African countries lack of ethics in government. Are you proud of what you have accomplished Deep State traitors?


10 posted on 06/17/2018 8:25:19 AM PDT by sarge83
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To: laplata

The logical and rational conclusion is that the Prsident does not want the unredacted documents released......... yet

The battles will be actually faught and won at a time and place of the President’s choosing

Do you think he is stupid?


11 posted on 06/17/2018 8:26:47 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Greetings Jacques. The revolution is coming))
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To: laplata

It appears that the President can’t even order unredacted documents be released.

**************

The DOJ is making Trump appear powerless. He simply cannot allow this usurpation to go on. If he does not quickly reassert his control over the executive branch these agencies are only going to get even worse. Time is slipping by.


12 posted on 06/17/2018 8:30:59 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: bitt

EVERYONE HERE should Find and Read Hind’s Precedents and Cannon’s Precedents to put this issue to bed once and for all.

From the Article:
neither the Constitution nor the Judiciary Act provided a means for Congress to actually enforce anything beyond funding and/or the impeachment process. Congress could subpoena a witness to appear. If said witness did not appear, an arrest citation could be put out. But the arrest would have to be carried out by the Sergeant at Arms, who is not a law enforcement official. He can arrest people in the gallery, but cannot go outside the confines of Congress to make arrests. If, say, Rod Rosenstein, an individual never went to the House, Congress could not “haul him in.”

Unfortunately there is Already PRECEDENCE for the Sergeant at Arms to ARREST ANYONE ANYWHERE, see Hinds Precedents.

Hind’s Precedents:
1607. The case of Jolm Anderson, continued.
Decision of the Supreme Court affirming the right of the House to
punish John Anderson for contempt.
Anderson brought a suit against the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House ‘ for assault
and battery and false imprisonment, which was finally settled by a decision of the
United States Supreme Court, rendered at the February term, 1821.
From the circuit court of the District of Columbia the case of Anderson v. Dunn
went to the Supreme Court of the United States, and at the February term, 1821 a
decision was rendered. (6 Wheaton, 204.) The summary of the decision was:
To an action of trespass against the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives of the United
States, for an assault and battery and false imprisonment, it is a legal justification and bar, to plead, that
a Congress was held and sitting, during the period of the trespasses complained of, and that the House
of Representatives had resolved that the plaintiff had been guilty of a breach of the privileges of the
House, and of a high contempt of the dignity and authority of the same; and had ordered that the
Speaker should issue his warrant to the Sergeant-at-Arms, commanding him to take the plaintiff into
custody, wherever to be found, and to have him before the said House, to answer to the said charge;
and that the Speaker did accordingly issue such a warrant, reciting the said resolution and order, and
commanding the Sergeant-at-Arms to take the plaintiff into custody, etc., and deliver the said warrant to
the defendant, by virtue of which warrant the defendant arrested the plaintiff and conveyed him
to the bar of the House, where he was heard in his defense, touching the matter of the said charge, and
the examination being adjourned from day to day, and the House having ordered the plaintiff to be
detained in custody, he was accordingly detained by the defendant until he was finally adjudged to be
guilty, and convicted of the charge aforesaid, and ordered to be forthwith brought to the bar, and reprimanded
by the Speaker, and then discharged from custody; and after being thus reprimanded, was
actually discharged from the arrest and custody aforesaid.....
.....
As to the minor points made in this case, it is only necessary to observe that there is nothing on the
face of this record from which it can appear on what evidence this warrant was issued. And we are not
to presume that the House of Representatives would have issued it without duly establishing the fact
charged on the individual. And, as to the distance to whch the process might reach, it is very
clear that there exists no reason for confining its operation to the limits of the District of Columbia; after
passing those limits, we know no bounds that can be prescribed to its range but those of the United States.
And why should it be restricted to other boundaries? Such are the limits of the legislating powers of that
body; and the inhabitant of Louisiana or Maine may as probably charge them with bribery and corruption,
or attempt, by letter, to induce the commission of either, as the inhabitant of any other section of
the Union. If the inconvenience be urged, the reply is obvious; there is no difficulty m observing that
respectful deportment whirii will render all apprehension chimerical.
5995—VOL 2—07 68


13 posted on 06/17/2018 8:33:25 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: bitt

So then, what is congress even good for.


14 posted on 06/17/2018 8:38:25 AM PDT by onona (Be American, not a skin color.)
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To: bitt

Congress doesn’t ‘lack teeth’, they lack THE WILL to use the teeth that they have, including indefinite locking up of non-cooperatives.


15 posted on 06/17/2018 8:40:55 AM PDT by BobL (I drive a pick up truck because it makes me feel like a man)
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To: Starboard

Actually the person who has full Constitutional authority over them is Trump. DOJ is an executive agency and the SES’s and those with “excepted service” government ratings
serve at the chief executive’s pleasure.
“..
The primary common denominator of many of these agencies and positions is that they have national security and/or intelligence functions, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Secret Service, and the NCIS. Attorney positions, Presidential Management Fellows, Presidential Innovation Fellows, and Foreign Service positions are examples of positions excepted across-the-board in all Federal agencies.
..”
(From wiki but it’s not too wrong here!)

So Trump has the legal constitutional right to fire them immediately. (Certainly pull their clearances & accesses!)

He is not doing this for I think the following reasons.

1. Their antics service his political needs. The more partisan (anti-Trump) they act the more politically powerful Trump becomes. It’s actually sweet! All their obstructionist acts have the opposite effect of what they want, they don’t weaken Trump they make him stronger. Trump knows this! (What’s sweet is they’re too stupid to see that!. Remember what Trump said in the campaign we are governed by the stupid!)

2. He doesn’t have a guaranteed 5-4 on the USSC yet. All his actions & I mean everything will end up in federal court. He is chipping away at the lower courts with his appointments but there are still too many anti-constitutional left wing judges out there (Still too easy to find one!) We need 1 or possibly 2 more USSC appointments. So please no more Alabama debacles!


16 posted on 06/17/2018 8:42:47 AM PDT by Reily
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To: bert

No, I don’t think he’s stupid and I didn’t imply that. I’ve known and thought for a long time that he has a strategy.


17 posted on 06/17/2018 8:47:16 AM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Starboard

Good points.


18 posted on 06/17/2018 8:48:27 AM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: bitt; LS

WOOOHOOO, Larry! Thank you, sir.

OUT-OF-CONTROL executive branch (especially the former administration). Checks and balances? Not so much.

DEFUND / DISMANTLE

pick any 5 or 10 or 15 or etc....

https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/a

Prune the tree. You’ve seen what can happen. Witness history.

Witness current events...

http://usdebtclock.org


19 posted on 06/17/2018 8:49:20 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: bitt
"Congress keeps whining. After all, they say “We asked for these documents a year ago and still don’t have them!” “Why weren’t these sections included in what we requested?” And so on.

You know...I think "rocket man" could drop one on DC and not too many people would give a crap.....

20 posted on 06/17/2018 8:57:23 AM PDT by unread (Joe McCarthy was right.......)
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