Rosenstein report gives GOP new ammo against DOJ

Republicans on Sunday seized on reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last year proposed secretly recording President Trump, in order to renew calls for a special counsel investigation of alleged bias within the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“[Trump] shouldn’t fire Rosenstein unless you believe Rosenstein’s lying. He said he did not do the things alleged, but there’s a bureaucratic coup against President Trump being discovered here,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Before the election, the people in question tried to taint the election, tip it in [Hillary] Clinton’s favor; after the election they’re trying to undermine the president,” he charged.

Republican lawmakers and multiple Trump administration officials were asked on Sunday talk shows about a New York Times report Friday that said Rosenstein suggested wearing a wire during conversations with the president last spring. He also reportedly proposed recruiting Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called the idea "absurd" and told ABC's "This Week" she was never part of such an effort.

"I've never heard of it, I don't think that's a reality at all among all the Cabinet members," she said.

But the Times report added further kindling to what has long been a fiery relationship between Trump and the Department of Justice. The president has in the past directly criticized Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The president's allies on Sunday refrained from calling for Rosenstein to be fired based on the report alone, but suggested it would be a fireable offense if true, and used the allegations as ammunition for further claims that the DOJ sought to undercut Trump.

Graham suggested that the report played into a larger narrative of DOJ bias against the president that involves former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, department official Bruce Ohr and former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

“I don’t know what Rosenstein did but I know what McCabe, Ohr, Page and Strzok did," Graham said. "They tried to destroy this president."

"If Rosenstein’s involved he should be fired, if he’s not involved leave him alone, but he can’t make that decision," he continued. "We need a special counsel to look at this, not [Michael] Horowitz, the [inspector general]. Rosenstein’s doing the country a great disservice by not appointing a special counsel to look at all of this."

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who had previously called for a second special counsel to investigate alleged FBI abuse of a surveillance program, also revived those calls on Sunday.

"I will repeat again what I have said for many months now, and that is that the attorney general of the United States needs to appoint a special counsel to look into all of this," Goodlatte said on Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures."

Goodlatte is among the GOP lawmakers at the forefront of a push to declassify documents related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump last week ordered the DOJ to declassify a number of documents related to the investigation, but later delayed their release after he said "key allies" raised concerns.

Goodlatte vowed Sunday to subpoena the DOJ over the documents if they were not released on Monday or Tuesday. The materials, he said, would include memos from McCabe that are said to have laid out the claims that Rosenstein proposed recording Trump.

"I think it is very, very important that the American people get access to the information that underlies all this," Goodlatte said.

Rosenstein denied the claims laid out in the Times report, which cited unnamed sources, calling it "inaccurate and factually incorrect.” He added that "there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment" based on his dealings with Trump.

The Washington Post later also reported that Rosenstein suggested surreptitiously recording the president. However, the Post cited an unnamed official who attended the meeting and claimed the remark was made in jest and came in response to McCabe's suggestion that the DOJ probe Trump after he fired ex-FBI Director James Comey.

"It's not a very funny joke," Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said on "Fox News Sunday."

Gowdy, who has also previously called for a second special counsel to look into alleged surveillance abuses, cautioned that Rosenstein deserves an opportunity to share his version of events.

"Find out who else, if anyone, was in the room and then give Rod a chance to explain whether or not it's true and the context in which it was said," he said. "But one thing that’s clear whether you're Republican or Democrat president, you have a right to a deputy attorney general that doesn't think you're incompetent and doesn't feel the need to audio tape conversations with you."

Trump Cabinet officials largely avoided weighing in on Rosenstein specifically, but addressed the broader issue of whether administration officials were undermining the president.

"I've been pretty clear since my beginning of service here in this administration, if you can't be on the team, if you're not supporting this mission, then maybe you've just got to find something else to do," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on "Fox News Sunday."

Haley downplayed the Mueller investigation and "gossip of the day" as distractions from the administration's successes.

"I’m there almost every other week and I can tell you never has anyone talked about the 25th Amendment, never has anyone even questioned the president’s mental stability or anything," Haley said on "This Week."

"Ideas have consequences." - Weaver

At this critical moment in America's history, all lovers of individual liberty and all who love the American 1787 Constitution's limits on government power must arise to defend it against all enemies.

Federalist-51

The Constitutional Structure For Limited And Balanced Government

The Constitution was devised with an ingenious and intricate built-in system of checks and balances to guard the people's liberty against combinations of government power. It structured the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary separate and wholly independent as to function, but coordinated for proper operation, with safeguards to prevent usurpation of power. Only by balancing each against the other two could freedom be preserved, said John Adams. Another writer of the day summarized clearly the reasons for such checks and balances:

"If the LEGISLATIVE and JUDICIAL powers are united, the MAKER of the law will also INTERPRET it (constitutionality).
Should the EXECUTIVE and LEGISLATIVE powers be united... the EXECUTIVE power would make itself absolute, and the government end in tyranny.
Should the EXECUTIVE and JUDICIAL powers be united, the subject (citizen) would then have no permanent security of his person or property."

"INDEED, the dependence of any of these powers upon either of the others ... has so often been productive of such calamities... that the page of history seems to be one continued tale of human wretchedness." (Theophilus Parsons, ESSEX RESULTS)

What were some of these checks and balances believed so important to individual liberty? Several are listed below:

HOUSE (peoples representatives) is a check on SENATE - no statute becomes law without its approval.
SENATE is a check on HOUSE - no statute becomes law without its approval. (Prior to 17th Amendment, SENATE was appointed by State legislatures as a protection for states' rights - another check the Founders provided.)
EXECUTIVE (President) can restrain both HOUSE and SENATE by using Veto Power.
LEGISLATIVE (Congress - Senate & House) has a check on EXECUTIVE by being able to pass, with 2/3 majority, a bill over President's veto.
LEGISLATIVE has a further check on EXECUTIVE through power of discrimination in appropriation of funds for operation of EXECUTIVE.
EXECUTIVE (President) must have approval of SENATE in filling important posts in EXECUTIVE BRANCH.
EXECUTIVE (President) must have approval of SENATE before treaties with foreign nations can be effective.
LEGISLATIVE (Congress) can conduct investigations of EXECUTIVE to see if funds are properly expended and laws enforced.
EXECUTIVE has a further check on members of LEGISLATIVE (Congress) in using discretionary powers in decisions regarding establishment of military bases, building & improvement of navigable rivers, dams, interstate highways, etc., in districts of those members.
JUDICIARY is a check on LEGISLATIVE through its authority to review all laws and determine their constitutionality.
LEGISLATIVE (Congress) has restraining power over JUDICIARY, with constitutional authority to restrict extent of its jurisdiction.
LEGISLATIVE has power to impeach members of JUDICIARY guilty of treason, high crimes, or misdemeanors.
EXECUTIVE (President) is a check on JUDICIARY by having power to nominate new judges.
LEGISLATIVE (Senate) is a check on EXECUTIVE and JUDICIARY having power to approve/disapprove nominations of judges.
LEGISLATIVE is a check on JUDICIARY - having control of appropriations for operation of federal court system.
LEGISLATIVE (Peoples Representatives) is a check on both EXECUTIVE and JUDICIARY through power to initiate amendments to Constitution subject to approval by 3/4 of the States.
LEGISLATIVE (Senate) has power to impeach EXECUTIVE (President) with concurrence of 2/3, of members.
The PEOPLE, through their State representatives, may restrain the power of the federal LEGISLATURE if 3/4 of the States do not ratify proposed Constitutional Amendments.
LEGISLATIVE, by Joint Resolution, can terminate certain powers granted to EXECUTIVE (President) (such as war powers) without his consent.
It is the PEOPLE who have the final check on both LEGISLATIVE and EXECUTIVE when they vote on their Representatives every 2 years, their Senators every 6 years, and their President every 4 years. Through those selections, they also influence the potential makeup of the JUDICIARY.

It is up to each generation to see that the integrity of the Constitutional structure for a free society is maintained by carefully preserving the system of checks and balances essential to limited and balanced government. "To preserve them (is) as necessary as to institute them," said George Washington.

Footnote: Our Ageless Constitution, W. David Stedman & La Vaughn G. Lewis, Editors (Asheboro, NC, W. David Stedman Associates, 1987) Part III: ISBN 0-937047-01-5

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