The Wall Street Journal Published December 8th by Kimberley Strassel
The media echo chamber spent the week speculating about whether Special Counsel Robert Mueller can or will nab President Trump. All the while it continues to ignore Washington's most obvious obstruction -- the coordinated effort to thwart congressional probes of the role law enforcement played in the 2016 election.
The news that senior FBI agent Peter Strzok exchanged anti-Trump, pro-Hillary text messages with another FBI official matters, but the bigger scandal is that the Justice Department , the FBI and Mr. Mueller have known about those texts for months and deliberately kept their existence from Congress. The House Intelligence Committee sent document subpoenas and demanded an interview with Mr. Strzok. The Justice department dodged, and then leaked.
The department also withheld from Congress that another top official, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, was in contact with ex-spook Christopher Steele and the opposition firm GPS. It has refused to say what role the Steele dossier -- Clinton commissioned oppo research -- played in its Trump investigation. It won't turn over files about wiretapping.
And Mr. Meuller who is well aware the White House is probing all of this, and considered the Strzok texts relevant enough the agent a demotion, nonetheless did not inform Congress about the matter. Why ? Perhaps Mr. Mueller feels he's above being bothered with any other investigation. Or perhaps his team is covering for the FBI and the justice department.
When Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mr. Meuller, he stressed that he wanted a probe with "independence from the normal chain of command." Yet the Mueller team is made up of the same commanders who were previously running the Trump show at the Justice department and the FBI, and hardly distant from their old office.
Andrew Weissmann, Mr. Mueller's deputy, is chief of the Justice Department's criminal fraud section and once FBI general council. Until Mr. Strzok's demotion, he was a top FBI counterintelligence officer, lead on the Trump probe. Michael Dreeben. Elizabeth Prelogar, Brandon Van Grack, Kyle Freeny, Adam Jed, Andrew Goldstein--everyone ia a highly placed, influential lawyer on loan from the Justice Department. Lisa Page--Mr. Strozok's mistress, with whom he exchanged those texts--was on loan from the FBI general counsels' office.
Does anyone think this crowd intends to investigate Justice Department or FBI misdeeds ? To put it another way, does anyone think they intend to investigate themselves ? Or that they would investigate their longtime colleagues--Andrew McCabe, or Mr. Strzok ? Or could we instead just acknowledge the Mueller team has enormous personal and institutional interests in justifying their actions their agencies took in 2016--and therefor in stonewalling congress ?
The Strzok texts raise the additional question of weather those interests extend to taking down the president. Mr. Strzok was ejected from Team Mueller for exhibiting anti-Trunp, pro Clinton behavior. By that standard, one has to wonder how Mr. Mueller has any attorneys left.
Judicial watch this week released an email in which Mr. Weissmann gushed about how how "proud and in awe" he was of former acting Attorney General Sally Yates for staging a mutiny against the Trump Travel Ban. Of 15 publicly identified Mueller lawyers. nine are Democratic donors--including several who gave money to the Clinton 2016 campaign. Jeannie Rhee defended the Clinton Foundation against racketeering charges, and represented Mrs. Clinton personally in the question of her emails. Aaron Zebley represented Justin Cooper, the Clinton aide who helped manage her server. Mr. Goldstein worked for Preet Bharara, whom Mr. trump fired and now who is a vigorous Trump critic. The question isn't whether these people are legally allowed (under the HATCH act) to investigate President Trump, the question is whether a team of Democrats is capable of impartially investigating a Republican President.
Some want Attorney General Sessions to clean house, some want Trump to fire Mueller, some have called for a special council to investigate the special council; but there s a better, more transparent way. Mr. sessions (or maybe even Mr. trump) is within rights to create a short-term position for an official whose only job is to ensue Justice Department and FBI compliance with Congressional oversight. This person needs to be a straight-shooter and versed in law enforcement, but with no history at or substantial ties to the Justice Department or the FBI.
It would be a first, but we are in an era of firsts. Congress is the only body with an interest and ability to get the full story of 2016 to the public, thereby ending this drama quickly. But that requires putting an end to the obstruction.
Share This Post...
