House Republicans sharply took aim Thursday at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation in a heated hearing that came at the same time the House passed a resolution rebuking Rosenstein and the Justice Department.

Republicans clashed with Rosenstein over a number of issues, from the text messages of embattled FBI agent Peter Strzok and the start of the Mueller probe to accusations that Rosenstein was withholding information from Congress and threatening congressional aides.
During the hearing, the House passed a resolution along party lines that gave the Justice Department seven days to comply with House Republican subpoenas related to the Russia investigation and Hillary Clinton email probe — with the threat of contempt and impeachment looming as the Republicans' next move.
Inside the hearing room, Rosenstein got particularly fiery with Rep. Jim Jordan, the conservative House Freedom Caucus leader who has been one of the most vocal critics of both Rosenstein and Mueller.
"Mr. Rosenstein, we have caught you hiding information from Congress," Jordan charged.
"Your use of this to attack me personally is deeply wrong," Rosenstein responded. "When you find some problem with the production or with questions, it doesn't mean that I'm personally trying to conceal something from you."
The hearing was a public airing of the simmering tensions that have roiled Republicans and Democrats for the past year as they've battled over the investigations into Donald Trump's campaign and Russia and the Republican allegations of FBI misconduct.
Jordan kept barreling into Rosenstein, prompting several protests from Democrats that he was cutting off the deputy attorney general.
"Mr. Rosenstein, did you threaten staffers on the House Intelligence Committee?" Jordan asked, referring to a report earlier this month that staff felt "personally attacked" by Rosenstein.
"Media reports are mistaken," Rosenstein responded.
"Did you threaten to subpoena their calls and emails?" Jordan countered.
"No sir, and there's no way to subpoena phone calls," Rosenstein responded, prompting some laughter from the room.

Rest of article

God bless Rosenstein.

"If you can keep your head when all about you...
are losing their's and blaming it on you..."

While I'm at it God bless Rudyard Kipling.

__________________
"The President's not a racist." He just plays one on TV".~ Emsley Wyatt

So, God bless Rosenstein for obstruction of congress and attempting to shield illegal activities. Nice to know you stand for disorder and destruction.

Of course she does as he is part of the resistance. Remember the leftist motto, "the ends justify the means!". It doesn't matter how corrupt or unscrupulous those resisting are, as long as they are in opposition to Trump.

__________________
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead - Thomas Paine

A lie doesn't become truth, a wrong doesn't become right, and Evil doesn't become good, just because it is accepted by the majority. - Booker T Washington

Republican members of Congress have to balls to sit there in a hearing where Rod Rosenstein is under oath and must tell the truth or face prosecution for perjury but the GOP Congressmen are not required to tell the truth. They sat their and lied making allegations that they knew were false but they can get away with lying during the hearing.

Let's make a couple of points clear.

1. DOJ policy generally prohibits the release of any information related to an ongoing criminal investigation.

GOP members of the House know this and yet they keep demanding documents that they're not supposed to have access to until after the investigation is completed. Release of information related to an ongoing criminal investigation compromises the integrity of the investigation. Member of Congress have known this limitation on Congress for at least 75 years. The problem isn't with the DOJ or FBI. The problem is with GOP members of the House requesting documents they know they're not supposed to be furnished with until the investigation is over and then condemning Rod Rosenstein for following a policy that's existed for generations.

This is a nefarious attempt by the GOP in the House where they're demanding documents that compromises the integrity of the FBI (Mueller) criminal investigation is an act of obstruction of justice that should be prosecuted. That is, of course, exactly why they're making the demands. Their goal is to compromise the Russia-Trump Campaign investigation to protect President Trump.


2. The DOJ does not order a criminal investigation that's gathering evidence and testimony for the prosecution of individuals to prematurely terminate the investigation. The investigators determine when the investigation is complete, not the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General.
To order an ongoing investigation where indictment and convictions are resulting before the investigators have finished their investigation would violate the very foundation for criminal justice in the United States.

This would be especially odious if it was to be done based upon partisan demands. Rep Trey Gowdy claimed that the Russia-Trump Campaign criminal investigation has gone on too long. Gowdy ignores the fact that his own House investigation of Hillary Clinton went on for twice and long and came up with nothing in the end. The FBI/Mueller criminal investigation that's resulted in numerous indictments and several convictions already, when compared to many FBI investigations, hasn't been going on very long at all. The FBI, for example, spent over a decade investigating John Gotti before they gathered the evidence to send Gotti to prison. The alleged crimes against our nation by members of the Trump campaign and by Donald Trump are far worse than any crime committed by John Gotti because conspiracy with our enemy, Russia, threatens our national security.

The House GOP members and Donald Trump claim that the FBI/Mueller investigation is disrupting America the political agenda of the GOP and Trump but that's completely false. There's been no leaks of information from the Mueller investigation that could disrupt anything. The only information we have from the Mueller investigation are court documents related to criminal indictments. What's disrupting America and the political agenda of the GOP and Donald Trump are the activities of the Trump campaign and Donald Trump that investigative reporters have been able to uncover.

In short it's been the activities of Donald Trump and his minions that reporters have been able to uncover that's causing problems for Donald Trump and the GOP that has nothing to do with the FBI/Mueller investigation. Mueller knows a lot more than the press and Mueller's been completely silent, except for court filings, on what his investigation has uncovered so far.

3. There's been no political bias by the FBI/DOJ in it's investigations. It didn't happen in the Clinton email investigation or in the Russia-Trump campaign criminal investigation. There have been some decisions after the completion of the investigation by former FBI Director James Comey on the release of information resulting from the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails but that was after the fact and it benefited Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

The GOP House members have falsely claimed that there was political bias in the Clinton email investigation that the Inspector General flatly discredited and now these GOP members want the DOJ to submit to Republican demands. Talk about complete hypocrisy.

GOP House members repeatedly lie about the facts. For example the "Steele dossier" (memos from Steele to the FBI) had nothing to do with the start of the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign. The Steele dossier was not paid for by the DNC/Clinton campaign and there were no contacts between Steele and the DNC/Clinton campaign where Steele could have been politically influenced. Most of the Steele dossier has been verified by independent sources as being accurate and claims that it's an unverified document are false. Christopher Steele never submitted any of the intelligence he gathered about Donald Trump to the DNS/Clinton campaign because he never worked for the DNC/Clinton campaign.

These GOP members of the House are a disgrace to the institution they've been elected to. Their efforts to obstruct justice to protect President Trump are so transparent that everyone knows exactly what they're doing. They really should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice because it's really a blatant attempt to shut down a valid criminal investigation.

__________________
"I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it's dirty on the inside." Donald Trump

"I always had a rule, if the White House is dirty on the inside, it's dirty on the outside." ShivaTD

Based upon the corruption, brutality, inhumanity, immorality, dishonesty, and incompetence of the Trump administration the White House is the dirtiest house in America and there's no known cleanser that with remove the stains of the Trump Administration.

Wow, what a pack of lies. The congress is investigating the investigators. The DOJ and FBI have no legal right or recourse. If congress has determined over site is required, they are required to cough up the records.

Weird when you have to obstruct congress to uphold justice isn't it?

__________________
"The President's not a racist." He just plays one on TV".~ Emsley Wyatt

Prosecute members of Congress for daring to even ask for original documents as part of their oversight function. Yes comrade, the anointed DOJ officials and special counsel cannot be questioned by the Congress. That is classic KGB operating procedure.

Rosenstein has refused to release the scoping document for Mueller's inquisition claiming it would compromise the investigation. Although nominally Mueller's witch hunt is supposed to focus on Russian interference in the election he has acted as a partisan abuser of his office far more interested in destroying the Trump Presidency than ferreting out Russian interference or collusion. Mueller has coerced guilty pleas for process crimes, treated Paul Manafort like he was Pablo Escobar based on accusations of an unrelated crime, recruited district DOJ prosecutors to ransack Trump's attorneys office and home throwing out the bedrock principle of client confidentiality, and indicted a dozen Russians as a publicity stunt, but revealing the scoping document would compromise Mueller's Red Queen style inquisition.

__________________
What is a 30 something year old single man with a rock in one hand and a Honduran flag in the other?

An asylum seeker.

Except it isn't upholding justice. It is a deliberate and willful obstruction of justice. DOJ and FBI have no legal or moral authority to deny congress the right to see these records. It is only to give those in these departments to attempt to hide the amount of illegalities committed.

Actually the FBI and DOJ have both a legal right, over 75 years of legal precedent, and a moral obligation to protect the information related to an ongoing criminal investigation. Congress has known this for generations and the review of documents for Congressional oversight occurs after the criminal is completed and not during the ongoing criminal investigation.

There's been no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the FBI or DOJ in either it's investigation of Hillary Clinton or of it's investigation of the Russian intervention in the 2016 US elections, the Trump campaigns "probable" criminal activities with the Russians, or the subsequent criminal activities that Robert Mueller III has been placed in charge of investigating.

There's not even evidence of bias in the investigations because we know, based upon the Inspector General's report on the Hillary Clinton investigation, the decisions made and the final determination that there was no grounds for prosecution was always based upon the "Facts, the Law, and prior Precedent" during the investigation.

The only faults the IG had was with "after the investigation" policy violations (not criminal acts) where James Comey should never have made any comments unrelated to a criminal complaint when he publicly commented about Hillary Clinton's handing of classified information and that Comey should never have revealed anything about the later investigation of Clinton emails on Anthony Wiener's laptop in the letter to Congress BECAUSE THE FBI ISN'T SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE ANY INFORMATION TO CONGRESS RELATED TO ANYTHING UNDER INVESTIGATION.

The investigation into the Trump campaigns connections with the Russians was based upon multiple sources where odd and unusual meetings between Trump campaign members had been documented leading to the "probable cause" (i.e. the Russians were engaged in illegal activities benefiting Donald Trump and Trump campaign members were in contact with the Russians and hiding that fact from the FBI) justifying the investigation of the Trump campaign.

House Republicans have justifiably condemned James Comey for doing exactly what they're demanding Rod Rosenstein to do. In Oct 2016 just a couple of weeks before the election, in violation of FBI/DOJ policy, James Comey provided Congress with information about an ongoing criminal investigation and Republicans condemn Comey for that while at the same time demanding information about an ongoing criminal investigation from Rod Rosenstein that violates FBI/DOJ policy.


And, as noted, nothing really abnormal has been going on at the FBI and the DOJ. Yes, a couple of people violated FBI/DOJ policy.

Strzok and Page used FBI cellphones for private conversations in violation of FBI/DOJ policy for the use of FBI cellphones. While they expressed private personal opinions on political matters it didn't affect their investigative roles as agents of the FBI.

James Comey screwed up after the investigation of Hillary Clinton by discussing matters unrelated to a criminal complaint and he screwed up by sending Congress information on investigating Hillary Clinton over new emails that had been found.

The "probable cause" requirements for a FISA surveillance warrant for Carter Page, that had the attention of the FBI since 2013, and that weren't issued until after Page left the Trump campaign, were properly spelled out in the application and provided more than enough evidence and intelligence to support the surveillance.

There wasn't even any political bias in the Steele dossier (memos to the FBI) because Steele never worked for the DNC/Clinton campaign, never received any funding from the DNC/Cinton campaign, never had any communications with the DNC/Clinton campaign, and most of the intelligence contained in Steels memos to the FBI was either known by the FBI when Steele sent the memo or has since been validated by independent intelligence or actual evidence. The Steele dossier was never politically biased had nothing to do with initiating the investigation of the Trump campaign or subsequent criminal activities by members of the Trump campaign.

__________________
"I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it's dirty on the inside." Donald Trump

"I always had a rule, if the White House is dirty on the inside, it's dirty on the outside." ShivaTD

Based upon the corruption, brutality, inhumanity, immorality, dishonesty, and incompetence of the Trump administration the White House is the dirtiest house in America and there's no known cleanser that with remove the stains of the Trump Administration.