Republicans in the House cannot file Contempt of Congress charges against the Obama holdovers in the FBI and the Justice Department fast enough. FBI Director Christopher Wray and Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein refuse to hand over the documents related to the Clinton campaign’s use of paid foreign operatives to sway the outcome of the 2016 election. The Clinton campaign paid Fusion GPS to draft the fake Trump Russian dossier and disseminate it to the media (and John McCain) in order to smear candidate Donald Trump. This is no longer in dispute, so where are the documents?
Rosenstein and Wray refuse to honor subpoenas for documents from the House Intelligence Committee. Our constitutional republic cannot function if the Democrat Party is allowed to weaponize law enforcement agencies against opposition candidates and then refuse to allow any oversight.
Make no mistake about it: That is exactly what is happening at this point. The argument from the DOJ and the FBI is that portions of the investigation involve foreign intelligence and therefore, cannot be shared with Congress.
Many people do not realize, however, that under the system of checks and balances, Congress can see any document from the Executive branch that it requests, barring a few things that can fall under executive privilege. There is a select group of Members of Congress whose security clearances are so high that they are allowed access to any and all classified Executive branch documents (the DOJ and FBI are both Executive branch entities).
Known as the “Intelligence Gang of Eight” (not to be confused with the group of amnesty-pushing Senators from 2013), this group of Representatives and Senators has access to all of America’s foreign intelligence secrets and is regularly briefed on covert actions carried out by the Executive branch.
If a team of Navy SEALs plants a brick of C-4 in an African warlord’s outhouse, the Gang of Eight knows about it. No true oversight of Executive branch foreign policy actions or covert actions would be possible if this group did not exist.
The Gang of Eight consists of the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Committees on Intelligence, as well as the leaders and ranking members of the House and Senate. The current members are Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Reps. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) from the House Intelligence Committee, and Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA).
Some of those names may not inspire great confidence, but it should be understood that there is no Classified or Top Secret document or information which the Gang of Eight should not, technically have access to.
By denying the Intelligence Gang of Eight access to a foreign intelligence investigation that involves the Democrat Party, the FBI and the Department of Justice have gone rogue and are no longer under any semblance of authority. They are operating on their, without authorization.
Is there any doubt that President Trump or Attorney General Jeff Sessions would want Congress and the American people to see the documents that are being withheld? Especially since everyone knows how damning it would be to see the proof that the Clinton campaign paid for the “Russian collusion” narrative which has consumed the nation for the past year?
Contempt of Congress charges have been used more than a dozen times since the 1970s to compel the production of documents or testimony from uncooperative federal employees. The bureaucrat goes to jail for a year or until they cooperate and produce the documents or testimony, whichever comes first.
Two recent Obama administration officials, former Attorney General Eric Holder and former IRS bureaucrat Lois Lerner, were found in Contempt of Congress — Holder for refusal to turn over Fast and Furious documents and Lerner for refusing to testify under oath about the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups. They both skated by without being prosecuted, however, because the swamp opted to protect its own members rather than police itself.
The Contempt charges being drafted by House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, however, will have teeth this time. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been returning the Justice Department to a Reagan-era style of law and order, and is unlikely to allow Rosenstein and Wray to escape jail time if they continue to shield Hillary Clinton from justice. That is, after all, what the entire fake Russian narrative is about at this point.
~ American Liberty Report
