President Donald Trump met with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray on May 21, a day after he demanded that the DOJ investigate if the Obama FBI had embedded a spy inside his 2016 campaign to rig the election for Hillary Clinton.
After the meeting, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement announcing that WH chief of staff John Kelly and Congressional leaders will review the documents that the FBI has refused to turn over to the House Intelligence Committee for months.
“Based on the meeting with the President, the Department of Justice has asked the Inspector General to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign,” Sanders said.
“It was also agreed that White House Chief of Staff Kelly will immediately set up a meeting with the FBI, DOJ, and DNI together with Congressional Leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested.”
So far, President Trump has not demanded the release of the relevant documents to Congress, as long as appropriate personnel get to review the documents.
The ball was set in motion on May 20, when President Trump tweeted: “I hereby demand… that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/998256454590193665
In response, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (an Obama holdover) issued a statement saying, “If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action.”
The Deputy Attorney General issued the following statement tonight: “If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action.”
— Robert Costa (@costareports) May 20, 2018
Rosenstein’s alternative would have been to refuse President Trump’s demand by resigning, but that was clearly too much to hope for, since the Washington Swamp doesn’t voluntarily drain itself.
As BizPac Review has reported, Congressman Devin Nunes — the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee — has repeatedly asked the Justice Department to let his committee see the documents related to the Obama FBI’s secret investigation of the Trump campaign when he was a private citizen.
The FBI has refused to release the documents, even though the House Intel Committee has oversight of the agency.
Underscoring the FBI’s hypocrisy is the fact that operatives involved in spying on Trump aides leaked details of the classified operation to the New York Times and the Washington Post while stonewalling Congressional demands for information.
Predictably, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer slammed Trump, calling his demand for an investigation into Obama’s probable weaponization of the FBI “abusive.”
“That he would issue such an absurd and abusive demand based on no evidence shows just how little regard the president has for the rule of law,” Schumer puffed on the Senate floor.
Republicans pointed out that the DOJ and FBI are not above the law, and should turn over relevant documents to the House Intel Committee, whose job it is to make sure that they don’t abuse their powers.
“I applaud the President’s leadership and push for transparency, and I hope the Department of Justice will follow suit by making the relevant documents available to Congress,” Congressman Mark Meadows said in a statement. “While a referral to the Inspector General is a step in the right direction, the Department has an obligation to comply with Congressional requests for oversight. Their attempt to circumvent this responsibility will not go unnoticed.”
President Trump has thrown down the gauntlet amid growing public outrage over Robert Mueller’s sham investigation, which has cost taxpayers $10 million but has produced no evidence of collusion or obstruction.
Judge Jeanine Pirro blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions for blithely allowing the corruption at the DOJ and the FBI (which he oversees) to fester, saying his inaction makes him the “most dangerous man in America.”
Judge Jeanine on fire: Useless Jeff Sessions is the single most dangerous man in America https://t.co/ZL1UkXdIQb pic.twitter.com/gaB9yBT1DA
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) May 20, 2018
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Samantha Chang is a senior staff writer for BizPac Review. She is a financial editor and lawyer based in New York City.
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