Bizarro World Judiciary Committee
by digby
Lindsey Graham is serious about throwing down some red meat for Dear Leader. His motives remain unclear, but my personal belief is that the delusional egomaniac thinks he’s running the country by manipulating Trump by distracting him with shiny objects and co-opting the base so he can exert influence on foreign policy. As I said, delusional.
Anyway, get ready for Bizarro World Judiciary Committee. Fox News is going to be drooling all over him for providing public hearings. And if they can force the old biddy to testify one more time in public, it will give Trump and his followers a bigger thrill than they’ve seen in years:
New tensions are flaring on the Senate Judiciary Committee over plans by newly minted Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to dig into Obama-era scandals.
Graham, a close ally of President Trump’s, has outlined several areas he wants to probe now that he has the Judiciary Committee gavel.
They include the FBI’s handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications targeting former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
[…]
…And he’s committed the panel to digging into issues at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI that Trump publicly pressured former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate.Graham told reporters earlier this month that he would do a “deep dive into the FISA issue” as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And he told Fox News last month that he believed the FBI “phoned in” the Clinton probe and were “in the tank” for the Democratic presidential nominee.
“There’s a certain unevenness here about how you investigate campaigns,” Graham said, adding that he believed there was “100 percent” a double standard between how the bureau handled the investigation into Clinton compared to investigating the Trump campaign.
Graham also said late last year that he would “totally” investigate the FBI’s handling of its investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and Clinton’s email. He added separately last month that he would “get to the bottom of” the FISA warrant applications against Page and that he wanted to have “an in-depth discussion” with former FBI Director James Comey.
Asked about his investigation plans and the criticism from Democrats, a spokeswoman for Graham pointed to a pair of tweets from the GOP senator on Friday where he doubled down.
Graham described as “stunning” a Fox News report that Justice Department official Bruce Ohr discussed his views on a controversial research opposition dossier on Trump with individuals now on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
“These purported revelations will NOT get a pass in Senate Judiciary Committee,” Graham added.
Seriously. They are going to re-investigate the fucking emails.
Dec. 22, 2015
Then-Republican primary candidate Trump tweeted a picture of what appears to be one of his own supporters wearing a “Hillary for Prison” shirt.
Women defy media narrative, love Trump at packed Michigan rally.
VIDEO: facebook.com/DonaldTrump/po…June 2, 2016
As Trump was closing in on the GOP nomination, he intensified his attacks on Clinton, who also appeared poised to take the Democratic nomination.
Trump called for Clinton to be jailed during a campaign rally in San Jose, Calif., calling her “guilty as hell.”
“Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. She has to go to jail. I said that,” he said.
It was at the Republican national Convention where it really took off, with Chris Christie leading chants of “guilty!” and “lock her up” becoming the crowd’s favorite slogan, led by Michael Flynn and others from the podium.
Roger Stone and Alex Jones pushed the “Hillary for Prison” t-shirts and signs and there were people throughout the crowd dressed in orange jumpsuits with Hillary Clinton masks.
That was when it took on a life of its own — on national television before millions and millions of people and the chant was heard at every rally. The crowds loved it just as much as “the wall.” The media shrugged.
That’s Trump, just doing his thing. Besides, she deserved it because she wasn’t “accessible” — or something. And emails.
Aug. 22, 2016
Trump called on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Clinton foundation donors received special treatment while Clinton was secretary of State.
“The Justice Department is required to appoint a special prosecutor because it has proved to be, sadly, a political arm of the White House,” he said at a rally in Akron, Ohio. “Nobody has ever seen anything like it before.”
Trump’s comments came after the Clinton Foundation announced that it would no longer be accepting foreign donations if Clinton was elected president.
Oct. 9, 2016
Trump publicly warned Clinton at a debate in St. Louis, Mo., that he would look into her private email server if elected president.
“If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. There has never been so many lies, deception — there has never been anything like it,” Trump told Clinton.
“When I go out and speak, the people of this country are furious. In my opinion, the people who have been long-term workers at the FBI are furious,” he continued.
Clinton pushed back at Trump’s characterization of the situation, saying, “It’s good that somebody with the temperament of Donald Trump is not running this country.”
Oct. 28, 2016
Trump reacted to then-FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress that said new emails pertaining to the probe into Clinton’s emails had been discovered.
“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” Trump said, referring to Comey’s previous announcement that charges would not be filed against Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never seen before. We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office,” Trump said.
Nov. 22, 2016
President-elect Trump appeared to walk back his previously aggressive rhetoric toward Clinton, saying that he did not feel as strongly about prosecuting her for the use of a private email server.
“I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways,” Trump told The New York Times.
“My inclination would be for whatever power I have on the matter is to say let’s go forward. This has been looked at for so long, ad nauseam,” he continued.
Trump quickly faced backlash from his supporters, most notably the conservative media site Breitbart.com, which ran a headline blasting Trump’s “broken promise” to his base.
July 25, 2017
Trump was in the midst of launching a slew of attacks on his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions, when he lashed out at him for his weak position on Clinton.
The president went on to rip then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for not investigating Clinton.
Sept. 22, 2017
Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Alabama that they would have to “speak to Jeff Sessions” after the crowd chanted “lock her up” in response to a reference to Clinton.
“You’ve got to speak to Jeff Sessions about that,” Trump said.
Nov. 2, 2017
Trump said that he hoped the Justice Department was investigating Clinton and that he was “frustrated” that he couldn’t be involved in the process.
“Hopefully they are doing something,” Trump said of the Justice Department probing Clinton during a radio interview with host Larry O’Connor on Washington’s WMAL. “At some point maybe we’re going to all have it out.”
“The saddest thing is, because I’m the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved in the Justice Department. I am not supposed to be involved in the FBI. I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing and I’m very frustrated by it,” he continued.
Nov. 3, 2017
Trump doubled down on his call for the Justice Department to investigate Clinton and Democrats after former acting Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile said the party tipped the scales in Clinton’s favor during last year’s primary.
“I’m really not involved with the Justice Department. I’d like to let it run itself, but honestly, they should be looking at the Democrats,” Trump told reporters outside of the White House.
“They should be looking at Podesta and all of that dishonesty, they should be looking at a lot of things, and a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me,” he said, referencing the former chair of Clinton’s campaign.
Now he has the congress in on it and he’s pressing for a partisan special prosecutor. He’s not letting this go. His slavering base demands it. They are deplorable, horrible people.
But then a whole lot of people in this country from all sides seem to think this isn’t a big deal and I’m sure many of them would be very happy to see the hated old woman thrown in jail if actually comes to that. The fact that a sitting president of the United States is pushing for a political prosecution of his defeated rival doesn’t seem to raise the hackles of anyone too much. If he manages to do this, we’re fucked. It will be over.
Just remember, in the kind of banana republic where they lock up their rivals on bogus charges, no one is safe. It won’t just be that person you hate who gets caught in this maw. The next person will likely be someone you like.
It might even be you. ..
Update: Trump has claimed Clinton conspired with Russia dozens of times since then. It’s a full-blown alternative conspiracy theory on Fox news and hate radio. That’s what Graham is feeding into with this nonsense. He knows better. He is just giving the Mad King and his daft supporters something to hold on to.
And it could all go very sideways for the country. Don’t think he won’t do this … and then support Bill Barr’s decision to hide the Mueller Report. Just because he thinks Mueller should be able to do his work doesn’t mean that he thinks anyone should ever see the results.
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