Adam Schiff Confusion: Says Trump ‘Intervened’ with DOJ
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has called for a new investigation of President Donald Trump — for exercising his constitutional authority.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) reacted to reports that Trump pushed the Justice Department to lift a “gag order” on an informant who says he has information about a bribery scandal surrounding Russia’s efforts to acquire a company that controls 20 percent of U.S. uranium reserves.
“If President personally intervened w DOJ to advance case against political opponent it’s beyond disturbing; I intend to pursue in new probe,” he tweeted.
Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel for ethics and government reform in President Barack Obama’s White House, chimed in on CNN on Friday. He told anchor Brooke Baldwin that he never heard of Obama doing something similar.
“It’s pretty extraordinary to have a president make his wishes known when you have a criminal matter of this kind going on at DOJ,” he said. “There are rules in the White House and the DOJ that are designed to protect political influence.”
But those rules apply to the White House staff, not the president, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy.
“They couldn’t, because it would be unconstitutional,” said McCarthy, who oversaw the federal case related to the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and later wrote a book laying out the case for impeaching Obama.
McCarthy acknowledged that presidents in recent decades have kept an arm’s length between themselves and the Justice department.
“For political reasons, it is smart for the president not to intrude into law enforcement decisions for political reasons,” he said.
But McCarthy added that the president is the supreme executive official under the Constitution and has complete authority over the entire executive branch. Therefore, he said, it not only is lawful for him to urge the Justice Department to take an action — he legally could outright order it.
“What Schiff is doing … is treat[ing] the Justice Department and the FBI as if they were separate branches of government,” he said. “This is completely political.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Friday that Trump’s desire was to push for the nondisclosure agreement to be rescinded in order to aid congressional probes begun this week to review the partial sale of a company called Uranium One in 2010.
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Adam Schiff (the one with the pulsating eyeballs), one of the most partisan members of Congress, has again demonstrated progressive logic:
It's not the Obama Justice Dept which interfered in an investigation, by placing a gag order on a witness - It's Trump, because his Justice Department removed it so we can hear testimony ! ! !
That pretty much sums it up. I suppose in Schiff's wacky world, Bill Clinton privately meeting with Loretta Lynch with Obama's approval while Hillary was under investigation ... oh, excuse me - a "matter" ... was AOK. SMH
Is Schiff afraid that something will come about that he was involved in?
Something that strikes me as funny is that it seems the investigation they wanted is the same one that brought all this to light. And now they are in sheer panic mode to make it go away.
These are now issues, but the dems don't want to look at anything but Trump. They have invested everything in removing an elected President from office. They are a year away from paying the price.
That shouldn't surprise anybody. Since November they have been throwing a tantrum and pushing this Russia thing. Now it's blowing up in their faces.
I will admit it's fun to watch.
Charges wouldn't be filed if they had no proof.