GOP votes to give Graham broad subpoena power in Obama-era probe
I didn't realize when Trump was elected just how far to the left the Democrat Party had gone, but it has become evident over the last three and a half years the Democrat Party has been completely hijacked by the Left.
It's time we investigate them. They've wasted this whole time and money on phony charges nearly everyday for over 3 years and the one thing I have discovered is any time the Democrats accuse you of doing something illegal or unethical, they're either doing it, have done it or will be doing it.
They have refused to do anything to help the citizens, instead centering all their attention on getting rid of President Donald Trump. Trump is the first President who has stood up to them in a long time and they are like children who have been spoiled into assuming they were going to always get their way.
They have been so corrupt, evidently for so long, gotten by with it and assumed no one would ever really challenge them. I know and expect some to agree with me and some will not, but we've had to deal with it for over 3 years and I think this fellow says it best.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas for more than 50 individuals as Republicans ramp up their investigation into the 2016 Russia probe.
In a 12-10 party-line vote, Republicans on the panel gave Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) broad authority to subpoena the individuals, who include high-profile Obama administration officials, for interviews or documents tied to his investigation.
Graham, who has aligned himself closely with Trump in a year both are seeking reelection, has defended the probe, despite deep frustrations among members of the committee.
"I find myself in a position where I think we need to look long and hard about how the Mueller investigation got off the rails," he said on Thursday. “This committee is not going to sit on the sidelines and move on.”
Graham is doing a broad investigation that includes probing "Crossfire Hurricane," the name of the FBI's investigation into Russia's election interference and the Trump campaign.
Thursday's vote gives Graham the power to subpoena officials including former FBI Director James Comey , former national security adviser Susan Rice and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper .
He was also granted subpoena power to compel documents and records referenced in Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's review of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications related to former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, as well as testimony from anyone named in the report.
The vote also gives Graham authority to subpoena documents or testimony from "any current or former executive branch official or employee involved in, the Crossfire Hurricane investigation ... or the receipt or analysis of reports prepared by Christopher Steele," who compiled an infamous opposition research dossier against then-candidate Trump.
Democrats tried several times to amend the subpoena to include Trump allies and former aides, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen , former Trump campaign adviser Richard Gates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort . Republicans rejected the amendments in a party-line vote.
More than an hour into the meeting, Durbin said he still had five amendments related to subpoenaing individuals that the GOP majority “doesn’t want to hear from.” When Graham asked if he wanted to merge the subpoenas into one vote, Durbin replied, “no, I don’t.”
Democrats have also indicated that they want to hear from former special counsel Robert Mueller . Graham said on Thursday that he was open to hearing from Mueller or a Mueller-team designee, though members did not vote to do so during the committee meeting.
Under committee rules, Graham can issue a subpoena either as part of a deal with ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) or with a majority vote of the committee. Because Republicans hold a 12-10 majority on the panel they were able to grant Graham the subpoena power as long as every GOP senator voted for it.
But Feinstein argued that it would break the spirit of committee rules because Graham would not have to come back to the panel for specific subpoenas and was, instead, trying to “grant himself unilateral subpoena authority.”
“The resolution would give the chair sole authority to issue literally hundreds of subpoenas without any agreement from the ranking member of any committee vote on any specific subpoena,” she added.
Feinstein also tried to add an amendment that would also allow Democrats to be able to issue subpoenas, but Republicans rejected that along party lines.
Graham's investigation comes as Senate Republicans are increasingly embracing Trump's call to investigate decisions stemming from the Obama administration and the Russia probe, which the president, his allies and some members of Graham's committee have called a "witch hunt."
Graham has denied that his probe is motivated by politics or pressure from Trump, who has publicly urged him to lean into the investigation. But he wants to release a report on his findings by October, keeping the issue in the spotlight in the final weeks leading up to the election.
The plan has sparked fierce tensions with Democrats both on and off the Judiciary Committee, which has been at the center of high-profile fights in recent years.
The committee had initially been expected to approve the subpoena last week, but Graham announced mid-meeting that they would delay the vote because of a time crunch as they brushed up against a previously scheduled Senate vote.
"We're going to do what this committee needs to do, and we're going to fight it out and we're going to vote. ... I think the best thing for us to do is [to] carry this over to next week so we can have a full discussion," Graham said last week.
His decision came as frustrations were running high amid the business meeting.
"This is about a president who just can't get over it, maybe he will never will, and by a chairman who wants him to have another day to make his point about how he was mistreated," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Graham during the meeting.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) accused his colleagues of grandstanding because the hearing was being carried live by TV cameras, saying that it's "bullshit the way people grandstand for cameras in here" and that "90 percent of our committees are about people trolling for soundbites."
Democrats view Graham's investigation as an attempt to launch a fishing expedition against Trump's political enemies heading into the election, and one that could inadvertently spread Russian misinformation.
“Unfortunately, it appears that Senate Republicans now plan to spend the next several months bolstering the president’s attack on the Russia investigation and his Democratic nominee, Democrat Joe Biden . Congress should not conduct politically motivated investigations designed to attack or help any presidential candidate," Feinstein said.
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Congress should not conduct politically motivated investigations designed to attack or help any presidential candidate," Feinstein said after over 3 and half yrs of the left doing that to trump.
they have overplayed their hand, people are on to their tricks and now their bs simply does not work anymore.
And a whole bunch of them really need to be investigated. This should be an entertaining summer.
I wish I could feel confident the chickens are coming home to roost, but there have been so many disappointments over the last decade with lost emails, destroyed hard drives and other situations of injustice being swept under the rug, I'll believe it when I see it.
Still bitching about Gov Mitt Romney allowing his aides to buy the hard drives from their state issued computers
and Romney himself and his staff deleted years of emails and "other " electronic correspondence from state owned
devices? Hillary? Senators? House members with their own servers...
LMAO
Do you understand the difference between a governor and the Secretary of State?
are you familiar with the term “classified information?”
you should probably look those terms up?
LMAO
more completely fabricated bs.... why am I not surprised.
/trump-emails-rnc-reince-priebus-white-house-server-548191
Very familiar. Most "classified information" I was involved with was a joke.
You?
SP, at this time we're discussing the phony witch hunt and phony impeachment. I get your drift, but we'll see if anything comes of these investigations in time.
Isn't it funny how that works? One might think there are two rules for justice, one for Republicans and then one for Democrats.
As I've said, anytime you are accused of anything illegal, immoral or unfair by those related in some way to the Democrats, you can always count on it is they who have, are or will be doing.
Take the Russian collusion, for example.
If only there were a precedent for ignoring a subpoena?
Maybe you can ask Eric Holder. He is well versed at ignoring them.
Actually I think if you are employed by our government, elected or otherwise, you should not be allowed to ignore a subpoena.
Shocking !!! /s
I love Ms. Lindsey's latest Anti-Trump / Pro-Biden political ad......
The ad is not Lindsey Graham's latest ad. It's an ad by the coalition Republican Voters Against Trump. Now what would you expect them to do?
I think it is quite revealing of who Lindsey Graham really is. He's a part of the Washington Elite or Swamp. I've always thought he was a chameleon and that is why I have my doubts about this investigation going anywhere.
I think Graham is a true politician in the worst way.
I'll agree that the investigations aren't going to go too far. Lindsey is up for re-election this year, and is going to be looking for as much political cover as he can get.
We know that the dems aren't going to vote for him, but the question is going to be how much enthusiasm is there going to be for the republican base to support him.
The political ad from the RVAT was in my opinion a two-fer. We'll see what happens with this side-show.
Hope your well....
That will be totally dependent on how well he plays his cards with this investigation in my opinion.
So they give one person power to do whatever he wants.
Talk about un American.
Then try to say it isn't political. They are just going to talk about the investigations and isn't it nice, they plan on releasing their so called findings right before the election...
I guess this rollover idiot is the new pointy headed Gowdy. Another do nothing in congress but investigate rivals.
Why not? The House Democrats did the exact same thing for Schiff with the impeachment inquiry. Or have you forgotten about that already?
I know, I know; "but Trruuummmmpppppp!!!!!!!!"
You are of course talking about the Democrats when it comes to do nothing but investigate rivals right?
So it wasn't republicans that spent years investigating Clinton? Didn't spend all that time investigating emails, didn't spend all of that time investigating Benghazi.
It wasn't republicans investigating Biden, sending people to Ukraine...
Selective memories on some.
Some wouldn't know the truth if it crawled up their ass.
The Democrats have but one objective and that is to gain absolute power in this country. They'll sacrifice our health and economy to accomplish that goal. Look at them. Look at the statistics of what percentage of young people choose socialism over capitalism today.
All these protesters and rioters. They are the democrat's new base. People who are carrying this country don't have the time or money to carry on the way these people do. We have to work.
Organizations dedicated to the destruction of this country along with wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes because of this country see a place in a new societal structure where they think they will be safe, but they won't. They just aren't looking far enough ahead. It has happened in other countries before.
Well it certainly isn't crawling around in some people's heads.
You DO UNDERSTAND that it is NOT the Democratic Party...
It is The DEMOCRAT Party...
There is NOTHING "democratic" about it!
Soon as I saw Enders comment above, the exact same thing came to my mind. The hard core liberal leftist Democrats in the House gave Adam "Shifty" Schiff the same powers! And now they are whining about that the GOP may do the same things to them. Hilarious!
No, they don't want the truth and never have. All they want is power over the citizenry. They have a global ideology. Most of the people involved in promoting the unrest in this country have benefited the most in this country.
This is not to say there are legitimate reason to do things to improve the plights of all Americans, but to push the idea of victimology instead of the opportunities in this country is counter productive to a united country.
Don't get me wrong 1stwarrior. There are a lot of things I don't like, but when I saw this little lady so distraught about all the places she shopped in her community and tried to put myself in her position, I felt very sad for her. She didn't do anything. She was just trying to live out the remainder of her life in peace, but these criminals who have no respect for her or anyone destroyed her life in a matter of hours.
No company will be inclined to rebuild in her community. It's heartbreaking to see such people as this woman and many others lives destroyed by these masked cowards of the night. If you want to burn something, set yourself on fire and rid us of your disgusting present on this earth.
Guess we've really gotten off topic on this article. Understandable though.
Keep in mind that we baby-boomers are becoming less relevant, and it is the millennials that are going to start calling the shots. They are very different than we are in that they are much more tolerant of racial and social differences than their parents. That I see is a good thing.
Personally I don't seeing them as having the same work ethic as we did, but I'm betting our parents may have said the same thing about us. Time will tell though, and we're going to end up going along for the ride weather we like it or not.
Of course it is political. What isn't political today. Do you think all the investigations over the last three and a half years over a fake dossier wasn't political?
If Trump had not been elected, we wouldn't know how crooked politics has been over the last decade, especially over the last 4 to 5 years. All the corruption would have been destroyed like the subpoenaed hard drives and the lost emails. Of course there are many other things we would still be in the dark, never to be exposed.
Quite a few citizens have become enlightened to the corruption during the Obama years, but only because Trump was elected. Trump is a tool. Maybe we would have preferred a different tool, but we have also become aware there is no low the Democrats won't go to accomplish their agenda.
Hard to even take you seriously when you claim the corruption is only one sided.
there will be some gop never trumpers caught up in this as well.... count on it.
Uh huh. Is this the new variation of the lock her up chants?
Didn't pan out very well then...
Edit: It only sounds like you are saying anyone against donald should be investigated.
when did you get the idea anyone was "safe" from prosecution?
durham is going to show mueller how it is done./
Who said anyone was safe? I just reminded you that the years of investigations by republicans yielded nothing.
Of course maybe they were never designed to.
I have been hearing this about Durham for a while now too. When is his report coming out?
Oh don't tell me. Right before the election as well.
and I reminded you.... nothing is over just yet.
relax get some popcorn.... watch the show
No - that is what your party is saying on a monotonous repetitive redundant manner - daily.
thoroughly....
watching the democrats lose time and again for 3 and a half yrs has been a pleasure
the summer will be fun also...
Was trying to be comical but gotta say,
not surprised that some derive pleasure from 'putting others in their place'.
ya aint seen nothing yet.
this summer/fall will be comical... for everyone except the left.
Ender, my friend, corruption is on all sides.