They are Real Americans for sure. During their existence, they've exposed more corrupt politicians than the FBI has, including some head honchos in the FBI. Without them nobody would even know Hillary had an illegal server to hide her crimes on, wouldn't know Comey lied and leaked, wouldn't know Dems paid GPS to invent a dossier to smear Trump to cover their crimes, wouldn't know the FBI lied to the FISA court 4 times, wouldn't know McCabe lied and leaked...(insert hundreds of crimes committed by Obama's cabinet)... Dems are in super panic mode and will be throwing all kinds of ridiculous diversions tomorrow but even Mueller couldn't bury their crimes while failing to establish any evidence of any collusion or corruption. Now the Real Investigations begin.
President Trump Vindicated APRIL 19, 2019 Vindication for President Trump President Trump has been vindicated. The Mueller investigation failed to find any evidence to support the big lie that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government and failed miserably to prove any obstruction. We’re pleased that Attorney General Barr saw through the 448-page smear of President Trump by highlighting the simple conclusion that there is no collusion and no obstruction. Neither Mueller, the Obama FBI, DOJ, CIA, State Department, nor the Deep State ever had a good-faith basis to pursue President Trump on Russia collusion. Russia collusion wasn’t just a hoax, it was criminal abuse, which is why Judicial Watch has fought and will continue to fight for Russiagate documents in federal court. The targeting of President Trump served to protect Hillary Clinton and her enablers/co-conspirators in Obama administration from prosecution. Attorney General Barr can begin restoring the credibility of the Justice Department by finally initiating a thorough investigation of the Clinton email and related pay-to-play scandals and the abuses behind the targeting of President Trump. We have long called for the shutdown of the Mueller special counsel operation and have pursued dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits in connection with the illicit targeting and other abuses of President Trump. Judicial Watch FOIA litigation exposed, for example: The Dossier-based Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant applications targeting President Trump Eleven FBI payments to Christopher Steele FBI firing of Steele Extensive DOJ (Ohr) collusion w/Steele, Simpson, Fusion GPS No court hearings by defrauded FISA courts before warrants were issued Anti-Trump bias by Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann You can be sure your Judicial Watch will continue to “investigate the investigators”! We already have over 40 FOIA lawsuits on Obama/Clinton/Deep State effort to illegally spy on and overthrow President Trump. This assault on our Republic is the worst corruption scandal in American history and Judicial Watch is on it – no matter what Congress or the Justice Department does. What Was the FBI Telling and Paying Anti-Trump Dossier Author Steele? Judicial Watch is the leader in exposing the Deep State coup targeting President Trump. We just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records of communications and payments between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and his private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence. We sued after the FBI failed to respond to our September 27, 2018, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:19-cv-00572)) for some basic documents: All records of communications between any official, employee, or representative of the FBI and Mr. Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer and the owner of the private firm Orbis Business Intelligence. All records related to the proposed, planned, or actual payment of any funds to Mr. Steele and/or Orbis Business Intelligence All records produced in preparation for, during, or pursuant to any meetings or telephonic conversations between any official, employee, or representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr. Christopher Steele and/or any employee or representative of Orbis Business Intelligence All records produced in preparation for, during, or pursuant to any meetings or telephonic conversations between any official, employee, or representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr. Christopher Steele and/or any employee or representative of Orbis Business Intelligence The time frame for this request is March 9, 2017, to September 27, 2018. Former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr testified to Congress that “at some point during 2017, Chris Steele did speak with somebody from the FBI, but I don’t know who.” This is our latest FOIA lawsuit in an extensive investigation into the Clinton-funded, anti-Trump dossier and its use to obtain FISA warrants in order to spy on the Trump campaign. In a case seeking Steele payment information between January 1, 2016, and March 8, 2017, we previously released FBI records showing that Steele was cut off as a “Confidential Human Source” in November 2016 after he disclosed his relationship to the FBI to a third party. The documents show that there were at least 11 FBI payments to Steele in 2016. (President Trump just tweeted this key disclosure by Judicial Watch!) Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm hired by the Clinton campaign and the DNC, reportedly paid $168,000 in 2016 to Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence. In a related case, we recently released 339 pages of heavily redacted records from the DOJ revealing Bruce Ohr remained in regular contact with Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI. How and why did the FBI pay Christopher Steele, who was already being funded by the Clinton campaign and DNC through Fusion GPS? That we had to sue for this basic information shows the FBI may have something more to hide. Judicial Watch Sues for Collusion Docs Between Obama FBI and Clinton-DNC Lawyers Let’s talk about collusion – between the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee’s top lawyer and the top lawyer for the Obama FBI. We just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department for communications between former FBI General Counsel James Baker and Michael Sussmann, a Perkins Coie law partner and former DOJ attorney. While at Perkins Coie, Sussman represented the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the time Perkins Coie secretly paid for the development of the anti-Trump dossier the DOJ used to obtain FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign. We sued because the FBI failed to respond to a FOIA request dated October 5, 2018 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice(No. 1:19-cv-00573)) for: Any and all records of communication between former FBI General Counsel James Baker and former Department of Justice attorney and current Perkins Coie Partner Michael Sussman. Any and all records created in preparation for, during, and/or pursuant to any meeting between Mr. Baker and Mr. Sussman. Any and all calendars, agendas, or similar records, either in paper or electronic format, documenting the schedule and activities of Mr. Baker. The time frame for this request is between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016. Perkins Coie is responsible for retaining the opposition research firm Fusion GPS in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC to dig into President Trump’s background. Fusion GPS paid British ex-spy Christopher Steele to compile the anti-Trump dossier memos, which were shared with the FBI in the summer of 2016. As described above, we uncovered documents revealing that during this same period of time the FBI also paid Steele on at least 11 occasions in 2016 as a confidential informant and later continued to receive information from Steele during 2017 through a Justice Department official even after it had fired Steele in November 2016 for leaking his relationship with the FBI to the media. Confirmation of the DNC’s/Clinton campaign’s funding of the dossier, labeled by former FBI Director James Comey as “salacious and unverified,” was first revealed in a memo from then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). Baker told lawmakers in two 2018 interviews that Sussmann is the Perkins Coie attorney with whom he met in September 2016, a month before the FISA warrant was approved to spy on the Trump campaign, and that Sussmann gave him “documents and a thumb drive related to Russian interference in the election, hacking and possible Trump connections.” Our lawsuit aims to fully expose the scandalous collusion between the Obama FBI and the Clinton-DNC political operation to target Hillary Clinton’s political opponent, Donald J. Trump. The corrupted FBI owes Americans total transparency on this scandal. In a related FOIA lawsuit filed against the DOJ in December 2018, we sued for records of all meetings in 2016 between Baker and the Perkins Coie law firm. The lawsuit cites a specific media report that Baker met with Perkins Coie lawyers to discuss allegations of collusion between Donald Trump and Russia. The meeting reportedly took place weeks before the 2016 election and before the FBI secured a controversial FISA spy warrant targeting then-candidate Trump’s campaign. We previously obtained heavily redacted copies of FISA warrants used by the Obama-era DOJ to spy on the Trump campaign, which seem to confirm that the FBI and DOJ misled the courts in withholding the material information that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC were behind the “intelligence” used to persuade the courts to approve the FISA warrants that targeted the Trump team. One of the FISA warrant renewals was granted in June 2017 and did not expire until September 2017, some eight months after President Trump assumed office. For sure there was collusion to influence the 2016 election. We are uncovering it. Good News for all Land Owners from the Supreme Court I am pleased to tell you that the Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision affirming the conviction of Joseph Robertson, a 78-year-old veteran, now deceased, who was sentenced to prison for digging ditches on his rural Montana property to protect the area surrounding his home from wildfires. We had filed an amicus curiae brief jointly with the Allied Educational Foundation supporting Robertson and urging Supreme Court review and reversal of the lower court decision. Robertson served 18 months in prison and died while serving probation. He was also fined $130,000, a liability inherited by his estate. The Supreme Court also remanded Robertson’s conviction to the lower court so the indictment can be dismissed and the lien can be cancelled. Judicial Watch and the AEF had asked the Supreme Court to review the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that upheld Robertson’s conviction, because that decision “affirmed illegal agency actions in prosecuting Joseph Robertson based on a misreading of federal law. The Court should take this opportunity to correct the confusion in overbroad interpretations of the Clear Water Act, which have led to unjust prosecutions and federal intrusions into both state authority and individual liberty.” (The brief was filed in the case of Robertson v. United States, Case No. 18-609, 587 U.S. __ (2019). This was an appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision in United States v. Robertson, 875 F.3d 1281, 1285 (9th Cir. 2017).) We asserted in our brief that the ditches Robertson dug “sat on what a federal agency defines as wetlands and were situated on or near a small downhill water flow of about three garden hoses in volume. Mr. Robertson was not engaged in manufacturing or any other industrial activity which would release chemicals or waste into the water, but under the federal Clean Water Act even turning the soil with a shovel can be considered to be releasing a ‘pollutant’ into water.” We suggest that the issue is larger than Robertson’s personal plight: It also involves the separation of powers among Congress, the Executive Branch and the Supreme Court. We also note that the Supreme Court itself has introduced confusion into the issue of “adjacent wetlands,” “point source,” and “navigable waters.” Also, legal matters like those involving Robertson properly belong with the state, not the federal government. Our brief argues that the Congress has been all too willing to forego its constitutional duty and defer to federal agencies. [It was not foreseen that] the judiciary could eventually aid and abet the complete sacrificing of power by one of those two branches, effectively leaving a one-branch government where the founders intended three. When the Court goes too far in reading statutes as broadly assigning sweeping interpretative power to agencies, this allows Congress to give up power altogether and to stop the necessary work of revising and repealing statutes. Congress has proven itself either willing to give up those powers or unable to stop itself from doing so, preferring to ask the executive branch to reinterpret or reimagine statutes in ever more creative ways while sparing members of Congress the pain of accountability for national policy. The Court should not countenance this upending of the constitutional order. The Supreme Court has granted a victory against an overreaching government bureaucracy. The government should not be allowed to regulate every drop of water in America, and the Supreme Court was right to brush back the radical bureaucrats promoting this Big Government expansion. Mr. Robertson, a veteran, died before he was vindicated but his fight has protected the constitutional freedoms of other Americans. Digging Into John Kerry’s ‘Shadow Diplomacy’ Over Iran Nuclear Deal John Kerry acts as if he still is Secretary of State. And Judicial Watch is trying to expose the full truth about his efforts to undermine our foreign policy. That’s why we filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State for records of communications between former Secretary of State John Kerry and State Department officials regarding the Iran nuclear deal. That Obama/Kerry scheme was known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (also known as JCPOA). We’re also seeking records regarding meetings between Kerry and Iranian officials to discuss the JCPOA.” (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State(No. 1:19-cv-00777)). On May 8, 2018, President Trump announced the United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which had been negotiated by Kerry in 2015 on behalf of the Obama State Department. In the months preceding the U.S. withdrawal, Kerry reportedly had been on a “stealthy yet aggressive mission” of shadow diplomacy in an attempt to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. Kerry reportedly held meetings and spoke with major players, foreign and domestic, involved in the Iran nuclear agreement who opposed the U.S. withdrawal. We sued after the State Department failed to respond to a May 7, 2018, FOIA request for: All records of communications, including but not limited to emails (whether on .gov or non-.gov email accounts), text message or instant chat, between former Secretary of State John Kerry and official of the State Department regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (also known as the JCPOA or “Iran nuclear deal”) and/or meetings between Kerry and Iranian officials to discuss the JCPOA. During his personal campaign to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, Kerry is said to have met with Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the United Nations in New York in late April 2018, their second meeting in two months, to discuss ways of preventing the deal limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons program from falling apart. Current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo termed Kerry’s meeting with “the world’s largest state-sponsor of terror” “unseemly and unprecedented” and “beyond inappropriate.” Kerry also met in April 2018 with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, separately had meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, both in Paris and New York, and spoke on the phone with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. Additionally, Kerry was reported to have quietly lobbied members of Congress, including then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and placed dozens of phone calls just before the U.S. withdrawal. John Kerry wasn’t elected president, so he should avoid colluding with Iran and other foreign governments to undermine U.S. foreign policy. Our lawsuit is meant to discover not only what Kerry was up to but also to unearth who inside the Deep State Trump ‘resistance’ were coordinating with Kerry’s clandestine efforts to undermine the President Trump’s Iran policy. In another Iran-related FOIA lawsuit, on May 19, 2017, we filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of the Treasury(No.1:17-cv-00864)) against the State and Treasury Departments regarding the Obama administration’s January 2016 transfer of $400 million in foreign currency to Iran, a cash payment delivered the same weekend five American hostages were released. The Obama administration insisted at the time the cash payment was not ransom for the hostages, but several Republican lawmakers said it was too coincidental to be true. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reportedly said, “Paying Iran behind our backs, incentivizing further kidnappings of Americans while providing funds for terrorism, is as ignorant as it is wrong.” The State Department, just two weeks after an August 4 press conference in which President Barack Obama said the payment was not a “ransom,” confirmed that the U.S. handed over the cash only after Iran released the hostages. The $400 million was the first installment of a $1.7 billion cash settlement the Obama administration paid Iran to resolve an arms deal signed before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which toppled the pro-U.S. regime in Tehran. Few documents were produced to us in this case, and all were fully redacted. You’d think the State Department would know by now that we don’t easily give up our efforts for truth and accountability. Happy Easter! https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/weekly-updates/president-trump-vindicated/
Once again you have told an untruth. There is plenty of evidence that the Trump campaign committed conspiracy with the Russians but not enough to convict with absolute certainty. As for Obstruction, Mueller referred that to Congress for action while explicitly stating he was not exonerated. As for Judicial Watch, LOL. OMG, what an ignorant post I'm responding to.
There is more evidence that Bigfoot exists. Edit..I mean the big hairy monster in the woods, not the truck.
You wanna talk deep state? Doesn't it seem odd that Bolton has been on the job for just about a year and this bogus investigation is over? Now it is clear sailing for more regime change.
Everyone who has stopped the President from committing a felony in the past is gone. This is not draining the swamp. This is expanding the swamp by several orders of magnitude. This means we're all in even bigger trouble now.
Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Columbia FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, April 26, 2019 Russian National Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Conspiring to Act as an Agent of the Russian Federation Within the United States WASHINGTON – Mariia Butina, a Russian national, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison after earlier pleading guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu, and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Butina, 30, a Russian citizen who had been residing in Washington D.C., pled guilty on Dec. 13, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was sentenced by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. Following her incarceration, she is to be deported to Russia. According to the government’s evidence, from approximately 2015 to 2017, Butina acted as an agent of a Russian government official. Under his direction, she provided key information about Americans who were in a position to influence United States politics and took steps to establish an unofficial line of communication between Russia and these Americans. As described in the plea documents, Butina sought to do so for the benefit of the Russian Federation. She took these actions without providing the required notifications to the Attorney General that she was in fact acting as an agent of the Russian Federation. Butina was arrested on July 15, 2018, in Washington, D.C., and has been in custody ever since. Butina will get credit for the time she already has served. The court also granted a government motion that led to a reduced sentence in the case. The investigation into this matter was conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erik M. Kenerson, Thomas N. Saunders, and Jolie Zimmerman of the National Security Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, and Trial Attorney William A. Mackie of the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Topic(s): National Security Component(s): National Security Division (NSD) USAO - District of Columbia Press Release Number: 19-68 Updated April 26, 2019
Lindsey Graham - "You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic. If this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role. Because impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office."
Judicial Watch: Bruce Ohr Email Raises Possible Ethics Concerns Tied to Russia Testimony APRIL 29, 2019 Judicial Watch https://www.judicialwatch.org/t/images/judicial_watch-logo_schema.jpg https://www.judicialwatch.org (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 33 pages of records from the Department of Justice showing that former senior DOJ official Bruce Ohr in his January 2018 preparation to testify to the Senate and House intelligence committees wrote to a lawyer about “possible ethics concerns.” Bruce Ohr forwarded the email to his wife Nellie Ohr, who had been hired by Fusion GPS, the Hillary Clinton campaign-Democratic National Committee vendor who compiled the anti-Trump Dossier. Judicial Watch obtained the records through its August 2018 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the Justice Department after it failed to respond to a May 29, 2018, FOIA request (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice(No. 1:18-cv-01854)). Judicial Watch seeks: All records from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General relating to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr and/or British national Christopher Steele, including but not limited to all records of communications about and with Fusion GPS officials, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele. All records from the office of former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce G. Ohr relating to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr and/or British national Christopher Steele, including but not limited to all records of communications (including those of former Associate Deputy Attorney General Ohr) about and with Fusion GPS officials, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele. All records from the office of the Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force relating to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr and/or British national Christopher Steele, including but not limited to all records of communications (including those of former Organized Crime Task Force Director Bruce Ohr) about and with Fusion GPS officials, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele. On January 3, 2018, Bruce Ohr emails Justice Department ethics lawyer Cynthia Shaw, advising her that the Senate and House intelligence committees had requested to interview him about investigations into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. He notes that a number of press reports had come out about his “alleged” connections to Christopher Steele. He asks her a question that is largely redacted but seeks information about “possible ethics concerns.” He forwards this email to his wife Nellie: Cynthia – Thank you for taking the time to chat with me this morning. As requested, here is a short description of my question: As you may have heard, the Senate intelligence committee and House intelligence committee requested to interview me in connection with their investigations of possible Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Shortly after receiving the Senate request, a series of stories broke in the press about my alleged connections to Chris Steele, the author of the so-called Trump dossier. [Redacted] My question has to do with [redacted]. Are there any guidelines for [redacted] in order to satisfy any possible ethics concerns? Shaw’s response is largely redacted: Hi Bruce, Can you obtain [redacted] Thanks, Cindy The new documents also reveal a close relationship between Fusion GPS employee Nellie Ohr and DOJ Russia experts Lisa Holtyn, Joseph Wheatley and Ivana Nizich. On May 11, 2016, Nellie Ohr received an email invitation to attend a Hudson Institute “Kleptocracy Archive Launch.” Notably, Fusion GPS principal Glenn Simpson, listed as “a Senior Fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center” who “now works frequently on Russian corporate crime and criminal organizations,” was to be a panelist. Nellie forwarded the invitation on to top Bruce Ohr aide Lisa Holtyn and husband/wife DOJ lawyers Joseph Wheatley and Ivana Nizich. Holtyn, Wheatley, and Nizich all worked for the DOJ’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which investigated Russian cartels and other Russian syndicated crime matters. On April 29, 2016, Holtyn, who worked in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, Criminal Division of the Justice Department, emails an unidentified individual in the Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI: I asked Bruce and he didn’t know him, but is going to see if Nellie does. I was wondering if maybe we knew him through some sort of Glenn Simpson or John Picarelli-sponsored event. If he hadn’t referred to you as [redacted] it wouldn’t have bothered me so much, but knowledge of that particular nickname implies a certain degree of familiarity not available on the Internet. [John Picarelli] is current Acting Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security and then-Justice Department Program Manager for Transnational Issues.] The unidentified FBI employee emails Holtyn back: “It does. I’m baffled.” An April 25, 2016, email shows Nellie Ohr inviting Lisa Holtyn to another Hudson Institute Russia talk. An email on the following day shows Nellie Ohr declining an invitation by Holtyn to go to a film. A March 28, 2016, email with the subject line “email intro” shows Holtyn introducing Nellie Ohr to a husband/wife pair of prosecutors at the Department of Justice in the Criminal Division (“CRM”) named Joe Wheatley and Ivana Nizich. Judicial Watch previously released other DOJ documents that detail numerous contacts with Russiagate figure Christopher Steele and many other communications between Nellie Ohr and Ohr’s DOJ colleagues. “Bruce Ohr was the conflicted center of the Clinton-DNC effort to launder fraudulent Russia material into the Justice Department and FBI,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These documents show that Bruce Ohr was aware enough to look for advice – or look for cover – on ethics issue. His wife, Fusion GPS employee Nellie Ohr, had chummy relationships with various Justice Department officials, which illustrates perfectly why it was so easy for Fusion GPS to sell its anti-Trump Dossier scam.”
I hear Deep State Republican in Democrat's clothing (think John McLain) Richard Lugar passed away. My condolences to his family, my congratulations to Father Time. Draining the swamp.
Bye Rod! See ya soon! Rod Rosenstein is the only enigma throughout the seamy tale of treason against the American people conducted by Obama's Administration, at times appearing to be a leader of the pack, at others appearing to be a man of the law who put his personal feelings aside and attempted to instill some reality and patriotism in the den of wolves doing Hillary's bidding. When push came to shove, the pack turned on him, attempting to paint him as a looney who wanted to wiretap the White House. In the end, Trump seems to believe he did nothing illegal, and kept him on Until the Russian Hoax became the Deep State investigation, which will require Rod to testify extensively about the things he saw, heard, and was asked to do or cover for, necessitating that he step down to avoid conflict of interest. I look forward to his enlightening testimony. Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein submits resignation By Nicole Darrah, John Roberts | Fox News Rod Rosenstein criticizes the Obama administration for their handling of the Russia investigation Former Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee says Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's critical comments of the Russia election interference investigation is a soft way of saying there was a cover up. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who frequently found himself in the political crosshairs due to his role in the special counsel's Russia probe and whose departure has long been expected, submitted his resignation on Monday to President Trump, effective May 11. Attorney General William Barr in a statement said Rosenstein served the Justice Department "with dedication and distinction." "His devotion to the Department and its professionals is unparalleled," the statement read. "Over the course of his distinguished government career, he has navigated many challenging situations with strength, grace, and good humor." In his resignation letter, Rosenstein thanked Trump "for the opportunity to serve; for the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations; and for the goals you set in your inaugural address: patriotism, unity, safety, education, and prosperity, because 'a nation exists to serve its citizens.'" Rosenstein, 54, previously served as deputy assistant attorney general and U.S. attorney. He had intended to leave his position last month but stayed on for the completion of the Mueller probe, which Rosenstein had overseen. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein defends Attorney General Bill Barr's handling of the Mueller report In February, Fox News reported that Barr had picked Jeffrey Rosen, who currently serves as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, to take over for Rosenstein. Rosenstein was part of a small group of department officials who reviewed the document and helped shape its public release. After Mueller didn't reach a conclusion on whether Trump had obstructed the investigation, Barr and Rosenstein stepped in and determined the evidence wasn't enough to support such an allegation. In recent months, Rosenstein became a frequent target of Trump's ire, after FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe described private discussions about secretly recording and potentially ousting the president in the days after he fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump accused them of pursuing a “treasonous” plot against him. Rosenstein, though, denied pursuing a recording of the president and has pushed back on claims he broached the idea of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. However, Rosenstein was largely spared the type of anger directed by Trump at Sessions, whose recusal infuriated the president and led to Sessions' to his forced resignation last November. As first reported by The New York Times last year, Rosenstein allegedly discussed wearing a "wire" to tape Trump and pursuing his removal from office in meetings and conversations with Justice Department and FBI officials. This would have been in the tumultuous days after Comey was fired as FBI director, with the president citing in part a memo penned by Rosenstein — reportedly catching him off guard. Are Democrats overreacting to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's expected departure from the DOJ? Fox News has learned one key meeting took place on May 16, 2017 at Justice Department headquarters. Several people were in the room, including McCabe and former FBI counsel Lisa Page. Mueller was appointed as special counsel the next day. Rosenstein’s conservative critics on the Capitol Hill seized on the reports, with North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, calling on him to appear before Congress to explain the comments. In July, Meadows and Jim Jordan of Ohio, another member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, introduced five articles of impeachment against Rosenstein. Those impeachment articles accused Rosenstein of intentionally withholding documents and information from Congress, failure to comply with congressional subpoenas and abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). That effort was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it has not been voted upon. Before named by Trump to serve as the No. 2 to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Rosenstein served as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. Rosenstein took over the Russia probe after Sessions recused himself from the investigation. It was Rosenstein who later appointed Mueller to his post. Fox News' William Mears, Alex Pappas, Jake Gibson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Deep State war-and-occupation-for-profit guru James Mattis, along with delusions of grandeur, illegally and recklessly endangered American lives and weakened US's effectiveness in a mindblowing number of dangerous situations. He committed dereliction of duty, disobeyed direct orders from the Commander in Chief, aided and abetted the enemy, tilted the balance of world power in favor of North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, Syria... He's the only reason we didn't do more to punish Assad for gassing his own citizens. He's the only reason Kim suddenly backed out of agreeing to denuclearize. He's the only reason Iran is still building nukes with our money to kill us. A disgusting and heinous traitor to the core. He deserves to be stripped of all his fancy ribbons, court-martialed, then shot. Mattis ignored orders from Trump, White House on North Korea, Iran: report Ellen Mitchell © Getty Images Mattis ignored orders from Trump, White House on North Korea, Iran: report Former Defense Secretary James Mattis refused to obey orders from President Trump or otherwise limited his options with North Korea, Iran and Syria, The New Yorker reported Monday, the latest report of Obama holdovers trying to sabotage his success. In 2017, following a series of North Korean ballistic-missile tests, Trump ordered the Pentagon to begin removing the spouses and children of military personnel from South Korea, where the U.S. military has a base. An administration official told the magazine that "Mattis just ignored" the order, endangering thousand of innocent Americans lives. In another instance in the fall 2017, as White House officials were planning a private meeting at Camp David to develop military options for a possible conflict with North Korea, Mattis allegedly stopped the gathering from happening. He ignored a request from then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster to send officers and planners, according to a former senior administration official. Mattis resigned from his Pentagon position to avoid last December, one day after Trump announced that he would withdraw troops from Syria, a decision that Mattis opposed. As Iraq was preparing for parliamentary elections in late 2017, McMaster was worried about any meddling from Iran and asked the Pentagon to give options to counter such a move. A former aide of McMaster's said Mattis later sent a Pentagon official to the White House without any options in hand. "I asked him what happened to the options," the former aide told The New Yorker. "He told me, 'We resisted those.' You could feel everyone in the meeting go, 'Excuse me?'" Mattis also reportedly prevented Gen. John Nicholson, then head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, from meeting Trump. After Bolton replaced McMaster, he asked the Pentagon for multiple options in April 2018, after the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dropped chemical weapons on civilians in a suburb of Damascus. Mattis gave only one option, a limited strike with cruise missiles, which angered Bolton. "There are a lot of people in the administration who want to limit the president's options because they don't want the president to get anything done," a former senior Administration official said.
Why do you think anyone would would not want the President to do anything? I think I know, I think I know.
