House Republican "Investigations" and Other Total Nonsense

[pnwguy]

Feb 13, 2023 17:43:12 GMT goldenvalley said:

 What's so shocking to me about this Kushner thing is that he purports to be a religious Jew, very supportive of Israel, and yet he does business with Muslims whom his father in law denigrated for political purposes.  I guess money is the true religion for him.  

Wasn't it his father-in-law that said he only wanted Jews to count his money?  Maybe that goes for bribe money as well. 

[pnwguy]

The justice department decides NOT to prosecute Matt Goetz's sex trafficking crimes. There's a lost opportunity

[LFC]

Matt Gaetz repeated literal Chinese propaganda in a House hearing. Useful idiot, all the way.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 1, 2023 0:38:15 GMT LFC said:

Matt Gaetz repeated literal Chinese propaganda in a House hearing. Useful idiot, all the way.

Gaetz doesn't know where he got it beyond on whatever social media he follows (or his staff follows).  And he won't learn from the witness who is merely someone of the Deep State Swamp.  

[goldenvalley]

I don't know who is watching all the C-span video but there was some interesting video of Congress member Jamie Raskin's exasperation with the gentlewoman from Colorado.

[LFC]

Jamie Raskin is in full attack mode over each and every piece of bullshit coming from the Republicans. Good! They want a knock down drag out fight? Time to give it to them.

[LFC]

For once the Democrats seem prepared and have waged a solid anti-propaganda campaign. Gym Jordan, as expected, looks like a complete fool and partisan hack (which, of course, is exactly what he is).

Wild Stuff

Rep. Jim Jordan’s supposed “whistleblowers” who were going to expose the FBI’s role in various Deep State conspiracies have turned out to be as bogus as his so-called investigations:

But the first three witnesses to testify privately before the new Republican-led House committee investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government have offered little firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing or violation of the law, according to Democrats on the panel who have listened to their accounts. Instead, the trio appears to be a group of aggrieved former F.B.I. officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, and received financial support from a top ally of former President Donald J. Trump.

Not surprising, of course. But what is notable is House Democrats flexing big time to pre-empt Jordan’s circus.

In what appears to be a well-orchestrated campaign to counter Jordan’s misinformation, House Democrats have released an extensive report on the first three witnesses interviewed in private by Jordan’s special Judiciary subcommittee. Based on how the news emerged last evening, it appears some news outlets where given advanced notice of the report or its findings. CNN and Rolling Stone had stories up early in the evening, I believe before the report was published by the NYT. Nothing wrong with that per se. It just shows Democrats aren’t sitting back and letting themselves and the public be led around by the nose by Jordan.

The early reports:

Rolling Stone: Inside Jim Jordan’s Disastrous Search for a ‘Deep State’ Whistleblower

CNN: Jim Jordan’s first FBI whistleblowers face scrutiny from skeptical Democrats

[LFC]

From the Rolling Stone link above, Gym's star witnesses are a handful of right-wing cranks. As bad as the Hillary Clinton "hearings" were, brought to you by Traitor Gowdy, Gym's are even more ridiculous.

In early February, Republicans brought an FBI veteran to Capitol Hill whom they hoped would expose a “deep state conspiracy” among Democrats and their accomplices in the intelligence community. The GOP witness was part of a network of “whistleblowers” — funneled to congressional Republicans’ new Weaponization of Government panel by allies of Donald Trump — to reveal covert attacks on the former president and broad, anti-conservative discrimination.

But before the interview was over, it was the GOP witness who was failing to answer difficult questions — and Democratic committee staff doing the asking.

In the interview, the witness, former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill, had admitted he had little or no firsthand knowledge of alleged “deep state” scandals. Instead, he brought baggage of his own: a history of inflammatory commentary on social media. Democratic staff had found a tweet in which Hill claimed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had “blood on her hands.” In a since-deleted tweet found by Rolling Stone, Hill wrote “Cancer! GO FASTER!” in response to a tweet from Rep. Lauren Boebert claiming that President Biden had been diagnosed with cancer.

According to portions of transcripts reviewed by Rolling Stone and sources familiar with the exchange, Hill repeatedly declined to respond to the questions and cited his First Amendment rights. (He’d later go on a conservative talk show to accuse Democrats of trying to paint him as a “right-wing nut job” because they couldn’t handle his message.) As the exchange went on, Hill’s attorney, Jason Foster, begged the Democratic counsel to stop asking about his client’s tweets.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the chair of the new House Judiciary’s “weaponization” subcommittee, opened its first hearing vowing that he’d heard from “dozens and dozens” of whistleblowers about “the political nature at the Justice Department.” Indeed, powerful players from Trump’s orbit have invested in recruiting intelligence community veterans, hoping to produce bombshell revelations and must-see TV to rival the results of the Jan. 6 committee.

But so far, Republicans have brought only three of those whistleblowers to Capitol Hill for questioning, and have not scheduled any additional interviews after completing the most recent in mid-February. In the interviews conducted to date, witnesses have offered contradictory responses, maintained fringe and violent online presences that undermine their credibility, and failed to demonstrate first-hand knowledge of alleged FBI wrongdoing.

The results have left Democrats gleeful and even some Republicans deeply unimpressed. A “dumpster fire,” is how one Democrat with knowledge of the at-times combative interactions terms the proceedings. “Clearly there is room to grow and improve before [more] public hearings,” a Republican familiar with the process tells Rolling Stone. But the work so far, the Republican says, has been “very much amateur hour,” adding that airing this “stuff on live television would make us look like morons.” (Sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive matters.)

“It is beyond disappointing, but sadly not surprising, that Democrats would leak cherry-picked excerpts of testimony to attack the brave whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak out on abuses at the Justice Department and FBI,” a GOP House Judiciary spokesperson tells Rolling Stone.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 3, 2023 21:31:25 GMT LFC said:

For once the Democrats seem prepared and have waged a solid anti-propaganda campaign. Gym Jordan, as expected, looks like a complete fool and partisan hack (which, of course, is exactly what he is).

He only looks that way to people like us who do not consume media like Faux, Newsmax, OAN, and the various social media sites. The Trump Cult will never, ever hear about it from those sources. And if they do, they'll claim that the Deep State is lying about these former, probably disgruntled for a lot of reasons, FBI folks. They are being cancelled, dontcha know!

[LFC]

The incompetence of the Republicans lead by Gym Jordan is about what you'd expect. The factual responses and constant pushback by Democrats isn't. They're learning to fight.

I really want to echo David’s point from Friday about this Democratic staff report into Jim Jordan’s “weaponization” hearings. If you’ve been waiting a very long time for no nonsense Democrats to jump in front of Republicans, grab a whole buttload of facts and just pound them over the head with them … well, your moment may have arrived.

The document is more than three hundred pages long and the details are simply amazing. You probably didn’t figure that Jordan was going to unearth a lot of legitimate scandals or secret antifa cells at the FBI or other arms of federal law enforcement. But even if your bar was low, the levels of incompetence and pro-insurrectionist content is still pretty wild.

I got particularly focused on a guy named Stephen Friend, a purported FBI “whistleblower.” For starters, the report illustrates pretty methodologically that in most of the cases in which Friend claims to have damning inside information he actually had no involvement at all. He filed whistleblower complaints with the DOJ Inspector General’s office and the Office of Special Counsel, both of which rejected his claims. He later pitched his stories to Jordan and his committee. But a fairly basic review of the case suggests he used his budding relationship with Jordan to build up his brand, sell his book and raise money through a GoFundMe-style online fundraiser (using the right wing GoFundMe clone, GiveSendGo). This is mixed with various instances of mid-level official misconduct and flagrantly inappropriate political work while serving in the FBI. In other words, Friend appears to be a rather shambling mix of official incompetence, opportunism and hucksterism.

But the more troubling details are the ones that suggest Friend has, and may have gotten in hot water with superiors for, a high degree of sympathy with various extremist groups.

[andydp]

More revelations about Gym Jordan Whistle Blowers.  

The beginning of the article us a rehash of known data.  The best parts are in the middle. The kicker is in the final paragraph.

Former FBI agent reveals 'the report Jim Jordan doesn’t want you to read' about his whistleblowers

Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa is posting excerpts of a report about Rep. Jim Jordan's (R-OH) so-called "FBI whistleblowers" from the alleging "deep state" conspiracies at the FBI.

A report this week from The New York Times revealed that the three "aggrieved former FBI officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol and received financial support from a top ally of former President Donald J. Trump."

As part of his ongoing effort to bring down Joe Biden's government, Merrick Garland's Justice Department and the FBI itself, Jordan is running the committee on the "weaponization of government."

"The Committee has now heard from three of these so-called whistleblowers," the report says. "George Hill, a retired FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst from the FBI's Boston Field Office; Garret O'Boyle, a suspended FBI special agent from the Wichita Resident Agency in Kansas; and Stephen Friend, a former special agent with the FBI's Daytona Beach Resident Agency. None of these witnesses has provided evidence of misconduct by the FBI, the Department of Justice, or any other public official. Each offered a wide range of personal opinions, but to the extent that they testified about matters to which they claim to have firsthand knowledge at all, none showed any evidence of wrongdoing."

Instead, the report implies that they're merely former employees with an axe to grind and being paid to serve as Jordan's "whistleblowers."

The report also says that the men have also been "directly connected to a network of extreme MAGA Republican operatives including former Trump administration officials Kash Patel, Russell Vought, and Mark Meadows, who have incentive to promote these witnesses and their meritless claims..."

Patel paid both O'Boyle and Friend "$5,000 almost immediately after they connected in Nov. 2022. Patel has also promoted Friend's forthcoming book on social media."

Patel also helped connect Donald Trump's "top election-fraud lawyer," Jesse Binnall, to O'Boyle to help serve as counsel. O'Boyle appeared shocked that the representation was "pro bono." Patel helped Friend score a job as a fellow for the Center for Renewing America, run by Vought and funded by the Conservative Partnership Institute and run by Meadows and lobbyist and former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC).

While Jordan has called these men "whistleblowers," committee Republicans refuse to provide any documentation to prove that they have filed for whistleblower protections with the Department of Labor.

Rangappa went on to tell Raw Story that based on what she's read thus far, "none of them meet the legal definition" for a whistleblower, "and it appears that they did not pursue to proper channels (like the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility) to have their whistleblower' claims evaluated."

She pointed out comments from Friend that encourage defunding the police, claiming in a Tennessee podcast interview that the FBI "needs to be control, alt, deleted and completely eliminated and eradicated from the federal government."

Hill retired in Oct. 2021, but he told the panel he heard through the grapevine that there was a financial institution that could be related to Jan. 6 investigations. He couldn't answer questions about where the information came from, he had no evidence, no specifics, never used the evidence himself in an investigation, never saw any documents about it and never worked on any cases around Jan. 6 before his retirement.

Hill claimed that the Washington Field Office of the FBI asked the Boston office to help with Jan. 6 investigations. When asked about the Boston office's involvement, he confessed he wasn't part of any of those conversations and that the request was only as far as he had heard. The report argues this doesn't show any weaponization of government.

The report also noted that "on at least two occasions, Friend engaged with Russian journalists and propaganda outlets while still an FBI employee." He spoke to Russia Today's John Kiriakou, who agreed to a plea deal in 2012 for "one count of intentionally disclosing information identifying a covert agent," the Justice Department said in a 2013 release. He had previously been charged with "two counts of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly illegally disclosing national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it," a 2012 DOJ release said.

When asked if Friend was familiar with Sputnik, he responded, "It's a Russian propaganda newspaper." He then confirmed he gave answers to questions from Ekaterina Blinova without authorization from superiors.

(The report goes on for 316 pages of details about the three men, discounting their accounts as anything other than opinion and hearsay.)

Emphasis added:

Meanwhile, Jordan is requesting taxpayers fund an additional $2 million a year for his committee and a "substantial reserve fund" of $15 million for the investigations, Axios reported Tuesday. He's also demanding 16 FBI agents testify before the committee.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/former-fbi-agent-reveals-the-report-jim-jordan-doesn-t-want-you-to-read-about-his-whistleblowers/ar-AA18kP2g

[goldenvalley]

Why doesn't Jordan just ask his dark money providers to fund his investigations?  That's hard money to trace (if not impossible) and any use of the money is not subject to public scrutiny, unlike tax dollars which some Congressional oversight committee could look into.  $15 M in dark money could line a lot of pockets and maybe buy some people who are a little more credible than the disgruntled employee -who -really -had -nothing -to -do -with -anything -important witnesses he has now.  Have the Trump sources of money for these witnesses dried up?

Good grief! Look at how corrupted my thinking has become!

[LFC]

Mar 8, 2023 16:33:13 GMT andydp said:

More revelations about Gym Jordan Whistle Blowers. 

Gym Jordan bringing in corrupt, partisan, paid off crisis actors to testify as real people? I'm shocked! Shocked I say!

[andydp]

There are too many quotable statements to pick and choose. Here's the article in full.

Jim Jordan has found no "weaponization" of government — and no actual whistleblowers

As Capitol Hill investigators who have worked for both parties, we see Jordan's far-right snipe hunt as a mockery

www.salon.com/2023/03/14/jim-jordan-has-found-no-weaponization-of-government--and-no-actual-whistleblowers/

Bonus article:

'An embarrassment': Jim Jordan's hearings slammed by legal experts as 'far-right snipe hunt'


www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/an-embarrassment-jim-jordans-hearings-slammed-by-legal-experts-as-far-right-snipe-hunt/ar-AA18CoTx

[LFC]

Josh Marshall covered the same ground. Here's the full piece (paywalled) but basically there are several reasons this is flopping even inside their echo chamber. It's important that at the very least they have absolutely nothing, so they must desperately pull bullshit out of thin air. But it should also be noted that Gym Jordan and the rest of the crew are just bomb throwing clowns. Say what you will about Traitor Gowdy, he at least knew how to create a fig leaf of validity. But Josh thinks there's something else that makes this different.

A bubbling conventional wisdom has been taking shape in the recent weeks that might best be stated as a question: what happened to all the Republican investigations? From one perspective it’s early: the new Congress has only been seated for a bit over two months. There have been hearings. There was one just last week into the so-called “Twitter Files.” But they’ve been low energy and mostly a bust. Outside of the right-wing media bubble they’ve been met more with derision than headlines and follow ups. A March 6 Axios headline read: “Jim Jordan scrambles amid claims ‘weaponization’ probe is a dud.” But the reaction inside the bubble hasn’t been any different. As far back as a month ago, Fox News’ host Jesse Watters angrily denounced the underwhelming show.

Some point to Jim Jordan not having the organizational abilities or chops to run impactful hearings. Others point to Jordan getting crosswise with the other top GOP investigator, Jim Comer. The most obvious explanation is that they’re just lame and underwhelming because they don’t have the goods. But even that doesn’t work as an explanation because the same could be said about the previous times we did this under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Something’s different.

I wish I knew what the difference was. I’m not sure. I keep thinking that it’s McCarthy signing over too much of the reins to the Freedom Caucus. Or maybe it’s that the right-wing media bubble has become too insular. It may be all of these things. But each is either not really different from the old days or is just a circular argument. So I’ve struggled to figure it out. But there are two basic drivers worth considering.

The first is a much more aggressive Democratic posture and some basic differences in how conventional media is operating. I’ve mentioned a few times that mammoth 300+ page House Democratic staff report that basically kneecapped Jordan’s whole “weaponization” song and dance before it even got started. That’s just dramatically different from what we saw in earlier House GOP vs Democratic President eras. Democrats are not spending any time approaching these hearings as efforts to do anything real or legitimate. They’re not going through the motions of taking Republicans at their word that these are good faith searches for the truth only to be shocked, shocked later when Republicans confirm their worst fears. It’s just political theater to be attacked.

Conventional media is also acting differently, even though we continue to see mainstream media efforts to “reach out” to Republicans and do whatever they can to prove to Republicans they’re not biased against conservatives. Is it some overhang of the Trump years? Is it a reaction not simply to the revelations about Fox coming out of the Dominion lawsuit but the slow-motion revelations of the last two years which made those revelations all but inevitable? I’m unclear on the driver precisely. But the media reaction is different.

The other part of this is the nature of the investigations themselves. At one level, they’re nonsensical: the liberal FBI plotting against conservatives. There is also the way that the victory of conservative media — it’s complete informational independence from actual news media and journalism — is also its undoing: it’s a locked ecosystem for 30% of the population. Then there’s just the pure phoning it in. This week Comer pressed the claim that Joe Biden threatened to fire the lead Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son and Burisma back in 2015. This claim was part of what got President Trump impeached the first time and was thoroughly discredited all the way back in 2019. Even for mainstream media reporters dying to give the benefit of the doubt, it’s just old news. But again, I don’t think these are a total or sufficient explanation.

The reason I come back to is rooted in the investigations themselves. They’re mostly not rooted in even claims of wrongdoing. They’re focused on alleged unfairness about things in the past and, more specifically, they’re focused on re-litigating the complaints about Donald Trump.

Take the Rosetta Stone of current GOP furor: Hunter Biden’s laptop. In theory, this is the key to the secrets of what Republicans now call “The Biden Crime Family.” But its contents have now been rummaged through for almost two and a half years. There’s not much more to say about it. And saying the same thing over again not surprisingly doesn’t get a huge amount of attention. But the real energy behind the Hunter Biden Laptopism isn’t about the thing itself. It’s about re-litigating the alleged unfairness of the fact that it didn’t turn the 2020 presidential campaign in Trump’s favor.

I could rehash the argument that — contrary to a lot of mainstream media hand-wringing — the cautious approach by most media at the time was the correct decision. But why? You’ve probably heard that argument from me and other people a bunch of times. Maybe you agree, maybe you don’t. But it’s done. It’s fundamentally a Donald Trump “people weren’t fair to me” argument from going on three years ago. It’s not a new thing. It’s a demand to rehash an old tantrum.

That 300+ page Democratic report into the “weaponization” hearing tells a similar story. The common theme through Jordan’s proposed hearings is re-litigating Jan. 6th and claims that the participants in it were falsely accused or unfairly treated. It’s another Hunter Biden’s laptop. It’s much the same as the “lab leak theory,” which is also another focus of House investigations. That one has the novelty of at least being an ongoing question of some significance. But like The Laptop and Weaponization, the energy of the quest isn’t really about the question itself. It’s really focused on the dubious claim that for a period of months almost three years ago this still entirely unproven (though possible) theory wasn’t taken as seriously as its proponents claim it should have been. At its core it’s about claims of unfairness and double standards in the past, mostly about Donald Trump and his supporters getting done wrong by “the establishment” even if it’s not really clear why this would still be important three years later even if it were true.

They’re backward looking. They are a particular kind of grievance-driven special pleading that only really matters to a minority of the electorate. And at core they’re mostly about Donald Trump.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 15, 2023 15:03:46 GMT LFC said:

Josh Marshall covered the same ground. Here's the full piece (paywalled) but basically there are several reasons this is flopping even inside their echo chamber. It's important that at the very least they have absolutely nothing, so they must desperately pull bullshit out of thin air. But it should also be noted that Gym Jordan and the rest of the crew are just bomb throwing clowns. Say what you will about Traitor Gowdy, he at least knew how to create a fig leaf of validity. But Josh thinks there's something else that makes this different.

The first is a much more aggressive Democratic posture and some basic differences in how conventional media is operating. I’ve mentioned a few times that mammoth 300+ page House Democratic staff report that basically kneecapped Jordan’s whole “weaponization” song and dance before it even got started. That’s just dramatically different from what we saw in earlier House GOP vs Democratic President eras. Democrats are not spending any time approaching these hearings as efforts to do anything real or legitimate. They’re not going through the motions of taking Republicans at their word that these are good faith searches for the truth only to be shocked, shocked later when Republicans confirm their worst fears. It’s just political theater to be attacked.

Conventional media is also acting differently, even though we continue to see mainstream media efforts to “reach out” to Republicans and do whatever they can to prove to Republicans they’re not biased against conservatives. Is it some overhang of the Trump years? Is it a reaction not simply to the revelations about Fox coming out of the Dominion lawsuit but the slow-motion revelations of the last two years which made those revelations all but inevitable? I’m unclear on the driver precisely. But the media reaction is different.

The other part of this is the nature of the investigations themselves. At one level, they’re nonsensical: the liberal FBI plotting against conservatives. There is also the way that the victory of conservative media — it’s complete informational independence from actual news media and journalism — is also its undoing: it’s a locked ecosystem for 30% of the population. Then there’s just the pure phoning it in. This week Comer pressed the claim that Joe Biden threatened to fire the lead Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son and Burisma back in 2015. This claim was part of what got President Trump impeached the first time and was thoroughly discredited all the way back in 2019. Even for mainstream media reporters dying to give the benefit of the doubt, it’s just old news. But again, I don’t think these are a total or sufficient explanation.

I'm not so sure about all of Marshall's analysis.  I definitely agree that the Democrats are being more aggressive than they were in the Benghazi days. They've stopped silently rolling their eyes about the stupidity and instead are taking it on. Part of it, as for example the 300 page pre-buttal of the whistleblowers is that they had actual evidence to cite.  Part of it is that they stopped assuming that the general public will see through the tissue paper thinness...for example Raskin taking on Boebert on a variety of things last week.    The other two parts I don't see much difference from what happened before.  Seems like stuff like Benghazi was also based on rumors flowing through that locked ecosystem of right wing media.

[LFC]

Greene Margarine is blurting out potentially classified information in a publicly accessible hearing. I guess she doesn’t realize, and certainly doesn’t care, that it’s illegal to expose classified information and that only the President of the United States can declassify it for public release. Time for the DOJ to investigate to see what laws she broke and prosecute her. We can’t have loose cannons in Congress with access to classified materials going off and revealing it just because they feel they should.

Where's Qevin to give her a public reprimand and a warning to never do that again. I won't hold my breath.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 15, 2023 19:42:58 GMT LFC said:

Greene Margarine is blurting out potentially classified information in a publicly accessible hearing. I guess she doesn’t realize, and certainly doesn’t care, that it’s illegal to expose classified information and that only the President of the United States can declassify it for public release. Time for the DOJ to investigate to see what laws she broke and prosecute her. We can’t have loose cannons in Congress with access to classified materials going off and revealing it just because they feel they should.

Where's Qevin to give her a public reprimand and a warning to never do that again. I won't hold my breath.

She's Trump in younger and female form. 

[pnwguy]

Mar 15, 2023 21:37:11 GMT goldenvalley said:

She's Trump in younger and female form. 

Yes, and especially the delusional insanity aspect.

Kari Lake is Ron DeSatanist in female form.  More rational and dangerous if elected to anything.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 16, 2023 0:02:36 GMT pnwguy said:

Mar 15, 2023 21:37:11 GMT goldenvalley said:

She's Trump in younger and female form. 

Yes, and especially the delusional insanity aspect.

Kari Lake is Ron DeSatanist in female form.  More rational and dangerous if elected to anything.

I think they're all equally dangerous...just in slightly different ways.  Trump, MTG, and maybe Lake have a personality thing that attracts people. Lake is someone I find more obnoxious than MTG because of a more "this is my persona affect" that comes off as fake.  That's why she's in the maybe category. And I'm not so sure she would be any more competent than the other two. DeSantis is a complete zero in personality. 

[LFC]

So much for states' rights ... again.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office pushed back on House Republicans’ recent demand that he provide sworn testimony on his investigation into Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case – an inquiry that came after the former president announced he expected to be arrested on Tuesday.

The Manhattan DA’s general counsel Leslie B. Dubeck called the Republicans’ request ​​”an unprecedent(sic) inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”

“The Letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene,” Dubeck wrote. “Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”

The response from the Manhattan DA’s Office comes just days after House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) — alongside House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and House Administration Committee Chair Brian Steil (R-WI) — demanded that Bragg testify about his investigation into the $130,000 hush money payment Trump made to Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

“In light of the serious consequences of your actions, we expect that you will testify about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision,” the House GOP letter read.

Jordan and his MAGA allies also accused Bragg of pursuing a “politically motivated prosecution” and asked for documents related to any communications between the Justice Department and the DA’s office — a request rooted in Trump’s own conspiracy theories about the Biden Justice Department interfering in the investigation.

In their response, the DA’s office offered four ways in which the House GOP’s request for testimony is improper.

House Republicans are seeking “non-public information about a pending criminal investigation, which is confidential under state law,” Dubeck argued in her first point.

She added the GOP request is an “unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty” under the Tenth Amendment, explaining, it is “generally understood that a Congressional committee may not “inquire into matters which are… reserved to the States.”

Dubeck also argued that Congress is “not the appropriate branch” to review a pending criminal case. The “allegation that the DA’s Office is pursuing a prosecution for political purposes is unfounded, and regardless, the proper forum for such a challenge is the Courts of New York,” she added.

Dubeck also explained that House Republicans’ demand for information based on supposed concerns about the use of federal funding is “an insufficient basis to justify these unconstitutional requests.”

[goldenvalley]

Mar 23, 2023 21:43:31 GMT LFC said:

So much for states' rights ... again.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office pushed back on House Republicans’ recent demand that he provide sworn testimony on his investigation into Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case – an inquiry that came after the former president announced he expected to be arrested on Tuesday.

The Manhattan DA’s general counsel Leslie B. Dubeck called the Republicans’ request ​​”an unprecedent(sic) inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”

“The Letter only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene,” Dubeck wrote. “Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry.”

The response from the Manhattan DA’s Office comes just days after House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) — alongside House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and House Administration Committee Chair Brian Steil (R-WI) — demanded that Bragg testify about his investigation into the $130,000 hush money payment Trump made to Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.

“In light of the serious consequences of your actions, we expect that you will testify about what plainly appears to be a politically motivated prosecutorial decision,” the House GOP letter read.

Jordan and his MAGA allies also accused Bragg of pursuing a “politically motivated prosecution” and asked for documents related to any communications between the Justice Department and the DA’s office — a request rooted in Trump’s own conspiracy theories about the Biden Justice Department interfering in the investigation.

In their response, the DA’s office offered four ways in which the House GOP’s request for testimony is improper.

House Republicans are seeking “non-public information about a pending criminal investigation, which is confidential under state law,” Dubeck argued in her first point.

She added the GOP request is an “unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty” under the Tenth Amendment, explaining, it is “generally understood that a Congressional committee may not “inquire into matters which are… reserved to the States.”

Dubeck also argued that Congress is “not the appropriate branch” to review a pending criminal case. The “allegation that the DA’s Office is pursuing a prosecution for political purposes is unfounded, and regardless, the proper forum for such a challenge is the Courts of New York,” she added.

Dubeck also explained that House Republicans’ demand for information based on supposed concerns about the use of federal funding is “an insufficient basis to justify these unconstitutional requests.”

This is bar room talk again.  It is divorced from reality but the talkers don't know what reality is.  And they avoid anything that might clue them in to how things really work.  So they spout this BS on right wing media and the loyal followers get pumped up with the BS too.   They get elected and spout the same BS on the House Floor. It's all they know.  

[LFC]

Irony is dead vaporized.

[LFC]

And the follow-up:

[LFC]

The Republican clown show continues and it's every bit as bad as you can imagine. Gone are the days of Traitor Gowdy who at least packaged his lies and false accusation in a somewhat slick package. Now it's Gym Jordan's circus and what we're seeing is basically "The Gong Show" on Red Bull and meth. This thread distills the insanity down to its main parts which are just mind numbing to read. This is not remotely the entire thread.

If a Senator lies in testimony before the House Weaponization committee can he be prosecuted, or does that count as Speech and Debate.

Schmitt just lied about the "Hunter Biden" "laptop," among other things.

Now he's lying about Elvis Chan.

Not sure but @eric_Schmitt seems angry that he can't see Hunter Biden's dick on Twitter. Yet he accuses the President of lust.

Now complaining that he can't see Hunter Biden's dick either.

What is it with these depraved men?

Jeff Landry also complaining that people can't suppress minority votes on Twitter. Basically pro-Ku Klux Klan Act.

Now arguing that Twitter is politically biased bc someone named Kennedy was censored.

Landry seems confused about which govt he wants to bring to heel--he's asking to gut the US GOVERNMENT, while helping the Russian and Chinese governments.

Eric Schmitt: How dare Joe Biden get rid of Section 230
Eric Lowry: We have to make it easier to sue the tech companies

Stephen Lynch notes that these men were allowed to lie and then leave.

[Lie is my word]

Lynch notes that Schmitt and Landry were presented as witness about their lawsuits.

Jimmy: Those witnesses aren't here.

DWS notes that Landry is not a MoC.

Jimmy: We extended the same courtesy to former Tulsi.

DWS: That was a member panel.

Lynch: Move to strike testimony.

Lynch: They have scurried away with your complicity. You couldn't find 2 people to defend their statements.

John Sauer, from LA, is so stupid he just described what Trump actually did and claimed it was Biden.

Sauer--Jim Jordan's witness--is speaking in favor of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, to suppress the minority vote. This is how Jim Jordan fights the "weaponization" of federal govt--by making it easier to suppress minority vote.

Anybody who says "both sides are to blame" need to print this thread out, wrap it around a brick leaving the corners exposed, and shove it up their ass.