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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Eli Lake: The Rosenstein Conundrum

Eli Lake, who some might say has a checkered past, has an interesting take on the latest round in the McCabe v. Rosenstein spat.

I'll paste in the heart of Lake's article, but you can read the rest of it here: Rod Rosenstein Has Some Serious Explaining to Do: Why would the deputy attorney general help Trump fire the FBI director, then investigate the president for doing so?

But even if the juiciest details of McCabe’s account cannot be verified, this case still raises important questions about the circumstances that led to the Mueller appointment. As McCabe tells it, Rosenstein effectively counseled Trump about how to fire Comey — and then took part in frantic meetings to discuss the crisis created by Comey’s firing.
... 
Thankfully, Congress will be holding hearings on this matter. Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said as much over the weekend. The committee should give Rosenstein an opportunity to explain himself. 
Beyond that, it should also ask how the FBI came to see itself as the arbiter of what is in the national security interest of the U.S.

Beyond this conundrum, there's also the obvious question that has troubled us all along. Before taking the momentous step of siccing a Special Counsel on an infant presidential administration, what steps did Rosenstein take to ensure that the allegations that formed the basis of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation were anything more than a opposition political narrative funded by the Clinton campaign and implemented by partisan hacks? In other words, a hoax? As Trey Gowdy indicates, and as we expanded upon earlier today, it has always been clear that Crossfire Hurricane was opened on the basis of the infamous Steele "dossier," a farrago of nonsense and outright lies. Did Rosenstein conduct any due diligence into that? Or how about this: Did Rosenstein pay any attention at all to the FISC report of Chief Judge Rosemary Collyer (also discussed earlier today)? That was a huge deal, and it had to do directly with the whole Russia Hoax. What was Rosenstein thinking about when he renewed the Carter Page FISA? Lots of questions. We the people could use some answers.

7 comments:

  1. First, Rosenstein is highly intelligent. No one gets to be in that position who isn't both highly intelligent and politically savvy. All of the incongruous actions described above can be explained by the evidence currently available. The Deep State did not want Trump to be elected nor continue in office post election. Everything about the Russia hoax was in furtherance of an attempted coup intended to remove him from office by any means necessary. Sessions recusal was orchestrated in order to permit Rosenstein to assume control of DOJ, which is a vital necessity for furthering the aims of the coup. He was not and is not a neutral party (e.g. see numerous conflicts of interest). And you can't pursue a coup by half measures.

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    1. My assumption re Sessions is that he looked on the AG position as a kind of retirement gig--a nice closing line to his CV. His plan all along was probably to have his Deputy do most of the heavy lifting. So the question becomes, Who got Sessions to go with Rosenstein as Deputy? As I've suggested before, I believe that it could have been any number of NeverTrumpers--both Dem and GOP--and that Sessions entered into a corrupt deal to get the AG gig: confirmation in return for a promise of recusal and Rosenstein as the Deputy who would step into his shoes.

      Compare that to Barr, who flatly refused any deals--at least in the confirmation hearings, and certainly to all appearances. He will be AG in full.

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    1. That reads like a wish list of questions for Barr to ask--reasonable and plausible. Those are also the necessary questions to ask to justify a thorough investigation of the Deep State--if there are no reasonable answers you have reasonable grounds to investigate, only this time with full GJ powers and full support of the AG.

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  3. I think that QAnon is Eric Trump, acting with the approval and occasional cooperation of his father, President Donald Trump.

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    1. In the nature of things I suppose we'll never have hard confirmation.

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  4. Here's a blog that may be of interest: Sure Feels Like The Walls Are Closing In.

    The blogger is idiosyncratic but he brings an unusual perspective--financial analyst--to his table: religious politics. One of his themes is the way international politics, including the Vatican, are controlled by globalist elites, especially the Soros organization. He believes that their finances are endangered and that this could lead to a collapse of their venture. In this post he presents prognostications re Euro "populists" on the verge of making big gains in the Euro "parliament" and explains the dynamics involved.

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