… from Press TV, Tehran
[ Editor’s Note: This had been expected. Now Sessions can begin working on his book full time for the 2020 election. We probably won’t be hearing much from him on the Mueller case, as he would not want to screw it up as a gift to Trump.
But I suspect that Mueller has kept his powder dry and is holding his cards until after the election when he would have the Democratic House investigative committees at his back.
I would not be surprised to see Mueller announce his investigation findings soon. You will read below the expected move to cut off funding that is expected. The House Dems are going to have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year, and come back to work loaded for bear.
We should not automatically expect the Mueller news to be bad for Trump. He will not bring a weak case if he does not have the juice behind it.
Influencing political powers in Washington is an industrial business, but most people sign up as lobbyists. The biggest exception to that is the Israelis of course, and no one says a word when their influencing the US government is like their national sport, with never a bad call.
Mueller did not accept taking on this investigation to be pushed around or be made a fool of by a bunch of cheap politicians. But with a Republican Congress, he had to be very careful.
That has all changed now. It is open season on Trump with the House investigation committees leading the charge, as they want to burn Trump down before 2020. Expect to see White House people leaving, trying to get out of the line of fire, not wanting get the piñata treatment by the House investigation committees.
Also, not mentioned at all so far is Trump’s big mistake in not filling more government positions. The Dems will be spotlighting the hacks that have been put over big budget departments to wreck them, wizzing away taxpayer money.
I can’t wait for Trump’s State of the Union fairy tale address in January. It should be a doozie … Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published … November 7, 2018 –
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him with Matthew Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff and a longtime critic of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States,” Trump said in a tweet.
“We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date,” he added.
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well….
A US official said on Wednesday that Sessions was told he had to resign in a telephone call from John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, rather than Trump himself.
Soon after Trump’s tweets, an undated letter to Kelly made the rounds, in which Sessions said, “At your [Trump’s] request I am submitting my resignation.”
Sessions, a longtime Alabama senator and one of the key elements behind Trump’s surprise election win in 2016, ran the Justice Department for nearly two years.
He was one of the earliest supporters of Trump’s campaign but enraged Trump by recusing himself in March 2017 from investigations into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Following his recusal, the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, took over responsibility for the investigations. Later in May 2017, Rosenstein shocked Trump by appointing former FBI chief Robert Mueller as a special counsel to investigate the Russia case.
Trump has publicly slammed Sessions for recusing himself, claiming he ought instead to have protected the president against the Russia probe, which Trump calls a “witch-hunt”.
While Sessions and Rosenstein defended Mueller’s integrity, acting attorney general Whitaker appears to be more in line with the president’s view.
Whitaker, 49, who will take charge of the Russia inquiry, has publicly proposed choking off funding for Mueller’s investigation.
With Whitaker taking the role of acting attorney general, Mueller will be reporting to Whitaker rather than Rosenstein for at least a short period of time.
Sessions’ sudden departure from the administration has left some House Democrats openly wondering whether President Trump is trying to disrupt Mueller.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who will likely be house speaker come January, accused Trump of making a blatant move to throw off Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
Nancy Pelosi
✔@NancyPelosi
It is impossible to read Attorney General Sessions’ firing as anything other than another blatant attempt by @realDonaldTrump to undermine & end Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation.
She also said Whitaker should recuse himself from Mueller’s investigation, as Sessions had done.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who is poised to become the next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the panel would be “holding people accountable” soon after a resignation was announced.
(((Rep. Nadler)))
✔@RepJerryNadler
Americans must have answers immediately as to the reasoning behind @realDonaldTrump removing Jeff Sessions from @TheJusticeDept. Why is the President making this change and who has authority over Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation? We will be holding people accountable.
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well….
Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a ranking member of House Intelligence Committee, also weighed in on Sessions’ departure, saying that Trump “wants an Attorney General to serve his interest, not the public.”
“Mueller’s investigation and the independence of the DOJ must be protected. Whitaker and any nominee must commit to doing both. We will protect the rule of law.”
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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I also have to wonder if the investigation into racketeering by the Catholic Church has anything to do with this. It certainly is not what would appear to be the obvious, but it also is a historic first and would be the biggest investigation in US history with potential to take years, and nearly completely destroy the political power of Catholicism. It also may well lead to re-examination of the Johnson amendment.
So Basically ” Israel ” is A Must ,,,,,,, means You just have to Accept Israel and You Must Love Israel ………. Basically Israel says ” WE Know that WE are @ssh@les But You have got to Love US Or WE will Harass You Dead so Please Love US so that WE don’t Harass You “
It seems cold to fire “The Silent Assassin” after he stirred up the beehive of pedophiles that are known to bring terror to a softball game.
I would have preferred Jeff Sessions demotion and specialization to immigration, pedophiles, and administration.
Demorats next year will spin their wheels and do nothing. The Senate is in the hands of the Pugs which guarantees what demorats do well, obstruction.
There are some out there questioning the legality of Whitaker’s appointment so this might be of interest from Andrew McCarthy wrote at the National Review:
“Matthew Whitaker joined the Trump Justice Department as Sessions’s chief of staff in October 2017. The date is relevant. The president has named him as acting attorney general under the Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (the relevant provisions are codified at Sections 3345 and 3346 of Title 5, U.S. Code). There has been some commentary suggesting that because Whitaker was in a job (chief of staff) that did not require Senate confirmation, he could not become the “acting officer” in a position (AG) that calls for Senate confirmation. Not so. The Vacancies Act enables the president to name an acting officer, who may serve as such for 210 days, as long as the person named has been working at the agency or department for at least 90 days in a fairly high-ranking position. Whitaker qualifies.”
The emoluments case is moving to discovery. Ways and Means will subpoena the tax documents. 2 indicted felons won their elections. Now 3 days in the belly of the whale. Lots of important communications have been made.
and… ‘Operation Faithful Patriot” has been removed as the name of the op, and it has been changed to
‘border support” ,.. the obvious “dominionist” connotations of Faithful Patriot was meant to rouse the fearful and disillusioned in the most politically / religiously charged military op I can remember.
How many lawyers are there in our “Justice Dept.”? 100, 1000, 10,000 or more? These numbers are a carefully guarded secret. (file a freedom of information request and wait for years for redacted pages of nothing). When is an AG going to investigate the conflicts of interest of dual citizens with Israel serving in Congress? Or when are they going to investigate Israel having done the attack on the towers 9/11/01 aided by Bush, Cheney and the four star generals? What if Sessions had convened grand juries on these issues? What would Israel Lover Trump have done to him then? You can think of many more things to be investigated like why the many organizations promoting Israel are not required to register as foreign agents and so on.
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