Hobbled Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions asked 50-year-old newly minted FBI Director Christopher Wray to clean house at the highest levels of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. Sessions recused himself March 2, 2017 from the Russian probe into alleged meddling and collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. Sessions denied having contact with Russia Jan. 10, 2017 at his confirmation hearings, only later shown to have at least two conversations with former Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak. Under pressure from Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, No. 2 man at the State Department, Sessions agreed, over objections from 71-year-old President Donald Trump, to recuse himself in the Russian probe. Looking back, there was no reason for Sessions to recuse himself for talking with Kislyak, a fixture in Washington political circles for over 20 years.
FBI’s routine wiretapping of Kislyak’s conversations with former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn uncovered Kislyak’s conversations with Sessions. No one listening to those conversations found anything inappropriate, other that the fact that sessions didn’t recall speaking with anyone Russian. When Sessions answered questions about his Russian contacts during his confirmation hearings, he was referring to anything substantive with foreign agents tied to the Kremlin, someone other that the party-going Russian ambassador. Why Sessions agreed to recuse himself or compromise his authority in the Russian probe in anyone’s guess. Had Sessions not recused himself, Rosenstein would have never appointed 72-year-old former FBI Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to investigate alleged Trump Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign.
When you consider that Rosenstein appointed Mueller Special Counsel May 17, 2017 only eight days after Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey May 9, 2017, the whole situation makes zero sense. Why would Rosenstein agree to a Special Counsel when Rosenstein justified Comey’s firing in a three-page detailed letter for breaching his duties during the Hillary Rodham Clinton email investigation? Rosenstein played both sides against the middle, namely the Justice Department against the FBI. News reports about FBI chief investigator Peter Strzok emailing Justice Dept. Atty. Lisa Page with whom he was allegedly having an affair about what must be done to stop a Donald Trump presidency raises eyebrows. Sessions wants to clean house, including ousting Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe who headed Hillary email probe, but the FBI’s entrenched bureaucracy wants to close ranks.
While Mueller took Strzok and Page off the Russian probe last summer, the investigation had been long compromised. When you think that Comey coordinated with former President Barack Obama’s Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch and National Security Advisor Susan Rice to use the Foreign Intelligence Sureillance Act [FISA] court to obtain warrants to wiretap Trump campaign officials, it leaves Constitutional scholars speechless. Abusing the FISA court for political purposes, to interfere with a presidential election, turns the rule of law on its head. Whatever happened in Watergate, it pales in comparison to the abuses of the FISA court to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign. Rosenstein excused press reports about Strzok’s behavior, insisting that Mueller was the right man for the job. Rosenstein’s current excuse-making about the FBI warrants his immediate termination.
Rosenstein can’t have it both ways: Firing Comey with cause, and at the same time, making excuses for rogue FBI agents like Strzok. “I’ve discussed with Director Mueller and . . . we recognize we have employees with political opinions. It’s our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence actions,” Rosenstein told the House Intelligence Committee. “He is running that office appropriately, recognizing that people have political views but ensuring that those views are not in any way a factor in how the conduct themselves in office,” said Rosenstein. If Strzok did nothing wrong, Mueller wouldn’t have removed him from the Russian investigation last summer. Rosenstein looks to cover up the worst FBI scandal in U.S. history. If a conspiracy inside the FBI coordinated with the Obama Justice Department and National Security Agency to wiretap Trump and associates, the public needs to know.
Sessions has every right as the head of the Justice Department to ask the FBI to clean house, especially with any whiff of impropriety. Only recently, the FBI concedes that it lost hundreds-if-not-thousands of Strzok’s text messages from Dec. 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017 to Lisa Page and other FBI or Justice Department officials. Newly minted FBI Director Christopher Wray reportedly threatened to resign if Session moves to fire Deputy. FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Wray insisted he’ll make his own personnel decisions as long as he’s director. Whatever happened with the FBI, Justice Department and National Security Agency, it’s high time the public found out. Strzok’s missing text messages strongly suggest a deliberate cover up, intended to shield the FBI from inappropriate, if not unlawful, conduct. Either Wray should cooperate fully with the Justice Department or step aside.
