Exposing What The Government Wants To Hide
September 14, 2019 at 4:38 a.m.
By Gary [email protected]
He’s an ardent climate change denier. He’s pushed conspiracy theories about Seth Rich. He’s made alarmist claims about voter fraud. You know, the classic right-wing stuff.
At the same time, however, Judicial Watch has unearthed some pretty troubling government activity all the way back to the Bush administration. JW was instrumental in outing Vice President Dick Cheney’s Haliburton misbehavior, for example. During the Obama administration, JW unearthed the Fast & Furious scandal and the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS.
So while you have to take what Fitton says with a grain – or block – of salt, it doesn’t mean everything he says is bogus.
Here’s what he said this week:
“It is remarkable that Judicial Watch has done more to investigate the DOJ/FBI’s discussions about overthrowing President Trump than the DOJ or Congress. These documents essentially confirm the coup discussions about wearing a wire when speaking with President Trump and plans to remove him under the 25th Amendment.”
The “these documents” he’s referring to are 14 pages of records from the Department of Justice.
What JW does is file Freedom of Information Act requests. Then, when the government agency doesn’t respond, it files FOIA lawsuits. JW has about 50 employees, a number of whom are some of the top FOIA lawyers in the country. They get results.
They force government agencies to turn over things they’d rather hide from public scrutiny. I think that’s a good thing.
These latest 14 pages are a prime example.
Remember when there was a New York Times report about former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein potentially wearing a wire while talking to President Trump?
The NYT reported that there was a May 16, 2017, meeting of senior federal law enforcement officials during which Rosenstein offered to wear a “wire” to record his conversations with Trump. “He also said (Deputy FBI Director) McCabe could wear a wire,” the NYT reported.
The NYT also reported that “Rosenstein said that he may be able to get (then-Attorney General Jeff) Sessions and (Secretary of Defense John) Kelly to go along with the plan.”
But when other news agencies started asking about it, Rosenstein basically said he was joking around or that he was being sarcastic. He denied there was ever any talk of wearing a wire or invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president.
Well, OK, but the emails JW unearthed last week tell a different story.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg emailed Rosenstein to let him know a Washington Post reporter was asking questions about the New York Times report. Rosenstein responded: “Thanks! Hopefully we are being successful, and the reporters are having difficulty finding anybody to comment about things.”
In other words, they were telling everybody to keep quiet about it.
And DOJ Public Affairs officer Sarah Isgur Flores sent emails to White House Deputy Counsel Annie Donaldson and White House Communications Director Bill Shine, saying, “Boss calling Don (White House Counsel Don McGahn) re the below – if you think appropriate, share with Don. … We’ve sent a response from the DAG (Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein) that’s below and had someone in the room dispute the ‘wire’ part noting the dag was being sarcastic.”
Why did they have to “have someone in the room dispute the wire part,” if it was just a joke? You know why.
The “response” she mentioned in the email was this from Rosenstein: “The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect. I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: based on my personal dealings with the President, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”
Cleary, the NYT reporting was accurate or they wouldn’t have been working so hard to cover their tracks.
So what?
Well, it’s a little more than troubling to me that a cadre of government officials were plotting a coup to overthrow a duly elected president.
Don’t misunderstand. I get that President Donald Trump is a lunatic. But this kind of behavior by Justice Department officials is over the top.
The framers provided a way to remove a president from office. If Trump deserves to be impeached, so be it.
But I don’t care if you’re a liberal or conservative, Trump hater or Trump lover, you have to take a stand against this kind of behavior.
It subverts the basic underpinnings of our system of government.
He’s an ardent climate change denier. He’s pushed conspiracy theories about Seth Rich. He’s made alarmist claims about voter fraud. You know, the classic right-wing stuff.
At the same time, however, Judicial Watch has unearthed some pretty troubling government activity all the way back to the Bush administration. JW was instrumental in outing Vice President Dick Cheney’s Haliburton misbehavior, for example. During the Obama administration, JW unearthed the Fast & Furious scandal and the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS.
So while you have to take what Fitton says with a grain – or block – of salt, it doesn’t mean everything he says is bogus.
Here’s what he said this week:
“It is remarkable that Judicial Watch has done more to investigate the DOJ/FBI’s discussions about overthrowing President Trump than the DOJ or Congress. These documents essentially confirm the coup discussions about wearing a wire when speaking with President Trump and plans to remove him under the 25th Amendment.”
The “these documents” he’s referring to are 14 pages of records from the Department of Justice.
What JW does is file Freedom of Information Act requests. Then, when the government agency doesn’t respond, it files FOIA lawsuits. JW has about 50 employees, a number of whom are some of the top FOIA lawyers in the country. They get results.
They force government agencies to turn over things they’d rather hide from public scrutiny. I think that’s a good thing.
These latest 14 pages are a prime example.
Remember when there was a New York Times report about former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein potentially wearing a wire while talking to President Trump?
The NYT reported that there was a May 16, 2017, meeting of senior federal law enforcement officials during which Rosenstein offered to wear a “wire” to record his conversations with Trump. “He also said (Deputy FBI Director) McCabe could wear a wire,” the NYT reported.
The NYT also reported that “Rosenstein said that he may be able to get (then-Attorney General Jeff) Sessions and (Secretary of Defense John) Kelly to go along with the plan.”
But when other news agencies started asking about it, Rosenstein basically said he was joking around or that he was being sarcastic. He denied there was ever any talk of wearing a wire or invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president.
Well, OK, but the emails JW unearthed last week tell a different story.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg emailed Rosenstein to let him know a Washington Post reporter was asking questions about the New York Times report. Rosenstein responded: “Thanks! Hopefully we are being successful, and the reporters are having difficulty finding anybody to comment about things.”
In other words, they were telling everybody to keep quiet about it.
And DOJ Public Affairs officer Sarah Isgur Flores sent emails to White House Deputy Counsel Annie Donaldson and White House Communications Director Bill Shine, saying, “Boss calling Don (White House Counsel Don McGahn) re the below – if you think appropriate, share with Don. … We’ve sent a response from the DAG (Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein) that’s below and had someone in the room dispute the ‘wire’ part noting the dag was being sarcastic.”
Why did they have to “have someone in the room dispute the wire part,” if it was just a joke? You know why.
The “response” she mentioned in the email was this from Rosenstein: “The New York Times’s story is inaccurate and factually incorrect. I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda. But let me be clear about this: based on my personal dealings with the President, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.”
Cleary, the NYT reporting was accurate or they wouldn’t have been working so hard to cover their tracks.
So what?
Well, it’s a little more than troubling to me that a cadre of government officials were plotting a coup to overthrow a duly elected president.
Don’t misunderstand. I get that President Donald Trump is a lunatic. But this kind of behavior by Justice Department officials is over the top.
The framers provided a way to remove a president from office. If Trump deserves to be impeached, so be it.
But I don’t care if you’re a liberal or conservative, Trump hater or Trump lover, you have to take a stand against this kind of behavior.
It subverts the basic underpinnings of our system of government.
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