House Republicans Engaged In Obstruction, Collusion With Trump

If any reasonable American needed further proof of the existential necessity of a Democratic House of Representatives, here are today's prime exhibits:

Two of President Trump’s top legislative allies met with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein this week to press him for more documents about the conduct of law enforcement officials involved in the Russia probe and the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server, according to three people who were not authorized to speak publicly about the discussion. 

Rosenstein’s meeting at his office Monday with Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) came days after Meadows, an influential Trump confidant, warned Rosenstein that he could soon face impeachment proceedings or an effort to hold him in contempt of Congress if he did not satisfy GOP demands for documents. 

Trump and Meadows spoke at some point after the meeting, the three people said, but they declined to share details of the exchange. (our emphasis)

That's Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan, two of the ultra far- right "Freedom Caucus" effluvia washed into Congress over the past decade, who also like to vote against raising the debt ceiling and for shutting down the government. In other words, the worst of the worst.

But wait, there's more:

On Wednesday evening, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) served notice to the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), that he intended to issue a subpoena for Comey’s memos, which have been turned over to Mueller. 

Nadler, noting that the memos were part of the special counsel investigation and likely could not be handed over to Congress, accused Goodlatte of seeking to create “an excuse” to hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress. That possible motive, he added, might give the president “the pretext he has sought to replace Mr. Rosenstein with someone willing to do his bidding and end the special counsel’s investigation.” 

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Washington refused to order the public disclosure of Comey’s memos in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by media organizations. The Justice Department has said the release would interfere with Mueller’s investigation.

The treasonous bastards are pulling out all the stops to get Rosenstein.

But wait, there's still more:

Eleven House Republicans — Ron DeSantis, Andy Biggs, Dave Brat, Jeff Duncan, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Andy Harris, Jody Hice, Todd Rokita, Claudia Tenney, and Ted Yoho — have signed a joint letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for the criminal prosecution of Hillary Clinton and a variety of other Obama administration appointees, career FBI officials, and even Trump appointee Dana Boente, who is currently the FBI’s general counsel. 

The lead of the letter states that the authors are “especially mindful of the dissimilar degrees of zealousness that has marked the investigations into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, respectively.” 

This upholds a core principle of the rule of law:  for every lying, treasonous, criminal member of your party being investigated, cook up bogus "crimes" for which you can prosecute your political enemies, for balance!  Hey, it's working for Mother Russia!

BONUS: Norman Ornstein --

The number of House Republicans carrying Putin’s water keeps growing https://t.co/3zFc2WaQSP

— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) April 19, 2018

Remembering Republican Crime Coverups - The Iran-Contra Pardons

We were reminded by commenter K (in comments to Sunday's post about the possible end stage of the regime of malignant nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump) of another instance when a Republican president covered up crimes and short- circuited the legal process: former President George H.W. Bush's 1992 pardons of Iran- Contra scandal figures.

Very briefly, the Iran- Contra scandal involved Reagan Administration officials who were secretly facilitating the sale of arms to Iran (which was under a U.S. arms embargo) in order to fund the right- wing Contras militia in Nicaragua (which was prohibited by the Boland Amendment). A number of high- ranking Reagan Administration officials ended up being indicted, the most prominent of whom was Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.  But, then this happened after Bush was defeated for re- election and before he scurried out of the White House:

On December 24, 1992, President George H.W. Bush granted pardons to six defendants in the Iran-Contra Affairs. The defendants were Elliott Abrams, a former assistant secretary of state for Central America; former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane; former CIA officials Duane Clarridge, Alan Fiers, and Clair George; and former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. 

Prior to these pardons, Abrams had pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges leading to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service; McFarlane pleaded guilty to one felony charge and received two years of probation; Fiers pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was given one year of probation and 100 hours community service; and George had been found guilty of two felony charges but had not yet been sentenced. 

However, Bush issued the pardons of Clarridge and Weinberger preemptively, a move reminiscent of President Gerald Ford’s pardon of his predecessor, Richard Nixon, following the Watergate scandal. According to the Independent Counsel, the pardon of an official as high-ranking as Weinberger, whose trial was scheduled to begin on January 5, 1993, raised questions as to what Bush might have hoped to conceal. Walsh had intended to call Bush as a witness in the trial, although Weinberger denied that any of his notes from meetings dealing with Iran-Contra contradicted past statements by Bush and former President Ronald Reagan. (our emphasis)

To think that Bush was not intimately involved in the scandal and cover- up is to beggar the imagination.  He was, after all, the foreign policy and intelligence pro who had served as Ambassador to the United Nations and as Director of the C.I.A. in a previous Republican administration.

In his defense of the pardons, Bush criticized the length of the investigation and its purported partisanship. In rebuttal, the person who brought the charges up on the Reagan officials, Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, stated in part:

President Bush's pardon of Caspar Weinberger and other Iran-Contra defendants undermines the principle that no man is above the law. It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office--deliberately abusing the public trust--without consequence. [snip]

... Weinberger's notes contain evidence of a conspiracy among the highest-ranking Reagan Administration officials to lie to Congress and the American public. Because the notes were withheld from investigators for years, many of the leads were impossible to follow, key witnesses had purportedly forgotten what was said and done, and statutes of limitation had expired. 

Weinberger's concealment of notes is part of a disturbing pattern of deception and obstruction that permeated the highest levels of the Reagan and Bush administrations. This office was informed only within the past two weeks, on December 11, 1992, that President Bush had failed to produce to investigators his own highly relevant contemporaneous notes, despite repeated requests for such documents. The production of these notes is still ongoing and will lead to appropriate action. 

In light of President Bush's own misconduct, we are gravely concerned about his decision to pardon others who lied to Congress and obstructed official investigations. (our emphasis)

So, it's helpful to note that this on- going Republican pattern of undermining the law to cover- up their crimes has been foreshadowed not only by the likes of Richard Nixon, but also by the more "benign" figure of George H.W. Bush. Now, we have Rump already exercising his pardon authority, signaling his crime family that they "can commit serious crimes in high office--deliberately abusing the public trust--without consequence," ultimately in an attempt to shield himself from the Special Counsel's probe.  But, as some have pointed out, law enforcement may have other options this time around.

BONUS:  Green Eagle remembers two other Republican presidential candidates prior to Rump who conspired with foreign governments to influence our elections (found via Crooks & Liars).