General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsManchin voted to confirm Benczkowski. Of course.
The dirtbag sonofabitch is in now and can go to work running interference and being a mole for Trump in re: Mueller investigation.
Who this is and why this is bad. REALLY bad: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-this-trump-nominee-interfere-with-mueller/2018/03/22/33f346a8-2e13-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html
The nominee is Brian Benczkowski, who served as head of the Trump transition team at Justice and was staff director of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Sessions was the ranking Republican. Supporters praise his performance in the George W. Bush administration. Ive never seen Brian do anything unethical, nor do I think that he ever would, says Michael Mukasey, who made Benczkowski his chief of staff when he was Bushs attorney general.
Critics fault Benczkowski for his 2017 legal representation of Alfa Bank, a Russian financial giant that has prospered under the Putin government, after he helped run the Trump transition operation. News reports in 2016 had explored the banks possible computer communications with Trump Tower, but Benczkowski told senators that two independent investigations later found no connection between the bank and the Trump Organization.
Benczkowski now says he wouldnt have taken Alfa Bank as a client had he anticipated his nomination to head the Criminal Division. But when asked by the Judiciary Committee if he would recuse himself from the Russia investigation because of the Alfa connection, he answered: I cannot commit to such a recusal at this time.
Benczkowski also told senators that in a December 2016 conversation with Sessions, he had criticized mistakes by James B. Comey, then FBI director, in handling the Hillary Clinton email investigation, converting his role as FBI director into that of a prosecutor. . . . This was one of the rationales Trump initially gave for firing Comey last May.
The leading skeptic about Benczkowskis nomination is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a Judiciary Committee member who voted against Benczkowski in the 11-to-10 party-line vote that sent his nomination to the floor in January. Whitehouse, a former U.S. attorney, worries that as Criminal Division chief, Benczkowski could have a window on the Mueller investigation.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,267 posts)either criminal or civil. Even aside from his evident conflict of interest, how could he possibly considered even minimally qualified for the job?
CousinIT
(9,151 posts)And possibly to take Rosenstein's place when Trump fires him.
aquamarina
(1,865 posts)to not get a job in this administration. I am thunderstruck over the complete capitulation of the republican party to their oath of fidelity to this country. I am literally speechless. I guess absolute power does corrupt absolutely. !!
Never tried a single case in his entire legal career!
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)LenaBaby61
(6,965 posts)IF you're speaking about Old Joe, it has something to do with him being a Dem Senator in West Virginia instead of a RETHUG or something like that
Ilsa
(61,675 posts)I've been praying a lot lately for certain people to get struck by lightning, eat a salad with E.coli, etc., to save our nation.
bdtrppr6
(796 posts)a piece of shit. fake D, probably involved in the Buy Out of the USA currently evolving. always on the wrong side.
the end is coming hard and fast. get used to it.
CousinIT
(9,151 posts)octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Mueller investigation.