House investigates possible shadow operation in Trump justice department

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Judiciary committee want to know if officials violated policies in issuing secret subpoenas against congressional Democrats

The former attorney general Jeff Sessions, along with his successor William Barr, have denied knowledge of the subpoenas but congressional Democrats will look into whether their statements were misleading.

Hugo Lowell in Washington
Thu 24 Jun 2021 01.00 EDT

Top Democrats in the House are investigating whether Trump justice department officials ran an unlawful shadow operation to target political enemies of the former president to hunt down leaks of classified information, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The House judiciary committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, is centering his investigation on the apparent violation of internal policies by the justice department, when it issued subpoenas against Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell in 2018.

The use of subpoenas to secretly seize data from the two Democrats on the House intelligence committee – and fierce critics of Donald Trump – would ordinarily require authorization from the highest levels of the justice department and notably, the attorney general.

But with the former Trump attorneys general Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions denying any knowledge of the subpoenas, Democrats are focused on whether rogue officials abused the vast power of the federal government to target Trump’s perceived political opponents, the source said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/24/house-democrats-justice-department-shadow-operation-investigation

[sheshe2]

1. Well ya, they did.

Judiciary committee want to know if officials violated policies in issuing secret subpoenas against congressional Democrats

Investigate then lock them up!

[Blue Owl]

2. K&R for exposure

[ffr]

3. Some republicans should be going to prison for this

Heck, the whole lot of them have been playing loose with the legal system under the protection of crime boss T----. The DOJ should be purging the T---- cronies and getting down to business of cleaning up the GOP's crime syndicate.

[SheltieLover]

5. Absolutely!

Biggest threat to our democracy!

[SheltieLover]

4. Yes!

Finally! Not that our Dem leaders haven't been busy.

How about that little weasel Rosenstein?

[burrowowl]

6. Lock them up!

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Yes, that's it, a shadow operation, in many places I suspect. Rogue officials?

The public hierarchy gives covert operatives room to maneuver. There may yet be a Deep State, but this is an Orange Side State.

Stone, Manafort, KA Conway, McGahnn, Barr ... these are all connected in some way, drawn from the same extended network of self-dealers. Some date back to Nixon. He knew a thing or two about shadow operations.

Do I recall correctly, during the 2016 campaign, when news surfaced of Trump Winery in VA, was there a confirmed taped surveillance system? The news faded fast. Not sure if they didn't want the public to know, or if it was just so small as to be inconsequential. But what if such a system were linked to hotel guests in other businesses? Dunno, remains one of those extraneous thoughts.

Rogue officials? I'm thinking more in the line of "agent without portfolio" as they say in the espionage business. ' ... as always, Mr. Phelps, if you are caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim.'

[mopinko]

18. yes there was. also eavesdropping on tower phones.

and secret recordings.

[gab13by13]

8. Sorry, I can't remember where I heard this,

correct me if I'm wrong; Merrick Garland doesn't want to weed out the politicization of the the Justice department by MF45 because it would give the appearance of politicization.

[tetedur]

9. Didn't Barr issue an order that every "political" investigation had to be approved by him

sometime ago?

They deny knowledge? Wow, someone sure is going rogue or could it possibly be that Barr Lied?

[gab13by13]

10. Eye has not seen nor ear heard,

the depths of corruption left by the MF45 administration, not to mention 232 Nazi judges, or was it 323 judges?

[Lonestarblue]

11. Somebody signed those subpoenas. Who?

Either Barr is lying (as usual) or someone just below him issued subpoenas. They aren’t just anonymous documents.

[Raven123]

12. My thoughts as well.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. Clerks authorized to rubber stamp all such, or as comes from some other?

Will they try to pass this off as an 'honest' mistake? And the clerk had no idea the importance? And the request sought approval while head honchos had no knowledge. There. No one is responsible, everyone was doing their job.

[Wuddles440]

14. A clerk...

would never be permitted to "rubber stamp" a federal subpoena. They needed to be authorized by a DOJ official(s). While I suspect that any contemporaneous records of these events have probably been destroyed, Garland really needs to conduct a thorough internal investigation with a sense of urgency because there probably are participants of this operation still imbedded in his department.

[Ohio Joe]

15. Not just signed but one would think there is a date on them...

That should clearly show who was AG I believe.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

16. K&R

[wryter2000]

17. Once upon a time

There would have been consequences for this sort of thing. Ask Richard Nixon.