|
Rosenstein on hot seat as parties allege FBI bias
 [The Hill] Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be on the hot seat Wednesday over alleged political bias in the Justice Department ‐ and in a twist, he’ll be hearing it from both sides of the aisle.Rosenstein is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee’s oversight panel at a time when both Republicans and Democrats are insisting that the personal leanings of FBI personnel have unfairly tilted the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email server and the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has said he is "troubled" by the staff assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, citing a senior intelligence agent, Peter Strzok, who was reassigned from Mueller’s team for sending allegedly anti-Trump texts. Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), is demanding that the Justice Department turn over documents that he says could reveal "politically-motivated misconduct" at the bureau designed to damage Clinton in the election ‐ including alleged leaks to media organizations. Rosenstein is the senior Justice Department official in charge of the Russia probe due to Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself. After taking over the investigation, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel. Goodlatte and other Republicans are calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate the handling of the FBI’s decisionmaking in the Clinton probe ‐ and Rosenstein will likely face pressure on that point on Wednesday. Republicans have long argued that Clinton received kid-glove treatment from the Obama Justice Department, and now are using reports of the reassigned intelligence agent to argue that the investigation into Russia’s election meddling is a politically motivated "witch hunt" against President Trump. Posted by: Besoeker 2017-12-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=503616 |