Sen. Grassley, Rep. Goodlatte Write Letter to Sessions and Deputy AG Rosenstein Demanding Special Counsel, Pointing Out DOJ's and FBI's Unavoidable Conflicts of Interest in "Investigating Themselves"

Um, yes. Obviously.

After acknowledging that of course they trust most of the DOJ's personnel...

Nevertheless, there are instances in which actual or potential conflict of interest exists or appears to exist, or there are matters in which the public good would be furthered, and an independent Special Counsel is warranted as the relevant Federal regulations provide.

We believe that, in the case of certain decisions made and not made by the Department of Justice and FBI in 2016 and 2017, both an actual conflict of interest exists and separately, but equally significantly, the public interest requires the appointment of a Special Counsel.

With respect to potential and actual conflicts of interests, decision made and not made by both the former and current Department of Justice and FBI officials have led to legitimate questions and concerns from the people we all serve. There is evidence of bias, trending towards animus, among those charged with investigating serious cases. There is evidence political opposition research was used in court filings. There is evidence this political opposition research was neither vetted before it was used nor fully revealed to the relevant tribunal. Questions have arisen with the FISA process and these questions and concerns threaten to impugn both public and congressional confidence in significant counterintelligence program processes and those charged with overseeing and implementing these counterintelligence processes.

Because the decisions of both former and current Department of Justice and FBI officials are at issue, we do not believe the Department of Justice is capable of investigating and evaluating these fact patterns in a fashion likely to garner public confidence. In addition, while we have confidence in the Inspector General for the Department of Justice, the DOJ IG does not have the authority to investigate other governmental entities or former employees of the Department, the Bureau, or other agencies.

If you can't question Clapper, Comey, Brennan, Yates, Rice and Powers all under subpoena and under penalty of perjury, then what is the fucking point?!

posted by Ace at 02:31 PM

| Access Comments