Rod Rosenstein copies Hillary’s defensive technique in the Senate - Andrea Widburg

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by Andrea Widburg

The drive-by media mostly ignored it, but some interesting things emerged from Rod Rosenstein’s testimony.

The media, having milked “Russia, Russia, Russia” for all it was worth, has moved on. It moved first to the Wuhan virus but, when that failed to destroy Trump, it fanned the flames of riot-happy leftists across America. Perhaps that’s why almost no one in the mainstream media has paid much attention to Rod Rosenstein’s testimony before the Senate.

Rod Rosenstein, as you recall, stepped into Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ shoes on the alleged Russia collusion when Sessions, a decent, if malleable soul, allowed the Democrats to bully him into recusing himself. Rosenstein was also the one who wrote the document recommending that Trump fire Comey, and then promptly used Comey’s firing to justify appointing Robert Mueller, who had a beef with Trump when Trump didn’t pick him as FBI director.

But wait! There’s more. Rosenstein didn’t constrain Mueller’s investigation into a sitting president; instead, he gave him an almost unlimited mandate. And if Sessions had to recuse himself for essentially saying “hello” to a Russian, why didn’t Rosenstein recuse himself when Comey’s firing, which Rosenstein engineered, was one of the issues Mueller and his team of rabid Democrats were investigating?

And then there are those FISA requests. You know, the ones that were filled with lies and were based on a dossier that the FBI knew was fake and knew that Hillary’s guys had bought and paid for. (By the way, did you ever notice that if you’re somewhat dyslexic, as I am, you keep typing FBI as FIB? It’s kind of Freudian, really.)

What the Republican Senators zeroed in on were Rosenstein’s signatures on the Carter Page spying requests. The most that Rosenstein would admit to being responsible for was maybe not reading the Carter Page FISA warrant renewal requests carefully enough. Hey, who needs to be attentive when stripping an American citizen of his rights? Even if, as some have noted, it was perjury under the Michael Flynn standard, he’s a Democrat ally, so he’ll walk.

Rosenstein readily agreed that he “feel[s] accountable.” That means that, when he appeared before Congress, he can take a page out of the Hillary Clinton playbook, by discounting any responsibility for his past wrongdoing, and just focusing on the future. This was Hillary when questioned about Benghazi:

With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night who decide to kill some Americans, what difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.

Rosenstein went for something a little simpler. “I think the issue is, ‘How do we fix the problem?’”

Bart Simpson said it best:



At PowerLine, John Hinderaker caught the inestimable Kayleigh McEnany summing up precisely what the press is so assiduously ignoring:

It’s a pretty grave thing to spy on an American citizen, to violate his Fourth Amendment rights, to not have a basis to do so, and to rely on a Russian dossier full of lies as the justification. So, it’s really astonishing to hear from [Rosenstein] that he’s not sure he read every page of that warrant. But, I suppose it’s encouraging to hear – with his 20/20 hindsight – that he wouldn’t have signed on it, though I’m sure that’s of no comfort to Carter Page.

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The President is dismayed. This happened to the President’s campaign. A Republican campaign was spied on by a Democratic presidency – a Democratic administration – based on a dossier paid for by his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the DNC. This is absolutely extraordinary. It is the biggest political scandal that we’ve seen and the lack of journalistic curiosity on this front is appalling.

A couple of other points about the hearing. First, Jonathan Turley made the excellent point that Hawaii’s Sen. Mazie Hirono (D), practically forced Rosenstein to insist that Trump neither obstructed justice nor committed a crime:

I am switching over to the blog now for any running commentary on the hearing. https://t.co/HtEwsnleVa

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 3, 2020

Second, Ted Cruz roasted Rosenstein. He pointed out all the illegal and politized conduct that took place on Rosenstein's watch. And then Cruz accused Rosenstein of being either a crook or a useless piece of bureaucratic refuse (although Cruz said it more gracefully):

“You came into a profoundly politicized world, and yet all of this was allowed to go forward under your leadership that unfortunately leads to only two possible conclusions,” Cruz told Rosenstein during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. “Either that you were complicit in the wrongdoing, which I don’t believe was the case, or that your performance of your duties was grossly negligent.

Andrea Widburg

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/rod_rosenstein_copies_hillarys_defensive_technique_in_the_senate.html

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