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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Disgraced FBI official Peter Strzok may ignore a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees next Tuesday. Strzok’s attorney, Aitan Goelman, was questioned by CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday evening and said his client might not comply.

Goelman:  My client will testify … soon. Somewhere, sometime. We just got this subpoena today, so I don’t know whether we are going to be testifying next Tuesday in front of these two particular House sub-committees.

Cuomo:  Why isn’t it an automatic yes, Aitan?

Goelman:  Because we’ve been forced to come to the conclusion that this is not a search for truth. It is a chance for Republican members of the House to preen and posture before their most radical, conspiracy-minded constituents.

You can almost hear Bill Clinton uttering those words. Imagine President Trump’s reaction to hearing that statement. And, we are left to wonder how in the world Goelman could say that with a straight face.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) also spoke to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. Schiff has been somewhat quiet since the release of the dueling House Intelligence Committee memos in February. We wish he had stayed that way. He calls Republican Reps. Trey Gowdy (SC), Devin Nunes (CA), Mark Meadows (NC) and Jim Jordan (OH) the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

Schiff:  Sadly, here we have all too many members of Congress willing to prostrate themselves before the executive and give him anything he wants.

He was asked by Blitzer to name names:

Schiff:  The four horsemen of this apocalypse have been Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan. They have been leading the charge requiring the Justice Department to give them the materials that can be leaked or fed or misrepresented, like the infamous Nunes memorandum, in the service of the President.

Nothing is as it seems. Are we in Wonderland?

(Video, including both Goelman’s and Schiff’s remarks below.)

As I read through posts I’d written in January and February, it struck me that not much has changed. Although there have been several significant revelations over the last few months, the case that should have been wrapped up so as not to interfere with the midterm elections, shows no signs of ending. In fact, it was reported on Thursday that Mueller added more investigators to his team.

The Hill’s report:

Officials added that this could be a sign that Mueller is prepared to step away from the probe and leave it in the hands of a larger team of prosecutors, officials said.

Mueller’s team, currently composed of 17 federal prosecutors, is handling a large amount of casework associated with the yearlong investigation into Russian meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

More money is being directed toward the Justice Department’s permanent investigations rather than Mueller’s temporary probe, according to recent expense statements.

Mueller’s team spent $7.7 million from May 2017 through March. The Justice Department has spent $9 million through the same time frame.

The Washington Post reported late last month that several additional Mueller team members were specifically assigned to the indictments of 13 Russian nationals.

Those cases are expected to continue long after the probe into Trump campaign collusion is finished, according to the report.

So, the Mueller investigation grinds on. Public approval for it has waned. A recent poll showed that approval has dropped from 48% in March to 41% in June. And Alan Dershowitz reminded us this poll was taken before the Department of Justice IG report was released which was highly critical of, although not necessarily incriminating, to DOJ and FBI officials.

Isn’t it time for the American people to receive a progress report on this probe? After all, taxpayers are footing the bill. How long will it continue? We understand that Mueller wants to deal with the indictments of the Russian nationals and other peripheral individuals, but we need answers to the most important questions of all.

Has the portion of the case relating to Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russians been resolved?

If they cannot, or more likely will not, answer that question, can we at the very least, gain some assurance that Mueller won’t deliver an “October surprise” in the form of a damning report on the President?