The Trump administration is having a lot of fun now that the pressure is off following the results of the two-year investigation into Russia collusion. Earlier today, Attorney General William Barr gave House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) an idea of what he thought of her thinly-veiled threat to have him arrested.
Per another bystander, @SpeakerPelosi "not missing a beat, smiled and indicated to the Attorney General that the House Sergeant at Arms was present at the ceremony should an arrest be necessary."
Barr apparently laughed & walked away. https://t.co/DBk4gdqNfv
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) May 15, 2019
Now comes news the White House — albeit striking a more serious tone — told House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) they send their deepest regrets, but they won’t be able to provide him with documents to aid his committee’s investigation into potential obstruction (ok, they don’t say that at all, but they may as well have, and delivered it with a LOT of sarcasm).
Pat Cipollone the White House Counsel sent a letter to Rep. Jerry Nadler the Chairman of House Judiciary Committee arguing that his request for documents was illegitimate.
“It appears that the Committee’s inquiry is designed, not to further a legitimate legislative purpose, but rather to conduct a pseudo law enforcement investigation on matters that were already the subject of the Special Counsel’s long-running investigation and are outside the constitutional authority of the legislative branch,” Cipollone wrote.
“Congressional investigations are intended to obtain information to aid in evaluating potential legislation, not to harass political opponents or to pursue an unauthorized ‘do-over’ of exhaustive law enforcement investigations conducted by the Department of Justice,” he added.
Nadler’s excuse for the investigation into obstruction of a crime that never happened is as follows:
“Over the last several years, President Trump has evaded accountability for his near-daily attacks on our basic legal, ethical, and constitutional rules and norms,” Nadler said in March in a release announcing the investigation. “Investigating these threats to the rule of law is an obligation of Congress and a core function of the House Judiciary Committee. We have seen the damage done to our democratic institutions in the two years that the Congress refused to conduct responsible oversight. Congress must provide a check on abuses of power. Equally, we must protect and respect the work of Special Counsel Mueller, but we cannot rely on others to do the investigative work for us. Our work is even more urgent after senior Justice Department officials have suggested that they may conceal the work of the Special Counsel’s investigation from the public.
“We have sent these document requests in order to begin building the public record.”
Now that the White House has basically called Nadler out for continuing the harassment begun by the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign using dubious methods and evidence, the Chairman has vowed — like a vengeful ex-lover — not to let it go.
Nadler responded to the latest Trump administration rejection by accusing the White House of “claiming that the President is a king.”“No President, no person in the United States is above the law. This is preposterous,” Nadler told CNN. “They are saying we should end the investigation. We are not ending the investigation. If we were to agree to that, then no president would ever be subject to any kind of investigation for misconduct of any type.”
That last line is something else. Apparently Nadler believes unless the Trump administration gives in to the harassment, no one will ever be held accountable for anything ever again in the future history of the republic.
Exes can be so dramatic.
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