Rep. Adam Schiff had a few words for the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee going after Rod Rosenstein. Namely, "You're not fooling anyone." Wolf Blitzer asked him what he thought they were trying to accomplish with these hearings, putting intense pressure on Rosenstein about, of all things, information about the Hillary Clinton investigation. Schiff, per usual, told it like it was.
Well, Wolf, this is a show, being put on for the president's benefit. This is collaboration with Executive masquerading as oversight. If you're going to call this oversight at all, it's the most obsequious kind of oversight that says, "We will do anything at all that we can in the service of the president." They gave the president an excuse for firing one of them, Rod Rosenstein so they can alter the course of the Mueller investigation. But make no mistake, they will continue asking for documents in the pending investigation, something the president has no right to, so they can be fed either directly or indirectly to the president's legal defense team. This is what Rudy Giuliani has made so clear. It is his expectation. But more than that, they're interested in a fight with the justice department to give this president a pretext to take action against Rod Rosenstein.
So they're performing for the Tangerine Tyrant, and trying to give him just cause to fire Rosenstein to alter the course of Mueller's investigation. They will do anything - ANYTHING - to lick this president's boots. When Blitzer asked Schiff if he was interested in naming names, he hadn't even finished the sentence before Schiff began talking...
The Four Horsemen of this Apocalypse have been Trey Gowdy, Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows, and Jim Jordan. They've been leading the charge basically to require the Justice Department to give them materials that can be leaked or fed or misrepresented, like the infamous Nunes memorandum, in the service of the president. And in the meantime, they do enormous damage to these institutions. Ultimately, they'll be held accountable. I think when this chapter of history is written it will condemn the president in the strongest terms, but it will also condemn this Congress and these architects. for undermining our system of checks and balances.
Blitzer then brought up the Russia investigation itself, and why Trump seems so eager to disregard his own intelligence officials' conclusions in favor of Putin's claims he is innocent of interference. I have to admit, I'm starting to really hate when journalists ask this question, because it is so bleeding obvious to anyone with a brain that why Trump would capitulate to Putin, but Schiff answered the question straight and strong.
1. Love of authoritarians. Especially Putin.
2. Strong Evidence of Money Laundering.
And the Republicans in Congress won't even LET THEM INVESTIGATE the allegations of money laundering. Despite all the evidence. But this is just another day in the United Slide into Authoritarianism under trump. So, it's all falling on Mueller.
SCHIFF: I don't know. It certainly may be in part due to this bizarre admiration or fascination he has with authoritarian figures, but there is a particular affinity for Vladimir Putin. And one of the things that I think need to be investigated by the Special Counsel, by the Congress is whether the Russians were laundering money through the Trump Organization. This is leverage they're applying to the president of the United States. That would be far more compromising in my view than any salacious activity.
BLITZER: Have you seen any evidence of that?
SCHIFF: We've certainly heard testimony about the indicia of money laundering, enough to raise credible allegations that need to be investigated. Indeed, where we had allegations before of secret Trump associate meetings with the Russians, when we did look into them, they proved to be all too true. This allegation we were not allowed to investigate by the Republicans. I hope Mueller is doing it. If not, it needs to be done. I think it's negligent for us not to know the answer.
