Coming Soon – Loyalty Oaths!
Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley are doing their bit to protect Donald Trump and find some way to derail the Mueller investigation. Today, they sent a letter to the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General inquiring about the possible political bias of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for their apparently anti-Trump text messages to each other. Strzok worked on the Clinton email investigation and subsequently on the current investigation of Trump under Robert Mueller, who fired Strzok immediately after these texts surfaced.
Johnson and Grassley are also inquiring whether the two have been reported to the Office of Special Counsel for potential Hatch Act violations and, more disturbingly, whether the Inspector General has uncovered any more instances of political bias in its ongoing investigation of the actions of the DOJ during the 2016 election. This effort is designed to not only derail Mueller but also discredit Comey who, although arguably the most important reason for Trump’s election with his own violations of the Hatch Act regarding Hillary’s email, is now an important witness against the man he effectively installed as President.
Also today, Representative Louie Gohmert, admittedly perennially rated on of the dumbest and obnoxious people in Congress, essentially grilled FBI Director Wray about the loyalties of specific members of the FBI, including Deputy Director Andrew McCabe whose wife is a Democrat and was a supporter of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. Gohmert asked the Director, “As you’re aware, Deputy Director [Andrew] McCabe was involved in a number of cases that have been highly controversial due to his political leanings…Do you know of any other senior FBI executives that were aligned with McCabe’s political views?” He then followed up that question by asking “Let me ask you about specific executives, some of whom have been promoted by McCabe, within the last few years. Are you aware of any of the following people openly aligning themselves with the political bias expressed by McCabe or openly speaking against this administration?” Gohmert then went through a list of five FBI employees that he essentially accused of being biased against Trump. Wray denied each one of Gohmert’s insinuations.
As one outraged former FBI agent said, “We’ve never had ‘political tests’ for civil servants.” Gohmert’s accusations take us right back to the McCarthy era. Can Loyalty oaths be far behind with this administration.
Both these lines of attack are simply designed to attack the independence of the FBI and the credibility and impartiality of the Mueller investigation. Fox News has been raging against the Mueller investigation for weeks and recently escalated the rhetoric by calling it “illegitimate and corrupt.” All this is designed to smear both Mueller and Comey and lay the groundwork for Trump’s firing Mueller if he chooses to take that route.
