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Trump Forced DOJ to Open an Investigation Into Hillary Clinton. After 2 Years It’s Ending, Finding Nothing. What Now?

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Once Again Clinton Is Cleared. Once Again No One Seems to Notice. And Once Again There Will Be No Apologies.

It was October 9, 2016. Candidate Donald Trump  at the second presidential debate promised – and threatened – Hillary Clinton that if he became president she would go to prison.

“It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” a grinning Secretary Clinton on stage told the audience.

“Because you’d be in jail,” a grimacing Trump gloated.

It was such a stunning moment, a gut punch to American democracy and presidential politics. We don’t investigate our political opponents and presidents don’t promise – or threaten – to lock them up.

It was cheered by the far right, and to this day extremists celebrate the anniversary of those horrific words.

One month later to the day, in the wee hours of the morning, the news networks would call the election for Trump, despite Clinton winning the popular election by nearly three million more votes.

Less than one year in to office, President Donald Trump used the power of social media to lie repeatedly about his former political opponent, and forced his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to open an investigation into Clinton.

There were no grounds. She had been investigated before by the FBI and cleared. She had been investigated before by Congress multiple times and cleared. She had sat before Congress for 11 hours in a sham Benghazi hearing (one of many sham Benghazi investigations by Republicans on Capitol Hill), and even the top Republican announced at the end of that grueling day – during which Clinton performed, some said brilliantly – that they had learned nothing new.

Sessions’ investigation cast a big net, as The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Attorney General Sessions directed John Huber, the U.S. attorney in Utah, in November of 2017 to, as the Post details, review “a wide array of issues related to Clinton. They included the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One matters, along with the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and alleged leaks by former FBI director James B. Comey.”

“Your recommendations should include whether any matters not currently under investigation warrants the opening of an investigation, whether any matters currently under investigation require further resources or further investigation, and whether any matters would merit the appointment of a Special Counsel,” Sessions told Huber.

More than two years later the investigation is concluding.

It has found nothing – ending “with no tangible results,” the Post notes, because there was never any “there” there.

Both current and former “law enforcement officials said they never expected the effort to produce much of anything.”

The cost to taxpayers is unknown.

The cost to Clinton’s reputation can be guessed, given also that the investigation is ending in silence.

There will be no FBI Director holding a press conference clearing Clinton. There will be no Attorney General apologizing. There will be nothing but yet another failed attack on Hillary Clinton, millions more of the taxpayers’ dollars taken from the Treasury’s coffers, all to prop up an actual political witch hunt and conspiracy theories that have made Republicans and the conservative media rich.

The beneficiaries, of course, are President Trump and the GOP, who have raised countless fortunes from suckered voters certain that “Crooked Hillary,” as Trump has called her – on Twitter alone – 379 times, is guilty.

She is not.

What happens next?

Nothing.

 

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In Apparent Message, Trump Signs Surprise Pardon for Felon Convicted of Failing to Report Extortion and Bribery

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February 18, 2020

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President Donald Trump Tuesday morning unexpectedly signed a full pardon for a man who was convicted of not reporting extortion, a $400,000 bribe he paid to the now-former governor of Louisiana.

Former San Francisco 49ers co-owner Edward DeBartolo, Jr. received the pardon from President trump, who appears once again to be using his power to pardon as a means of sending a message to those who might testify against him. Trump was impeached for extortion of Ukraine.

Voice of America News White House bureau chief Steve Herman breaks the news:

“After striking a deal to provide evidence against former Gov. Edwin W. Edwards of Louisiana,” The New York Times reported in 1998, “Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., the co-owner of the San Francisco 49ers, pleaded guilty today to concealing an alleged extortion plot by Mr. Edwards that involved the licensing of a riverboat casino.”

Trump signed the pardon today after meeting with former NFL greats, who spoke in favor of DeBartolo.

 

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CNN Anchor Destroys Trump Trade Advisor’s False Claims After Showing Viewers Obama’s Numbers Were Better Than Trump’s

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February 18, 2020

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President Donald Trump’s Trade Advisor Peter Navarro had to take one for the team after delivering an especially partisan attack on the Obama economy because CNN anchor Poppy Harlow wasn’t having it.

Navarro repeatedly claimed the economy under President Barack Obama was “horrible,” even after Harlow posted numbers and charts that proved growth under the 44th president was far stronger than growth under Trump.

“It’s a great economy now. All I’m asking you is, wasn’t it a good economy then as well?” Harlow asked Navarro.

“No,” he insisted, launching in to a rant.

“Back in the Obama-Biden years it was horrible,” he claimed, all but ignoring the 2008 worldwide economic collapse that Obama inherited – while sneaking in the former vice president’s name in a particularly nasty partisan swipe, and possibly coming dangerously close to the crossing the line of the Hatch Act.

“It was a horrible economy during the Obama years,” he insisted, forcing Harlow to all but beg with him to listen to facts as she had the numbers put back up on the screen.

“Put your numbers up,” Navarro sneered.

“They’re not my numbers – these are from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Harlow told Navarro under Trump the economy has not seen one quarter with growth above 4%, but under Obama it happened four times. She also showed him that job growth under President Obama was 227,000 jobs per month on average for his last 36 months, but under President Trump’s first 36 months it’s just 191,000.

Navarro slammed Obama for having increased the debt. It’s increased far more under Trump.

Harlow reminded Navarro that Trump promised to eliminate the national debt if he was given two terms in office, yet the mosrt recent White House budget says that’s not going to happen.

“We still have five more years,” Navarro retorted.

Watch:

 

 

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Federal Judge Association Calls Emergency Meeting to Address Barr Intervention Into Trump Ally Roger Stone’s Case

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February 17, 2020

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An independent association of federal judges says it cannot wait for its annual conference and has called an emergency meeting to address Attorney General Bill Barr’s intervention into the case of Roger Stone, a top ally of President Donald Trump.

Tuesday’s meeting will “address growing concerns about the intervention of Justice Department officials and President Donald Trump in politically sensitive cases,” USA Today reports.

The head of the Federal Judges Association, says they nearly four-decades old organization “could not wait” for its Spring conference, given the gravity of the matter.

“There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about,” Rufe told USA TODAY. “We’ll talk all of this through.”

The Federal Judges Association has over 1000 members.

The emergency meeting being called comes as more than 2000 former Justice Dept. officials call for Attorney General Barr to resign. They say Barr has “openly and repeatedly flouted” the rule of law and must go.

“Although there are times when political leadership appropriately weighs in on individual prosecutions, it is unheard of for the department’s top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the president, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case,” the letter reads.

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