Do we have a runaway Special Counsel?

Oct. 30, 2017

Permission to republish original op-eds and cartoons granted.

Do Mueller’s charges even have anything to do with the 2016 election? If not, he should resign.
If the charges being brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller do not have anything to do with the 2016 election, Russia hacks and Trump collusion — the thing he was supposed to be investigating — he should just resign and stop wasting everyone’s time.

Video: Obama’s zombie regulators
Why are there still Obama era zombie regulators Richard Cordray and Mel Watt in the Trump administration. It is time for President Trump to act and fire Cordray and Watt.

Don’t turn the omnibus into an amnesty bill
Republican leadership can’t help but be their own worst enemy. The Republican party has everything going its way; the coup attempt by the Democrats hasbeen exposed; the economy is improving in leaps andbounds, and the GOP is looking to pick up several Senate seats in the midterm elections. Enter "leadership.”

The Dossier Is Not Opposition Research
Americans for Limited Government Foundation President Don Todd: "Real political research is about issues that people care about not made up stories about bed peeing. Had I ever come up with such a document I am sure I would have summarily and rightfully fired.”

Daily Signal: Sessions Highlights 2 most Vital Liberties Justice Department Will Aim to Protect
"In particular, Sessions focused on two fundamental liberties—‘religious liberty and the freedom of speech’—that need to be protected. He called these the "very first freedoms the Founders put in the Bill of Rights, not by accident.”

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Do Mueller’s charges even have anything to do with the 2016 election? If not, he should resign.

 

By Robert Romano

By now you’ve received the "news” that the first charges have been filed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s supposed of hacking the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta and, with the Trump campaign’s assistance, putting those emails on Wikileaks.

Oh wait. Those are not going to be the charges?

No, apparently, the charges might — emphasis on might since nobody knows — relate to financial transactions dating back to 2012 and 2013, to $17 million of loans dating back to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s time as a political consultant in Ukraine.

Again, we don’t know. We’re only speculating based on the breathless reporting from CNN, Buzzfeed and others. But if that’s true, one has to ask. What about the 2016 election? What about the emails? Wikileaks? Collusion? No?

The fact that Mueller had to go back into time to find something else vaguely related to Russia — well, Ukraine does share a border with Russia, right? — should tell the establishment in Washington, D.C. what the rest of the political world already knows. That after a year of an FBI investigation and apparent surveillance by the former Obama administration of the Trump campaign and transition, carried through into the administration, there never was anything to the story about the Trump campaign coordinating any hack of the Democrats by Russia.

You can see their alibi shaping up, too. You see, Manafort had an ongoing investigation into his dealings in Ukraine dating back a decade when Trump hired him—which apparently wasn’t going anywhere—and then suddenly in 2016 it heated up again. Based on what new evidence, we wonder, besides the fact that Manafort was hired by Trump and subsequently appeared in the now-discredited Christopher Steele dossier?

What you have instead is a runaway special counsel in Mueller, whose apparent job was never to investigate a crime, but to find a crime — any crime would do — that could be pinned on former Trump campaign officials including Manafort.

That alone violates the spirit of the special counsel statute, who is only supposed to be appointed to do with a crime. Instead, as the National Review’s Andrew McCarthy has repeatedly noted, Mueller’s job was to head up the counterintelligence investigation into Trump world after former FBI Director James Comey was fired.

Who knows what other types of charges Mueller might find? But to the extent that they generally have little to nothing to do with the original allegations outlined in DNC funded reports by bothCrowdstrike — outlining the supposed hack — and Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele— outlining the supposed collusion — it is time for the Justice Department, Congress and everyone else inside the Beltway to question what the heck we even have a special counsel for.

Such a case as outlined by Buzzfeed and others shaping up against Manafort, if it has any merit at all, could have been handled by a regular U.S. Attorney. Since it reportedly deals with financial transactions dating back to 2012 and 2013, it does not even fit into the scope of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ original recusal, which took him off looking into anything related to the 2016 campaign.

Which takes us back full circle. If there are no charges forthcoming to do with conduct in the election, hacks in the election, collusion in the election and other nonsense, that should be the end of Mueller’s investigation. This is just a witch hunt to hurt people in Trump’s orbit, and having been exposed as a Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC-funded fraud, is now going back in time to find something, anything to charge somebody.

We’ll know soon what these allegations being brought by Mueller have to do with. But to the extent they have nothing to do with Russia hacking or Trump collusion, the pressure will mount for Mueller to resign. There was never probable cause for the investigation in the first place, just a political hit job by Clinton and company.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

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Video: Obama’s zombie regulators

 

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Don’t turn the omnibus into an amnesty bill

 

CartoonC/O Legalinsurrection.com

By Printus LeBlanc

Republican leadership can’t help but be its own worst enemy. The Republican Party has everything going its way. The coup attempt by the Democrats hasbeen exposed as a fraud. The economy is improving in leaps andbounds, and the GOP is looking to pick up several Senate seats in the midterm elections. Enter "leadership.”

When the House passed the omnibus bill on September 14, it addressed many of the immigration points the President ran on. The same immigration points the President won the election on.

Division Mof the bill is titled "Department of Homeland Security Border Infrastructure Construction Appropriation Act.” In it, $1.53 billionis appropriatedfor three sections of border fencing along Texas and California. There is also another $38 million appropriated for planning more border wall construction. It is not the full amount for the wall, but it funds part of the wall and

Sanctuary cities are also defunded. Division C is titled "Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations.” Section 554 of Division C states, "None of the funds made available by this Act under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program may be used in contravention of section 642 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.”

Division H is titled "Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.” Section 427 of division H states, "None of the funds made available by this Act maybe used in contravention of section 642(a) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1373(a)).”

Thisis a great start, it builds the wall and goes after a major problem attracting illegal immigrants and havens for illegal drug smuggling, but why does it seem like theRepublican leadership is waiving the white flag? For some unknown reason, two Republicans inleadership hinted at caving to liberal demands on immigration issues last week, despite controlling the House, Senate, and Presidency.

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) continued his push for amnesty. Recent reportsfrom a meeting with House conservatives revealed Ryan plans to include legislation legalizing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the upcoming spending deal. DACA is the program that allows illegal immigrants brought here as "children” to stay.

But gone is mention of the wall and defunding sanctuary cities. Nor is there any mention of including the RAISE Act that would end chain migration and move to a merit-based system.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) took E-verify off the negotiating table in a recent interview according to Politico. E-verify is the tool used to verify if someone is legally eligible to work in the country when applying for a job. Naturally, Democrats don’t want that because it will reduce the incentive for illegal immigrants to come here. Reduce, not eliminate. Why would the Cornyn give away one of the best tools to fight illegal immigration?

By putting DACA into a spending deal without getting at least the RAISE Act, border wall, and defunding of sanctuary cities the GOP leadership is setting themselves up for failure. By not putting E-verify in a spending deal, leadership is encouraging more illegal immigration. They are turning the upcoming spending vote into a vote on Amnesty.

How does the Speaker think this is going to play out in the primaries? Amnesty was passed before Obamacare repeal, tax reform, and border security. The ads write themselves.

The continual pushfor amnesty policies while failing to do anything else is showing the Republican base where the loyalty of GOP leadership lies.

Americans for Limited Government Vice President of Policy Robert Romano stated, "By sticking DACA amnesty on the budget, it makes it even more difficult for House Republicans to vote for, limiting what can be leveraged off of DACA, which bare minimum, should include passing the RAISE Act eliminating chain migration, defunding sanctuary cities to are allowing heroin to pour onto America’s streets, building the wall and beefing up the Border Patrol. DACA is the leverage, not the deal.”

Many fiscal conservatives went out on a limb to pass the omnibus spending bill. Putting amnesty in there would betray their trust and force them to vote against it.

Republican leadership must quit reading the 2012 RNC autopsy that recommended an amnesty approach in GOP legislation. It is the most worthless, inaccurate document ever produced by the RNC. President Trump did everything contrary to the autopsy report and won states the GOP had given upon. The voters sent you a clear message by sending President Trump to the White House and not one of the other amnesty candidates. You should listen to them.

Printus LeBlanc is a contributing editor for Americans for Limited Government

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Don Todd: The Dossier Is Not Opposition Research

Americans for Limited Government Foundation President Don Todd issued the following statement blasting the Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC-fundedFusion GPS-Christopher Steele dossier:

"I have been doing opposition research since 1978. My resume includes four Presidential campaigns, nearly one hundred Senatecampaigns and a few Governor races. I was the oppo team leader in all of them. I can say with absolute certainty the so-called dossier is not opposition research it is raw political sewage for which the idiot Democratsmay have paid over one hundred sixty thousand dollars a page.To call it oppo research is an insult to me and the many I have worked with over the years.

"Real political research is about issues that people care about not made up stories about bed peeing. Had I ever come up with such a document I am sure I would have summarily and rightfully fired.”

Get the full press release here.

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ALG Editor’s Note:In the following article from the Daily Signal, Jarrett Stepman describes a speech Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave at the Heritage Foundation this past Thursday:

Sessions Highlights 2 most Vital Liberties Justice Department Will Aim to Protect

By Jarrett Stepman

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke about the accomplishments of the Justice Department and its new direction in a speech at The Heritage Foundation on Thursday.

Sessions discussed the long tradition of the rule of law in America and how it has been so critical to our success as a nation. He called this tradition "unique and blessed,” and said if people don’t understand it, they are really missing something.

But there are challenges to the rule of law and our freedoms today that must be addressed, according to Sessions.

In particular, Sessions focused on two fundamental liberties—"religious liberty and the freedom of speech”—that need to be protected. He called these the "very first freedoms the Founders put in the Bill of Rights, not by accident.”

"They are first because our freedom to worship and speak our minds [is] at the core of what it means to be free,” Sessions said.

In quoting Founding Father James Madison, Sessions said, "the freedom of speech is the only effectual guardian of every other right.”

And though some people say that "certain speech is not deserving of protection,” according to Sessions, this idea is misguided.

Citing historic public debates, such as the famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas over slavery before the Civil War, Sessions said protecting speech ultimately makes us better as a country.

"Speech led to better decisions in a more just society,” Sessions said. "Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, this department is doing its part to protect that right.”

Sessions pointed out that the Justice Department is working on a couple of cases involving free speech on college campuses and that more will come in upcoming months.

"One of those cases rose when a college student was prevented from proclaiming his Christian faith,” Sessions said. "This is doubly important because this impacts speech and free exercise of religion.”

The Justice Department recentlyfileda brief on behalf of a student at Georgia Gwinnett College who says the school won’t let him evangelize on campus. The student is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious liberty advocacy group, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In anotherlawsuit, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in a case where a Los Angeles Pierce College student was not allowed to distribute copies of the Constitution outside a "free speech area” on campus.

In addition to explaining the top priorities of the Justice Department, Sessions pointed to what he sees as the major accomplishments of the department so far.

First, it ended the practice of third-party settlements that had become a "bankroll to third-party, special-interest groups, or the political friends of whoever is in power.”

The second big issue was ending what Sessions called illegalsubsidiesto insurance companies under the Obamacare program that had not been appropriated by Congress.

Finally, Sessions mentioned that the Trump administration put an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Sessions said regardless of its policy merit was a violation of our constitutional order. DACA was designed to give legal status to those who came to the country illegally as children.

"A Cabinet secretary is not allowed to effectively wipe off the books whole sections of immigration law duly passed by Congress, especially when Congress considered it and refused to change the law,” Sessions said.

Sessions also spoke about a settlement with tea party groups that were allegedly targeted by the IRS, which wasannounced on Thursday.

"It should also be without question that our First Amendment prohibits the federal government from treating taxpayers differently based solely on their viewpoint or ideology,” Sessions said. "There is no excuse for this conduct.”

He said the hundreds of organizations affected by these policies "deserve an apology” from the IRS.

Click here to watch the full video.

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