NY grand jury indicts former President Trump
(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) gave a five-minute speech, but didn’t ask a single question when it was his turn to question Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at Thursday’s House Judiciary hearing on the Justice Department’s inspector general report on the Clinton email probe.
Instead, he urged the DOJ, and specifically the special counsel, to finish up the Russia probe, because it’s tearing the country apart.
Gowdy talked about how there is a “presumption of guilt” by Democrats when it comes to President Donald Trump in the Russia investigation, noting that even though Special Counsel Robert Mueller has yet to present his first finding in the case, more than 60 Democrats have voted to impeach the president.
“There’s a presumption of guilt. There’s a desire by Democrat senators to fundraise off of your investigation. More than 60 Democrats have already voted to proceed with impeachment before Bob Mueller has found a single solitary damn thing! More than 60 have voted to move forward with impeachment, and he hasn’t presented his first finding,” Gowdy said.
He noted that neither of the witnesses at the hearing - FBI Director Christopher Wray nor Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were in their positions at the DOJ prior to the 2016 elections, but they’re there now.
“Russia attacked this country. They should be the target, but Russia isn’t being hurt by this investigation right now. We are. This country is being hurt by it. We are being divided. We’ve seen the bias. We’ve seen the bias. We need to see the evidence,” Gowdy said.
“If you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn grand jury. If you have evidence that this president acted inappropriately, present it to the American people. There’s an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied. I think right now all of us are being denied. Whatever you got, finish it the hell up, because this country is being torn apart,” he said.
Here is Gowdy’s entire speech:
“Mr. Chairman, the Russia investigation’s been going on for almost two years now. Special counsel’s investigation’s been going on for over a year now. For most Americans, it’s important to know what Russia did to our country in 2016 and with whom with anyone they did it. When a foreign state interferes with our democratic electoral process, it should be a chance of a lifetime for a law enforcement agent to investigate that, except apparently the one that was actually picked to investigate it.
That was Peter Strzok. FBI Agent Peter Strzok was picked to lead the FBI’s investigation into what Russia did in July of 2016. It was a counter intelligence investigation begun in late July 2016, and he was leading it and at about the exact same time he was picked to lead it, this dispassionate and fair FBI agent was calling Trump a disaster, destabilizing for the country. I’ll leave out all the f- adjectives he used to describe that. I’ll just go with disaster and destabilizing.
At the same time, his FBI lawyer girlfriend Lisa Page was telling him he was meant to protect the country. This neutral, dispassionate FBI agent said, I can protect the country at many levels. At the same time, Peter Strzok, who was picked to objectively, fairly, neutrally look into the Russia investigation, was talking about an insurance policy with Andy McCabe and Lisa Page in the event Donald Trump became the president.
All of this was happening at the same time Peter Strzok said he could smell the Trump support in southern Virginia. All of this was at the same time that this FBI agent said a Trump presidency would be “f---ing terrifying” and that it will never happen - ‘No, no. We’ll stop it.’ So while investigating Russia and their attempt to subvert our democracy may have been important to the rest of the country, it wasn’t all that important until about a half dozen FBI agents and lawyers who were assigned to the case.
For them, it was an investigation to stop Donald Trump, which then brings us to May of 2016 and the appointment of special counsel where we find Peter Strzok again - the same supposed to be dispassionate, neutral, fair FBI - you would think he’d be real excited about investigating what a foreign power tried to do to this country, but you would be wrong again for Peter Strzok at precisely the same time that Bob Mueller was appointed, precisely the same time, Peter Strzok was talking about his unfinished business and how he needed to fix and finish it so Donald Trump did not become president, he was talking about impeachment within three days of Special Counsel Mueller being appointed - three days. That’s even quicker than MSNBC and the Democrats were talking about impeaching. Within three days, the lead FBI agent is talking about impeaching the president.
So this is where we are-- we’re two years into this investigation. We’re a year and a half into the presidency. We’re over a year into special counsel. You have a counterintelligence investigation that’s become public. You have a criminal investigation that’s become political. You have more bias than I have ever seen manifest on a law enforcement officer in the 20 years I used to do it for a living, and four other DOJ employees who have manifest animus towards the person they were supposed to be neutrally and detachedly investigating. Democrats are using this investigation as a presumption as guilt, which I find astonishing and in the long run for the health of this republic, I would encourage them to go back to the presumption of innocence that we used to hold sacred.
There’s a presumption of guilt. There’s a desire by Democrat senators to fundraise off of your investigation. More than 60 Democrats have already voted to proceed with impeachment before Bob Mueller has found a single solitary damn thing! More than 60 have voted to move forward with impeachment, and he hasn’t presented his first finding. So I’ll say this to you Mr. Ray, Mr Rosenstein. I realize that neither one of you were there when it happened, but you’re both there now.
Russia attacked this country. They should be the target, but Russia isn’t being hurt by this investigation right now. We are. This country is being hurt by it. We are being divided. We’ve seen the bias. We’ve seen the bias. We need to see the evidence. If you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the Trump campaign, present it to the damn grand jury. If you have evidence that this president acted inappropriately, present it to the American people. There’s an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied.
I think right now all of us are being denied. Whatever you got, finish it the hell up, because this country is being torn apart.”
After Gowdy’s speech, Rosenstein replied, “I certainly share your views about those text messages, and nobody is more offended than I about what’s reflected in those messages. With regard to the investigation, I’ve heard suggestions that we should just close the investigation.
“I think the best thing we can do is finish it appropriately and reach a conclusion, and I certainly agree with you sir that people should not jump to conclusions without seeing the evidence. I’ve been the victim of fake news attacks myself, so I’m sympathetic,” he said.
“I agree with you sir that there’s been no allegation made by Department of Justice or the special counsel other than what’s reflected in those documents that are filed publicly to charge folks, and nobody should draw any conclusions beyond those charges,” the deputy attorney general said.