On Wednesday, Republicans will confront Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with critical evidence that two members of the FBI dared to exchange private messages like normal human beings.
Senior F.B.I. officials who helped investigate Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign last year wrote in text messages that Hillary Clinton “just has to win” and described a potential Trump victory as “terrifying,” according to texts released Tuesday night.
The messages appear to be extremely mild, compared to what would appear on the average person’s Facebook, and were far from one-sided.
Some messages criticized Mrs. Clinton’s team, the Obama administration, Congress and other Democrats.
Actually, the messages reveal that FBI agent Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page shared one big fear.
The two appeared appalled at some of Mr. Trump’s comments during the campaign and feared that he would politicize the F.B.I.
So of course, Republicans are going to use that fear to politicize the FBI. They intend to use the private exchange between Strzok and Page as evidence of a “deep state” conspiracy as they beat up on Rosenstein and work toward their major goal: discrediting Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The goal of Republican assaults on Mueller is twofold. One is to so diminish the standing of the former FBI director who Republicans roundly praised a year ago, that the public—or at least the Republican base—will go along if Republicans decide to ignore any results coming from the Trump–Russia investigation.
Even if they do not win in the court of public opinion, they hope to sow enough doubt that should Mueller produce damning evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, the reaction will be as divided as everything else in split-screen America, offering the president an escape route.
The second goal is to stop Mueller before he can complete the investigation. A trio of the most right-wing Republicans called for Mueller’s resignation in early November.
“Be it Resolved, That House of Representatives expresses its sense that Robert Mueller is compromised and should resign from his special counsel position immediately,” the resolution states.
And that was before Republicans had such damning evidence as a guy Mueller had already dismissed from the campaign actually expressing the opinion that Trump is an idiot.
Fox News was pushing the “Mueller must resign” line well before that:
… Singman quotes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) as saying this about recent events: “If the facts that you just laid out are true, then somebody with Bob Mueller’s integrity will step aside and should — if in fact those facts, as you laid them out, are true.”
Where did he say that? On “Fox & Friends,” the record-breaking creator of idiocies on morning television.
The whole purpose of the three simultaneous Uranium One investigations launched by Republicans in the House isn’t to investigate Russian uranium deals or even to go after Hillary Clinton. It’s another route to attacking Robert Mueller for his involvement while ignoring that the FBI’s involvement in that investigation actually ended with the FBI and Justice Department busting a Russian-financed scheme to take over a uranium transport firm, while clearing Uranium One.
But that’s not the point.
- If Republicans can pressure the Justice Department into the creation of a second special counsel to investigate the Uranium One matter, they can make the case that Mueller is, at the very least, a material witness in that matter, compromising his ability to conduct another investigation.
- If Republicans can pressure the Justice Department into the creation of a second special counsel investigating James Comey, Peter Strzok, and the idea of “bias” within the FBI, that new counsel is likely to immediately name Mueller as a focus of the investigation, making the Trump–Russia investigation all but impossible.
- The multiple Uranium One investigations in the House give the Republicans a platform from which they can launch Mueller attacks—and demand the special counsel to appear as a witness. Expect other members of Mueller’s team to be brought in to defend every comment they ever made.
- With all of these approaches, and more, Republicans are out to attack Mueller, weaken his position, and either end his investigation or build a case that his charges come from a position of prejudice against Trump.
Also worthy of note: “pressure the Justice Department” only means getting Jefferson Sessions to look up from destroying the Civil Rights division long enough to pull the string. That he hasn’t thrown Republicans a whole army of special counsels to this point, only suggests that he’s waiting for what he believes to be the critical moment.
The House Judiciary Committee, where Rosenstein will appear on Wednesday, is one of the committees where a Mueller-centric Uranium One investigation is already underway. Rosenstein’s questioning will provide a preview of the efforts over the next few weeks to twist, weaken and destroy the Trump–Russia investigation.
Now that the Alabama election is past, and black women have sent Roy Moore and his tiny horse back to the barn, the Republican focus is on saving that other sexual assault practitioner. Expect both Robert Mueller and the women brave enough to speak out about their experience with Trump, to be subject to intense attacks going forward.