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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

GOP Tries to Browbeat Loretta Lynch into Appointing Another Ken Starr

Not to quote Karl Marx but he did say that history repeats itself the second time as farce. Just as the GOP demanded Ken Starr in the 90s they are asking for Starr 2.0 this time. As it worked out so well the first time.

Not at all surprising of course. Jeb! is basically the reincarnation of his brother-only worse. Turns out were were wrong when we used to say Jeb was the smart brother.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/09/jeb-as-george-w-bush-times-two.html

So the GOP is always recycling things that didn't go well the first time. Now they are trying to destroy her personally rather than on the issues-but this is par for the course, unfortunately the media has again been playing along.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/09/matt-yglesias-has-very-important-post.html

Now we are again doing that 90s show with Hillary's emails. Like Whitewater there is nothing there but the GOP insists we got to keep digging just in case we discover there is at some point and the Beltway press has been all in, particularly the allegedly NY Times.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/09/you-go-david-brock-his-new-book-calls.html

So now the next logical step is to appoint an Independent Counsel-a la another Ken Starr.

"Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a former Texas attorney general and Texas supreme court justice, asked Lynch in a Tuesday morning letter to appoint a special counsel. It could be a conflict of interest, Cornyn’s reasoning goes, for Clinton's former administration colleagues to escalate any investigation into her private email server."

"The Attorney General has a special duty to pursue justice even when political considerations run counter to doing so,” Cornyn wrote in a letter that was shared with POLITICO. “At critical times in our nation’s history, your predecessors have exercised that duty by appointing politically-independent individuals to investigate potential wrongdoing involving senior administration officials … Americans deserve the assurance that justice — and justice alone — is being pursued.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-email-john-cornyn-wants-special-counsel-investigate-213627#ixzz3lq6fgjqU



How does this assure us justice is being served-after all Ken Starr's investigations offered us no assurances of that?

It doesn't reassure me as it looks like a blatant partisan witch hunt to have an IC investigate a Presidential candidate in an election that by its very existence benefits the GOP nominee.

"Experts are divided about whether appointing a special counsel is a good idea.
Critics note that appointing a special prosecutor raises the stakes — unfairly so, in some people’s views."

“I don’t see this as a criminal case,” said Peter Zeidenberg, who worked on the special counsel prosecution of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, who was charged with perjury in the investigation of a leaked identity of an undercover CIA agent. “I see it as a political headache and a huge embarrassment, but it certainly doesn’t appear from anything I’ve seen to be a criminal matter.”

"But others note that Clinton’s deep Beltway connections — and potential presence on the Democratic ticket for the White House — could present a problem for the Justice Department."

“It does remove the taint of bias and conflict, and in a situation like this, when you have the former secretary of state, who also happens to be the former first lady of the United States, who also happens to be running for president for the second time … I think it’s perfectly legitimate to request a special counsel considering the obvious conflict,” said Mark Corallo, former chief spokesman for Attorney General John Ashcroft at the Justice Department.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-email-john-cornyn-wants-special-counsel-investigate-213627#ixzz3lq8I51hT


It removes conflict of interest?! But the trouble is that it cuts both ways. You can claim that Justice isn't going after Hillary for partisan reasons but you can just as surely point out that it's totally in Republican interests to have her being investigated regardless of whether it turns up anything or not-and it likely won't-the damage to her campaign will be done.

So an Independent Counsel would is clearly in the interest of Cornyn and the rest of the House GOP.

The good news is it's not going to happen. Happily it's solely up to Ms. Lynch-unlike in the 90s when a conservative judge was able to force the Clinton White House to investigate itself.

"Hill Republicans have in recent years called for special prosecutors a number of times, including one to probe the IRS-tea party targeting scandal because some conservatives believed it was orchestrated by the White House. The GOP also called for a special prosecutor to probe whether then-Attorney General Eric Holder had misled Congress in the DOJ's probe of the Fast and Furious "gunwalking" case."

In both cases, DOJ opted not to create a special counsel.

"Federal judges used to have more say in the matter under a statute that essentially allowed them to force the attorney general’s hand on the matter. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals used that statute to name Ken Starr to lead an investigation into Bill Clinton."

"But lawmakers let that law sunset in 1999. Now, Lynch would get to make the call, in accordance with DOJ regulations, about whether outside counsel is necessary."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-email-john-cornyn-wants-special-counsel-investigate-213627#ixzz3lqFyjWkD

Thank God for small mercies. So this isn't going to happen. Meanwhile the Independent Counsel for the W Administration for outing Valerie Plame's cover doesn't see that this thing about emails is in anyway worth an IC.

"Attorneys general have empaneled special counsels several times in the past few decades. DOJ under the George W. Bush administration designated special prosecutor John Durham to probe allegations that CIA agents had erased tapes that showed them torturing alleged terrorists after they had been given explicit orders not to. The DOJ also appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the leak of the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson."

Zeidenberg, a partner at Arent Fox who worked with Fitzgerald as deputy special counsel on the Plame case, said a special counsel in this instance isn’t warranted because it doesn’t involve a current administrative official. He says the difference between then and now is that his case struck at the heart of the White House.

“The attorney general was [John] Ashcroft and he has a relationship with [Bush adviser] Karl Rove, and Karl Rove's name had come up as being possibly implicated, and so the attorney general didn’t want to handle it,” he said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-email-john-cornyn-wants-special-counsel-investigate-213627#ixzz3lqJuvMtb





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