From The Guardian. (If you do not know this already, The Guardian is a neoliberal/Globalist British newspaper. CIA/British intelligence-allied. Bet on it. Not to say that it’s necessarily “wrong” or anything…just so’s you know who’s hustling what.)
Emphases mine:
Elizabeth Warren says Trump pushed out prosecutors to install ‘cronies.’
Progressive senator attacks president over firing of Preet Bharara, saying Senate will see `massive fight’ over picks to replace US attorneys.
The progressive senator Elizabeth Warren accused Donald Trump of firing a prominent prosecutor to install “cronies” , warning on Sunday of “a massive fight” in the Senate over his picks for new US attorneys.
On Saturday, Trump fired Preet Bharara, the US attorney of the southern district of Manhattan, where the prosecutor had pursued corruption cases against members of both the Republican and Democratic parties. In November, Bharara met with Trump and his nominee for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and said he had “agreed to stay on” after conversations with both.
But on Friday afternoon, Sessions abruptly ordered 46 prosecutors, nearly all appointees of Barack Obama, to resign “effective immediately”. Bharara refused to resign and was fired, saying in a brief public statement: “One hallmark of justice is absolute independence, and that was my touchstone every day that I served.”
—snip—
…late Saturday, an official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the sudden dismissal of Bharara was preceded by an unusual phone call from the White House to the prosecutor’s office.
On Thursday, the president’s secretary called Bharara, who declined to take the call because the justice department has strict rules about communications between presidents and prosecutors. Bharara told Trump’s secretary he could not speak directly with the president.
The White House has declined to comment on why Trump fired Bharara after asking him to continue in his role. Warren seized on this ambiguity, tweeting on Sunday that Trump “talked a big game about getting corruption out of gov[ernment]. But he wants a bunch of tame prosecutors who won’t investigate him.”
“Preet Bharara had authority over Trump Tower,” she wrote, noting the US attorney’s jurisdiction over Manhattan, the Bronx and Westchester, New York. Trump “called him directly, breaching protocol”, Warren continued. “24 [hours] later he was asked to resign.”
“More GOP & Dems respect Preet Bharara as a fearless prosecutor who stands up to both parties & Wall Street. I guess that’s why Trump fired him,” she said, before drawing a comparison to Trump’s decision to fire Sally Yates. The president fired Yates, who was acting attorney general in the first weeks of his administration, after she refused to defend his executive order limiting travel, and after she warned Trump that his national security adviser had misled the White House about conversations with Russia’s ambassador.
Warren said the president “wants people like AG Sessions, a loyalist who lied to the Senate about meeting with the Russians”, alluding to Session’s failure, under oath, to disclose his own conversations with the ambassador.
“You can’t fire the rule of law,” Warren wrote. “You can’t shut down ongoing investigations by career prosecutors.”
“The Senate confirms US Attorneys. And you’re not replacing real prosecutors with cronies [with]out a massive fight,” she added.
—snip—
The’s fightin’ words!!!
Does she have enough Republicans behind this idea to actually make it happen?
She’s got the McCain wing.
Bet on it.
Read on for more.
NY Daily News:
Sen. McCain demands Trump retract wiretapping accusations or provide evidence to public
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday demanded that President Trump either retract his explosive — and still unproven — claim that former President Barack Obama illegally wiretapped Trump Tower or provide whatever evidence he has to back up the so-far baseless accusation.
“President Trump has to provide the American people, not just the intelligence community, but the American people, with evidence that his predecessor, former President of the Unites States was guilty of breaking the law,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The President of the United States could clear this up in a minute,” McCain added. “All he has to do is pick up the phone, call the director of the CIA, director of national intelligence and say, ‘OK, what happened?’ Because they certainly should know whether the former President of the United States was wiretapping Trump Tower.”
DUH!!!
More:
The House Intelligence Committee has asked the White House to provide any evidence of the allegations by Monday.
But Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the panel, indicated Sunday he felt Trump would not meet that deadline, saying on ABC’s “This Week,” that, “I don’t expect we’re going to see any evidence of this.”
Others, however, including McCain, predicted that the ongoing House and Senate Intelligence Committee probes were likely to unearth critical information regarding their original purposes: The nature of Russian meddling in the U.S. election and whether (and why) members of Trump’s inner circle had been in contact with the Kremlin.
“There’s a lot of aspects with this whole relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin that requires further scrutiny, and so far I don’t think the American people have gotten all the answers. In fact, I think there’s a lot of shoes to drop from this centipede,” McCain said.
—snip—
Former White House spokesman Josh Earnest also said Sunday he believes more will come to light regarding ties between Russia and Trump aides.
“It’s undeniable that there’s a lot of really good unanswered questions about why senior Trump officials are, at best, not being forthcoming about their interactions with Russians,” Earnest told the Associated Press.
“These are questions that need answers and it’s not particularly surprising to me that President Trump is looking for some colorful ways to distract from that line of questioning,” he said
—snip—
Snip, snip, snip.
Drip, drip, drip.
Watch.
Trump gonna lose it.
Soon.
Watch.
AG
