Russiagate Ramping Up

I can't believe how much happened since yesterday morning: Democrats on edge after Sessions attacks Andrew McCabe's pension

Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, which will likely reduce his pension benefits, has Democratic lawmakers and a key government employee union warning that Republicans are coming after federal workers.

Sessions fired McCabe just before the FBI veteran's 50th birthday, stripping him of an early retirement option that by some estimates could have given him $60,000 per year in benefits immediately. Those will now be delayed until he's at least 57 years old, at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars to McCabe.

 The Drive-Bys Lied, McCabe Didn’t Lose His Pension

For Democrats, the message was clear: The Trump administration is going to war against federal workers, and Republicans are cheering him on.

Good. They should worry. When you strike at the King . . . And speaking of the the "Deep State", and by way of Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 03.19.18" EBL informs me who Rod Rosenstein's wife works for: Rod Rosenstein's wife Lisa Barsoomian represented Robert Mueller, James Comey, and Hillary Clinton... The upper levels in Washington D.C. are just full of swamp critters. You can hardly swing a dead cat without running into somebody who worked for the Clingtons. Lem's Place: The Incestuous Swamp and why Rod Rosenstein should be removed ASAP. Legal Insurrection: Who elected John Brennan? My question, exactly.

INDEED: You’re proving the president’s point when you talk about the intel chiefs like they’re vengeful hatchet men. “To suggest former and current intelligence chiefs are not to be criticized or questioned because they know where the bodies are buried is to concede the president’s claim that the community has grown too unaccountable and overloaded with unethical actors.”

While I'm clearing FMJRA's the Wombat, in "In The Mailbox: 03.20.18" features JustOneMinute: “Lacking Candor” and The Jawa Report: Russia Just Following DNC’s Lead.

‘Morning Joe’ Frantic Over Poll Showing Americans Believe In A ‘Deep State’ Losing control of the narrative? James Comey Weighing Hollywood Offers for Memoir

Star GOP lawyer Theodore B. Olson declines offer to join Trump legal team, but Trump Hires Joe DiGenova To Serve On Legal Team

DEEP STATE: “The Washington Post is trying to delegitimatize diGenova by pinning a term on him that people might not understand, but that, if they did come to understand, would probably cause then to support diGenova. So not only does WaPo not hurt diGenova (and Trump), as intended, it gives higher profile to a relatively unknown term that has the power to sharpen awareness and concern about the very problem that diGenova is trying to warn us about, and we can see from the Monmouth poll that people are very receptive to that warning.”

Multiple Groups Inside the Justice Department Said Andrew McCabe Lied Under Oath but Judicial Watch Fights Uphill Battle for McCabe Texts, FBI has refused to hand over FOIA-requested documents

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog organization, has spent months pursuing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding the release of texts McCabe exchanged with colleagues.

The FBI has so far refused to comply with a court order to produce the texts, handing over emails and other information to Judicial Watch but legally demurring on whether it even has access to the electronic messages, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in an interview.

"We do not believe that any reasonable search [of McCabe's records] would have left uncovered the text issues," Fitton told the Washington Free Beacon Monday. "This is just gamesmanship by the FBI. We've been asking questions about it, but we have been told to go jump in a lake, figuratively."

"We know when an agency is being cooperative versus showing their arrogance and stonewalling, and the FBI is operating with complete arrogance," he said.

Still operating with complete arrogance. Sessions needs to kick ass and take names.

Bombshell report: Mueller is asking about post-election events, not investigating collusion, determined to bring down Trump by any means necessary. CHRIS MATTHEWS: “Mueller reminds me of the starfish which gets itself tightly around the clam and uses all its stuff to weaken and pry open the clam. Now, this is a battle to the death as far as the clam is concerned.” The Daily Beast: Yes, This Is Going to Be Worse Than Watergate in you your democrat dreams. Jeff Flake: I’m Begging You, Mr. President, Don’t Make Us Remove You For Firing Mueller. Angus King: Firing Mueller Not An Impeachable Offense By Itself, You Know. Paul Ryan: I’ve Received Assurances That Mueller’s Firing Isn’t Even Being Considered. But that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone. Alan Dershowitz still thinks Trump is right: The special counsel should never have been appointed.

President Trump is right in saying that a special counsel should never have been appointed to investigate the so-called Russian connection. There was no evidence of any crime committed by the Trump administration. But there was plenty of evidence that Russian operatives had tried to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, and perhaps other elections, in the hope of destabilizing democracy. Yet, appointing a special counsel to look for crimes, behind the closed doors of a grand jury, was precisely the wrong way to address this ongoing challenge to our democracy.

The right way would have been (and still is) to appoint a nonpartisan investigative commission, such as the one appointed following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, to conduct a broad and open investigation of the Russian involvement in our elections. This is what other democracies, such as Great Britain and Israel, do in response to systemic problems. The virtue of such a commission is precisely the nonpartisan credibility of its objective experts, who have no political stake in the outcome.

But as they say, what's good for the goose. . . Rep. Scalise And Rep. McCarthy Join Those Calling For A Second Special Counsel to revisit the FISA court and Clinton mess.

Allahpundit wants to know Why Didn’t The DOJ Release The IG Report On McCabe’s “Lack Of Candor” Before Firing Him? I just want to know why they didn't fire him earlier. Victor Davis Hanson has a bunch of questions: 12 Scandal Questions Never Asked, Much Less Answered

1) Had Hillary Clinton won the election, would we now even know of a Fusion GPS dossier? Would assorted miscreants such as Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Lisa Page, Glenn Simpson, Christopher Steele, or Peter Strzok now be under a cloud of suspicion? Or would they instead have been quietly lionized by a President Clinton grateful for noble services in the shadows rendered during the campaign? . . .

Good questions, all.

Larwyn's Linx: Robert Mueller’s Beltway Cover-Up

Robert Mueller’s Beltway Cover-Up: Lee Smith, Trump Hires ex-US Attorney Who Said President Was "Framed" By FBI: Tyler Durden, Planning For OIG Release – President Trump Hires Joe diGenova: CTH, McCabe Is Fired, and Our Political Class Beclowns Itself, Once Again: David French, Mark Levin explains why Comey and McCabe are dirty cops!