Republicans Begin Witch Hunt, Plan to Investigate Obama Officials

Republicans in Congress have begun a witch hunt, as they have started to plan their own probe into top Obama-era officials and the 2016 election.

The GOP is obviously anxious to move past special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign. So now they are starting to investigate “the investigators,” according to a new report in The Hill.

The idea is now very popular within the Republican caucus, and has the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Even though Mueller’s report hasn’t been released yet, Republicans say that Attorney General William Barr’s letter proves that Mueller “did not establish” that Trump or members of his campaign coordinated or colluded with Moscow in its election interference.

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“Republicans believe that the FBI and DOJ, the top people took the law in their own hands because they wanted Clinton to win and Trump to lose,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)  said recently on Fox News.

He said that he will be looking at “abuse” of the FISA warrant application process and the counterintelligence operation into Trump’s campaigns. He also said that “there will be a lot of inquiry as to how this all happened.”

GOP senators have already identified the former Obama officials who will be at the top of their lists to question. They include former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director James Brennan, and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

According to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Judiciary Committee:

“The Judiciary Committee has primary jurisdiction and doing oversight of the Department of Justice and the FBI and so that … is something we need to do. Trying to find out how this thing got off the rails and hopefully prevent it from happening again.”

Cornyn said he is most interested in talking to Comey, saying:

“I think Director Comey is probably near the top of the list. He’s the one who said that his intention of leaking memos of his conversation was designed to prompt the appointment of a special counsel. It just strikes me as some vindictiveness and animus toward the president motivating a lot of the action.”

Graham added that Comey would be called to publicly testify and “will answer for his time as FBI director.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a close ally of Trump’s, wants a list of former Obama officials’ communications to be made public, including any communications from President Obama about investigating the Trump campaign. Paul is also calling on Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to testify under oath.

“We need every ounce of information about the people at the very top of our intelligence community that were promoting the inclusion of this fake dossier,” Paul said. “We based this investigation on a lie. We should investigate who the liars were.”

Republicans Are Desperate to Cover Up Trump’s Collusion and Crimes

Since Democrats took control of the House, Republicans are now looking to the Senate to try to cover up the findings of the Mueller report by “investigating the investigators.” But this won’t work.

Donald Trump has called the Mueller probe a “witch hunt” but of course it isn’t. On the other hand, what Republicans are planning to do with their investigations of Obama-era officials truly is a witch hunt, because there is no wrong-doing there for them to find.

Soon the Mueller report will be released, and the Republican efforts to cover up Trump’s collusion and crimes will become known to all the world. And nothing they try to do will be able to stop it. Truly the GOP is fighting a losing battle, and in all likelihood, after the 2020 elections, the American people will throw them out of power.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.