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Pierce: This Is the Last Hurrah for All the Fake Conspiracies Trump Has Fed the Rubes Since 2015
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32596998/lindsey-graham-subpeona-obama-officials-trump-conspiracies/This Is the Last Hurrah for All the Fake Conspiracies Trump Has Fed the Rubes Since 2015
Lindsey Graham embarks on an investigation of something, anything to get everybody riled up in an election year.
By Charles P. Pierce
May 19, 2020
Politico delivers the official word. Snipe hunting season is open in Washington. Some social distancing required.
His proposal would permit the South Carolina Republican to demand testimony and documents from figures involved in the intelligence associated with the launch of the Russia investigation, including Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former national intelligence director James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey...
Graham intends to seek a Judiciary Committee vote on the matter on June 4. The proposal would allow Graham to obtain documents or testimony from any figures referenced in a report by the Justice Department Inspector General's review of the FBI's handling of a surveillance warrant connected to that investigation. That probe found corner-cutting, missteps and abuses by officials in the process used to surveil Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign.
The subpoena is unusually broad — committee subpoenas are usually specific to a smaller number of targets. But its approval, which will likely fall along party lines, would give Graham enormous, unilateral authority to conduct the probe.
Graham intends to seek a Judiciary Committee vote on the matter on June 4. The proposal would allow Graham to obtain documents or testimony from any figures referenced in a report by the Justice Department Inspector General's review of the FBI's handling of a surveillance warrant connected to that investigation. That probe found corner-cutting, missteps and abuses by officials in the process used to surveil Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign.
The subpoena is unusually broad — committee subpoenas are usually specific to a smaller number of targets. But its approval, which will likely fall along party lines, would give Graham enormous, unilateral authority to conduct the probe.
And I’m sure the fact that Graham is facing the toughest re-election fight of his career, and therefore needs every drop of poisonous fuel the Trumpist base can provide, has absolutely nothing to do with his decision to open this farce at this time.
Trump allies have been forcefully demanding for months that Graham take a more aggressive posture toward investigating the origins of the Russia probe, which Trump has assailed as a "hoax" against him for years. Graham's proposal would allow him to subpoena some of Trump's most frequent Twitter targets, including former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.
Trump in recent days has leaned on allies in the Senate, including Graham and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to ramp up their probes of Obama administration officials, as Trump has sought to level unsupported allegations of criminality by his predecessor against his incoming administration. Graham recently shot down a suggestion by Trump to call Barack Obama himself, an action that Trump's Justice Department has argued is unconstitutional, despite the current president's call.
Trump in recent days has leaned on allies in the Senate, including Graham and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to ramp up their probes of Obama administration officials, as Trump has sought to level unsupported allegations of criminality by his predecessor against his incoming administration. Graham recently shot down a suggestion by Trump to call Barack Obama himself, an action that Trump's Justice Department has argued is unconstitutional, despite the current president's call.
If this were a genuine good-faith investigation into how the FBI and the FISA process do their business, I’d buy tickets. But, of course, it’s not that. This is the final trip around the track for every faux conspiracy that the president* has fed to the rubes since 2015. Graham is the straw boss of this caper because he needs the rubes more than ever before. The fact that he doesn’t have the guts even to muse about a subpoena for Barack Obama is something of a tell. So much of this presidential campaign is not going to take place on the “campaign trail” that we’re all likely to get lost in the process, never to return.
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