Posted on Tue, Jan 29th, 2019 Mon, Mar 18th, 2019 by Jason Easley
Rachel Maddow Nails House Republicans For Protecting The Trump Crime Family
Rachel Maddow points that House Republicans are still in the Trump protection racket by stalling to name their members of the House Intelligence Committee.
Maddow said:
One of the things we've been reporting on for the past few days is the fact that although the new Congress is in session and committees are holding hearings and votes are happening, the Republicans have not announced which members of Congress they will put on the intelligence committee. They announced the membership for 23 other committees but not intelligence. Well, if the special counsel Robert Mueller and his grand jury do have an interest in looking at certified transcripts of the testimony of Donald Trump junior or any other witnesses before the house intelligence committee, the special counsel's office can only bring legal action on the basis of someone's potentially false testimony if they have an official transcript of that testimony and they can only get an official transcript of that testimony once the intelligence committee meets and votes to release that official transcript. Votes that the transcript can be transmitted to the special counsel. That closed-door testimony, the transcripts thereof, that's property of the committee and the committee has to vote to release it before the special counsel can get it and the special counsel needs an official transcript before they can take legal action on that basis.
Well, the committee can't meet to take a vote to release anyone's transcript until they have all their members, right? Until the membership of the committee is set and so far Republicans won't appoint their members and so nothing can happen on the intelligence committee whatsoever. We reported on that apparent delay last week, the Republican er Kevin Mccarthy was asked about it and said it's a logistic problem, in terms of when the house speakers election. He said the Republican members would be named very soon. Definitely this week. We've been through Monday. We've been through Tuesday. Those members still have not been named.
Rachel Maddow on how House Republicans are obstructing to protect Trump and his kids from Mueller. https://t.co/cBHSmmAFE4 pic.twitter.com/M3qUeaP3xo
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) January 30, 2019
Congressman Adam Schiff said the first order of business once his committee is formally convened is that the very first thing they will do is vote to send these transcripts over to Robert Mueller for his review. But it will take about three days after they take the vote. And tick tock, they can't even take the vote yet. So far, they cannot get anywhere near the first order of business while Republicans continue to delay seating their members. If Donald Trump junior or anybody else who testified to house intelligence is potentially in legal trouble for having lied to that committee, the way that Roger stone is now no legal trouble, the way Michael Cohen is in legal trouble, House Republicans are effectively protecting those witnesses as long as they don't seat their members on that committee so that committee cannot release its official transcripts. I don't know how long house Republicans can keep that up. But they are stretching it already.
House Republicans Are Obstructing Mueller To Protect Trump
You may have thought that the House Republican obstruction of Mueller would stop after Democrats took the House majority, but you would be wrong. The difference now is that Republicans are merely delaying the inevitable. They will have to name their members to the committee eventually. The stalling can't go on forever, and when the committee does meet, they will vote to send Donald Trump Jr.'s transcript to Mueller for a perjury investigation.
Republicans are still trying to save the Trump crime family, which tells one everything that they need to know about the guilt of Trump and his family.
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Jason Easley
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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