Big question on DOJ's Russia probe: 'What kind of show was Comey running?': William McGurn

Former FBI Director James Comey may not be doing himself any favors by going public with his thoughts on the Mueller report, Wall Street Journal “Main Street” columnist William McGurn argued Thursday.
Comey sat down with NBC News anchor Lester Holt and described his confusion regarding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s decision on obstruction-of-justice charges against President Trump.
During Thursday's All-Star panel segment on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier," McGurn -- as well as Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano and Democratic strategist Leslie Marshall -- weighed in on the fallout of the Mueller report and whether Comey’s involvement in the Russia probe deserves more scrutiny.
McGurn called for the Mueller report to be released “as public as possible” but also wants “all the other stuff,” including the FISA application that helped catapult the entire Russia investigation.
“You have to ask what kind of show was James Comey running,” McGurn said. “A lot of the people around him have been replaced by Christopher Wray and you have Andrew McCabe possibly facing perjury charges for the IG [inspector general] reports. ... I’m not sure the FBI’s going to come out of that looking very good.”
Judge Napolitano began by telling the panel that the “indefensible” Comey was “beloved” by the rank and file within the FBI -- but that might no longer be the case since his ouster in 2017 and his insistence that a publicly released Mueller report might have “page after page” in black due to redactions.
Meanwhile, Marshall pumped on the brakes of impeachment and warned Democrats of being caught up in “investigation after investigation.”

Trump, in fiery first rally since Mueller vindication, calls on Dems to stop 'ridiculous bullsh--'

In his first major rally since Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared him of any collusion with Russia, President Trump took the stage before a boisterous full house at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Thursday night -- and proceeded to tear into Democrats and the FBI as unintelligent "frauds" who tried desperately to undermine the results of the 2016 election.
"The Democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bullsh--," Trump said to thunderous applause, "-- partisan investigations, or whether they will apologize to the American people."
Trump continued to unload on his opponents: "I have a better education than them, I'm smarter than them, I went to the best schools; they didn't. Much more beautiful house, much more beautiful apartment. Much more beautiful everything. And I'm president and they're not."
Addressing counterprotesters outside the arena and progressives in general, Trump asked: "What do you think of their signs, 'Resist?' What the hell? Let's get something done."
Later, Trump vowed to "close the damn border" unless Mexico halts two new caravans he said have been approaching the United States rapidly. Trump also hit at fraudulent asylum applicants, saying liberal lawyers often have coached them in a "big fat con job" to claim they've feared for their lives when they make it to the border.
The economy, Trump said to sustained cheers, "is roaring, the ISIS caliphate is defeated 100 percent, and after three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead. The collusion delusion is over. ... The single greatest political hoax in the history of our country. And guess what? We won."
"I love campaigning against the Green New Deal," Trump remarked at one point. "One car per family -- you're going to love that in Michigan."
Trump predicted that the former DOJ and FBI officials who pushed the collusion theory and authorized secret surveillance warrants against members of his campaign -- whom he incidentally called "major losers" -- would soon have "big problems."
Trump also characterized the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee as "little pencil-neck Adam Schiff, who has the smallest, thinnest neck I've ever seen," and someone who is "not a long-ball hitter."
Schiff, D-Calif., who fiercely pushed collusion claims, has vowed to continue investigating Trump despite Mueller's findings -- even as Republicans have called for his resignation.
Trump's rally prompted thousands of supporters to line the streets hours beforehand in a festive atmosphere that included vendors selling "Make America Great Again" hats and holding supportive signs.

People waiting for President Donald Trump to speak at the rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Thursday. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The evening was something of a homecoming: Trump became the first Republican in over two decades to win Michigan in the 2016 presidential election, edging out Hillary Clinton thanks, in part, to his decision to cap off his campaign with a final rally in Grand Rapids shortly after midnight on Election Day. "This is our Independence Day," Trump told roaring attendees then.
Thursday night's event, though, was a mixture of homecoming and all-out victory parade, in the wake of Mueller's conclusions. Enthusiastic fans -- including many who stood by Trump amid a torrent of unproven allegations that he conspired with Russia to sway the 2016 election -- began to encircle the Van Andel Arena as early as 3:30 a.m.
Trump relived the Election Day rally on Thursday, telling the crowd that he got home at 4 a.m. in the morning and told Melania Trump that he had an "incredible crowd" late into the evening and thought, "How the hell can I lose Michigan? And guess what: We didn't lose Michigan."

President Donald Trump speaking at the rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Trump also dropped what he called "breaking news" for locals, promising, "I'm going to get full funding of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which you've been trying to get for over 30 years. It's time."
Trump noted that MSNBC and CNN's ratings "dropped through the floor last night," while Fox News' ratings were "through the roof."
Retired cabinet maker Ron Smith, 51, was one of the supporters who arrived to Thursday's rally early. He told the Detroit News outside the arena that although "Republicans in Congress are trying to put stumbling blocks in his path," nevertheless, "Donald Trump comes in here and gets stuff done.”
Separately, Trump called the Jussie Smollet case an "embarrassment" both to Chicago and to the U.S. and vowed to continue border wall construction.
Trump also decried Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat who seemingly endorsed the practice of killing some infants after birth earlier this year.
"In recent months, the Democrat Party has also been aggressively pushing extreme late-term abortion, allowing children to be ripped from their mother’s womb up until the moment of birth," Trump said. "In Virginia, the governor stated he would even allow a newborn baby to be executed."
Senate Democrats blocked a GOP-led effort after Northam's remarks that would have established the standard of care owed to infants who survive failed abortions.
In remarks to reporters before he left the White House earlier in the day, Trump previewed a wide-ranging rally on everything from the economy to health care and border security. But there was little doubt the president would devote a good deal of time to a victory lap on Russia.
Trump also promised to save the Special Olympics, after the Education Department proposed cuts to the program in its latest budget.
"The Special Olympics will be funded. I just told my people, I want to fund the Special Olympics and I just authorized a funding of the Special Olympics," Trump said. "I've been to the Special Olympics. I think it's incredible and I just authorized a funding. I heard about it this morning. I have overridden my people. We're funding the Special Olympics."
In a fiery, exclusive interview with Fox News' "Hannity" Wednesday night, Trump vowed to release classified documents that could shed light on the Russia probe's origins. He also accused FBI officials of committing "treason" -- slamming former FBI Director James Comey as a "terrible guy," former CIA Director John Brennan as potentially mentally ill, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as a criminal.

President Donald Trump arriving at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich., for his rally. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Redacted versions of FISA documents already released have revealed that the FBI extensively relied on documents produced by Christopher Steele, an anti-Trump British ex-spy working for a firm funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, to surveil Trump aide Carter Page. At least one senior DOJ official had apparent concerns Steele was unreliable, according to text messages exclusively obtained last week by Fox News.
The leaked dossier, and related FBI surveillance, kickstarted a media frenzy on alleged Russia-Trump collusion that ended with a whimper on Sunday. Trump, on Thursday, told the crowd in Michigan that the dossier was "dirty."
Michigan Democrats, meanwhile, organized a counter-rally nearby, with the party saying it wanted to issue a "call for action and solutions on the fundamental issues facing us all, like health care, education, clean water, equality, immigrant rights, support for our military veterans, jobs, the economy and more."
A handful of protesters separately waved "socialist alternative" flags and yelled, "No Trump, no KKK, no fascists, USA," according to local reports.
Republicans have maintained that Trump has a good chance to win Michigan again in 2020, although changing demographics could present some headwinds. In November, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer defeated a Trump-backed candidate to claim the state's governorship.
"Democrats are in a pickle and they put themselves here" by trumpeting the investigation, said Brian "Boomer" Patrick, communications director for GOP Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga. "All the eggs were in one basket on the Mueller report."
At the end of the rally, Trump remarked, "the Democrats took the people of Michigan for granted. With us, you will never be forgotten again."

Capitol Police Drain the Swamp at Bernhardt Hearing

Masked swamp creatures showed up Thursday at the confirmation hearing of Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt — creating a two-hour political theatre performance, The Washington Post reported.

Quoting a statement from the activists from the Clean Water Fund, Environment America, and Public Citizen, the Post reported the demonstration was aimed at drawing attention to Bernhardt's "long list of conflicts of interest with the oil & gas industry, and highlighting his historic anti-environmental past."

As the hearing got underway, some protesters donned masks resembling the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Others were clad in swamp-inspired green couture and wore masks of Bernhardt's face. The protesters were apparently not escorted out of the room until nearly two hours into the hearing, the Post reported.

The environmental group Greenpeace also took part in the protest, calling Bernhardt "a former oil and gas lobbyist who previously worked to help corporate polluters get their hands on public lands."
Bernhardt was nominated by President Donald Trump in February; he has been acting secretary since Jan. 2, when Ryan Zinke resigned amid multiple ethics probes.

He has drawn criticism for his background as a veteran lobbyist who has helped orchestrate the push at the Interior Department to expand oil and gas drilling, the Post reported.

Limbaugh: Trump Should Use 'Political Capital' on Immigration

President Donald Trump ought to focus on immigration and "zero in on the border" – an issue he ran on in 2016 that still "has not been solved," conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said Thursday.
In an interview on Fox News' "Special Report," Limbaugh said it is "imperative" Trump take advantage of the "political capital" he gained after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russia's meddling.

"My preference would be for the president to zero in on the border, to zero in on immigration and stop this," he said. "We are being invaded and we are being invaded by a bunch of people that have the potential to totally destroy the makeup of our culture and the makeup of our society.
"And the Democrat party and the American left are in total support of this. It has got to stop. The president got elected on that issue, and it has not been solved. The wall has not been built on the border is still wide open. It needs to be shut down."

Limbaugh also declared the current crop of Democrats in the running for the 2020 election is "beatable."
"You take a look at the Democrats, what are they talking about? 'We are diverse, we're wide open.' . . . who was leading in their polling data? The 77-year-old white guy followed by a 75-year-old white guy," he said, referring respectively to former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

"This is not what they want," he continued. "I don't think the Democrat party wants to nominate an aging, old, white dinosaur from Jurassic Park and the old-fashioned days of their party. Whoever they nominate, I think they are imminently beatable. I don't think this push to extreme leftist socialism has any chance of being supported by a vast majority of the American people."

Two Tier Justice Cartoons

President Trump: GOP will have ‘far better’ health care plan than Obamacare

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 1:17 PM PT — Wednesday, March 27, 2019

“We are going to be the Republicans, the Party of Great Health Care.” — President Trump

President Trump is doubling down on his commitment to provide better health care for all Americans. While speaking to reporters at the White House, the president said Obamacare is “terrible” and the Democrats have let Americans down. He said he has already gotten rid of the individual mandate, which he described as the worst part of the health care law.
“Obamacare doesn’t work, it’s too expensive, and you take a look at everything with deductibles — it’s a disaster, it’s disaster for our people, we’re not going to allow it to go,” he stated.
The president went on to defend the Trump administration’s decision to stand behind a federal judge’s ruling to strike down all of Obamacare. The Justice Department submitted a filing to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the case could go all way up to the Supreme Court.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Fabiana Rosales, a Venezuelan activist who is the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

“And if the Supreme Court Rules that Obamacare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far-better than Obamacare,” said President Trump
The president has vowed to make the GOP the “Party of Health Care,” and is calling on all Republicans to revive the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Smollett damage control seen in internal email from Foxx's office as she defends 'alternative prosecution model'

CHICAGO – An internal email from the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, obtained by Fox News on Wednesday, asked assistant state's attorneys to dig for any examples to bolster Foxx’s claim that the dropped charges in the Jussie Smollett case weren’t as uncommon or shocking as they seemed.
The email read in part, “We are looking for examples of cases, felony preferable, where we, in (exercising) our discretion, have entered into verbal agreements with defense attorneys to dismiss charges against an offender if certain conditions were met...”
The email added, “Nobody is in trouble, we are just looking for further examples of how we, as prosecutors, use our discretion in a way that restores the victim…”
It was not clear who sent it, and exactly when it was sent. Foxx recused herself from the case last February but defended her office offering Smollett “an alternative prosecution model” in a series of interviews Wednesday.
An internal email from Kim Foxx’s office obtained by Fox News asked workers to dig for examples bolstering Foxx’s claim that the dropped charges in the Jussie Smollett case weren’t as uncommon or shocking as they seemed. (Getty, File)
Illinois Attorney Rod Drobinski told Fox News that because a special prosecutor was not appointed in the Smollett case, there were appearances of impropriety on behalf of Foxx's office. “Even the prosecutor said it was a strong case. That makes it even more unusual that they didn’t demand that he admit to what he did as part of this dismissal.”
Foxx has been defending the decision by her staff to drop charges against the “Empire” actor after investigators revealed he allegedly staged a racist, anti-gay attack.
Foxx told Fox 32 on Wednesday she believed the matter was handled properly for a case of its kind. She pointed to Smollett forfeiting his $10,000 bond and doing community service.
“When we look at similarly situated people charged with this offense, without a background, I think in this case, justice was, um, appropriate,” Foxx told Fox 32 Chicago. “He was availed to an alternative prosecution model that anyone without these riches, without this fame, would also be availed to.”
Cook County prosecutors dismissed all charges but still maintained Smollett lied about being attacked in downtown Chicago on Jan. 29. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel has called the dropping of charges “a whitewash.”
Smollett’s attorney, Patricia Brown Holmes, said in a statement: “We are disappointed the local authorities have continued their campaign against Jussie Smollett after the charges against him have been dropped. The facts are clear.  The Assistant State’s Attorney appeared in court and dismissed the charges. Mr. Smollett forfeited his bond. The case is closed. No public official has the right to violate Mr. Smollett’s due process rights. Mr. Smollett, like every citizen, is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Mr. Smollett is entitled to the same Constitutional protections as any citizen charged by the government with a crime— including the right to speak freely about his innocence, the right to be viewed as innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, and the right to hold the State to its burden of proving him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  None of that has occurred in this case.”
The National District Attorneys Association, which claims to represent roughly 2,700 prosecutors’ offices around the country, heavily criticized Foxx in a statement to Fox News.
“First, when a chief prosecutor recuses him or herself, the recusal must apply to the entire office, not just the elected or appointed prosecutor. This is consistent with best practices for prosecutors’ offices around the country,” the statement began.
It added, “Second, prosecutors should not take advice from politically connected friends of the accused. Each case should be approached with the goal of justice for victims while protecting the rights of the defendant. Third, when a prosecutor seeks to resolve a case through diversion or some other alternative to prosecution, it should be done so with an acknowledgement of culpability on the part of the defendant. A case with the consequential effects of Mr. Smollett’s should not be resolved without a finding of guilt or innocence.”
The statement concluded: “Fourth, expunging Mr. Smollett’s record at this immediate stage is counter to transparency. Law enforcement will now not be able to acknowledge that Mr. Smollett was indicted and charged with these horrible crimes and the full record of what occurred will be forever hidden from public view. Finally, we believe strongly that hate crimes should be prosecuted vigorously but the burden of proof should not be artificially increased due to the misguided decisions of others.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Mueller Probe Exposed Plot to Overthrow President Trump

Americans can learn a great deal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation — it just won’t have anything to do with the Russia collusion hoax.
In the end, Mueller’s $30 million investigative apparatus failed to produce any evidence of collusion between President Trump’s 2016 election campaign and the Russian government, despite nearly two years of intense effort by Mueller’s team of partisan lawyers with extensive ties to the Democratic Party.
As it turns out, the investigation was, indeed, a witch hunt.
With its failure to uncover any evidence of collusion, though, Mueller’s probe led to the revelation of something even more profound — a systemic plot to overthrow President Trump from within the federal government that the American people elected him to lead. Mueller’s findings demonstrate, beyond a doubt, that high-ranking government officials with access to sensitive information and extensive influence over the justice system abused their power to give credence to made-up allegations against the president.
Had it not been for Mueller’s appointment, the American people would likely never have known about the political cabal that was determined to frame Donald Trump for treason and see Hillary Clinton elected president. Although the details emerged gradually from a variety of sources — most notably congressional investigations, leaks, and a bombshell report by the Justice Department’s inspector general — all were either motivated or made relevant by the Special Counsel investigation that dominated the nation’s attention for two years.
Just as then-candidate Trump was surging to a rare lead in the 2016 polls over Hillary Clinton, the FBI opened a secret investigation into the Trump campaign. On July 31, 2016, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe directed agent Peter Strzok to open a counterintelligence investigation dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane” to spy on the Trump Campaign. The evidence? A phony dossier filled with salacious but unverified claims about Donald Trump that was bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign.
For the first time in American history, a candidate for the country’s highest political office was allowed to use America’s intelligence apparatus to spy on an opponent. The agent in charge of surveilling candidate Trump, Peter Strzok, was the same agent who was later caught saying he’d “stop” him from ever becoming president.
“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Strzok’s former mistress Lisa Page asked him in one text. “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded in August 2016, shortly after opening “Crossfire Hurricane.”
Around the same time, Page and Strzok — both of whom would go on to serve on the Special Counsel’s team — had their notorious discussion of the secretive "insurance policy" in case Trump actually became president.

A few months after President Trump’s inauguration, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and his fellow D.C. bureaucrats were secretly plotting to overthrow the duly elected president by engineering a mutiny among his cabinet officials so that they would invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
It’s possible that these failed coup attempts would never have seen the light of day if the plotters hadn’t gone a step too far by orchestrating the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate made-up allegations that the Trump Campaign colluded with Russia. The Mueller investigation kept the public’s attention fixated on the collusion hoax for nearly two years, giving the previous efforts to overturn the results of the 2016 election relevance that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Even though the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate phony collusion claims cooked up by political partisans was a travesty that never should have been allowed to happen, its unintended consequence at least offered a silver lining. Thanks to Robert Mueller’s investigation, we now know that there’s an urgent need to root out political bias and corruption among the career bureaucrats in our most powerful law enforcement agencies entrusted with upholding the rule of law in this country.
As New York City’s 40th Police Commissioner, Bernard Kerik was in command of the NYPD on September 11, 2001, and responsible for the city’s response, rescue, recovery, and the investigative efforts of the most substantial terror attack in world history. His 35-year career has been recognized in more than 100 awards for meritorious and heroic service, including a presidential commendation for heroism by President Ronald Reagan, two Distinguished Service Awards from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and an appointment as Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
The writer is author of the following: "The Grave Above the Grave," "From Jailer to Jailed," and "The Lost Son, A Life in Pursuit of Justice."