DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Trump and his admin refusing to allow congress to investigate.

Trump administration officials ‘contacted Michael Flynn’ about Russia probe

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-administration-officials-contacted-michael-225200824.html

Article 1 US Constitution

Congress has no legal authority whatsoever under the US Constitution to investigate anything or arrest anyone. All Congress can do is:

1. hire an independent official(Mueller) to work WITH the Justice Department to investigate.
2. Ask the Justice Department/FBI to investigate a matter for them.
3. Impeachment

People really need to read the Constitution, its a very simple document will take less than an hour to read.

Barr done nothing illegal, all he done was his job. The Dems got the investigation they wanted, they are just mad Mueller couldn't find anything so they are going to keep beating a horse that is already dead for votes.

Any Investigation Congress is trying to carry out is illegal under our Constitution. They have no motive, they have no tangible evidence, hell they don't even have a preponderance of evidence. All they have is a few talking news heads saying they are "leaking things" or some news report said this...

none of the evidence based on news story The House is using for investigation would stand in any court in the Western World, even the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California would toss this nonsense for what it is...nonsense.

This is the same nonsense they done with Obama, just coming from a different side of the isle. Instead of focusing on his decisions via policy and criticizing him on things that matter, they instead decide to use stupid Conspiracy theories and Christine Blasey Ford type of allegations with no merit.

The news media is disgusting, on both side of the isle.

Congress’s power to investigate has deep roots in our political tradition, and the ability of Congress to investigate is embedded in our national charter, which gives Congress the power to legislate. As the Supreme Court has recognized, “[a] legislative body cannot legislate wisely or effectively in the absence of information respecting the conditions which the legislation is intended to affect or change; and where the legislative body does not itself possess the requisite information—which not infrequently is true—recourse must be had to others who do possess it.” Given its function, the congressional power to investigate is quite broad, “indeed co-extensive with the power to legislate.” Moreover, should the Executive Branch refuse to comply with congressional requests for information, Congress has tools available to enforce its oversight authority, including bringing a civil action in court against recalcitrant Executive Branch officials.

Mnuchin says he won’t comply with subpoena for Trump’s tax returns.

No.

Lock him up.

No can do.

He is the Treasurer.

He is the only one with the combo to the US safe.

Why do the libs insist on using the IRS to get their political enemies, sounds like FASISM to me. IMO

It's odd that you're actually beginning to brag about criminal activity in the Trump White House.

While you openly support a fascist. Oh the irony....

But that's how you twist things. Now you call expecting the truth "getting someone". You present having him be held to the same standard as every other president has been, "fascism". What an odd little man you are.

It is you who told us of our President being a Traitor, Colluding with our enemies and other lies.

Now that he has been proven innocent, you turn on the Attorney General and others.

The whole time you could not and still can not see the true criminal activity has been in the Congress as they abuse their power to the point where no one is listening to them, or you, any more.
The true criminal activity was perpetrated by those at the head of the FBI and CIA, and now in our Congress.

Your day of reckoning is at hand.

And now your latest lie. I said we need to wait until the report comes out to see what's in it. Yet you refuse to look at what's actually in it.



Yet even the man who wrote the report, Mueller, said he couldn't conclude Trump was innocent of obstruction.



It's too bad you believe what the talking heads you follow say more than what the Mueller report actually says. It's too bad that you seem to have no clue that laws give congress the authority to do what they're doing and it's your orange god and his cronies breaking the law. But you'll find out soon enough.

These guys REFUSE to learn, accept or open their minds 40...so damn disgusting! They're the do what I say not as I do haters!


I hope they remember this when Hillary and the rest of those useless Dems get busted here soon but I highly doubt it.

If they did wrong I hope they're punished just as much as Trump and his cronies are for their illegal activities. But so far you've already investigated Hillary for years with nothing.

At least she had bigger balls than Trump and publicly testified before the House Select committee for 11 hours.

Sounds like Trump needs to grow a pair.

No, it is too bad you are small thinking and cannot recognize what is truly happening in our government.

The Congress (legislative branch) has gone on full frontal assault against the President (executive branch) after their refusal to acknowledge the findings of the Special Prosecutor and the findings of the Justice Department.

The Executive Branch will not give up its power to the Legislative Branch and its ploy of harassment and abuse of power.

The Executive Branch is ignoring the subpoenas and other harassing tactics of the legislative Branch.

If it hasn't happened yet, the Executive or the Legislative Branch will turn to the Judicial Branch of our government to solve this situation.

I don't think either side wants the Judicial Branch to decide what powers they lose or keep, so the battle continues.

If as threatened, the Legislative Branch sends the Sergeant at Arms to make Executive Branch arrests, don't be surprised if the Executive Branch sends the Military or Secret Service or whoever to arrest the Sergeant at Arms.

History is being made. Enjoy the show.

They will stop refusing when they are forced to accept the findings of Law enforcement and the Special Prosecutor.

Until then, the battle continues.

I think the handwriting will be on the wall for these guys when Comey is the first person charged as the others turn on each other for less jail time.

The Hamma fears no man.

Soerotor, or whoever he is use the IRS to get (Govt)to get his political enemies like Castro, Mussolini, etal. He enriched Iran with a phoney back door deal,a sworn enemy of the us. Kissed VLADS arse on a hot mike, spied on fox news reporters via illegal wiretap these are some of the fasist facts that I believe are true IMO as you so put it. Watta twisted little boy you are.
Oh and by the way ill throw in your open antisemetic and infanticidal leaders that you adore.

That's your problem. You listen to Barr and and not the findings of the special prosecutor. Those are two completely different things.

Not all Republicans are deaf.

Republican Justin Amash calls for Trump impeachment

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48325968

No, the problem is yours...

"The House Judiciary Committee has issued a subpoena to try and force Mr. McGahn to testify again. The Department of Justice has provided a legal opinion stating that, based on long-standing, bipartisan, and Constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such testimony, and Mr. McGahn has been directed to act accordingly," Sanders said. "This action has been taken in order to ensure that future Presidents can effectively execute the responsibilities of the Office of the Presidency."



The answer to Congressional abuse of power remains...

NO!

Judge orders Trump accounting firm to hand over records to Congress

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/politics/mazars-trump-records/index.html

Now that's what I call balance. Can't wait to see 40 cry about the fascist judges.

No crying, just observing.

First comes the Judges decision which looks to be well thought out.
Opinion-Fine.

Then comes the suspicion. Obama appointed Judge.
Opinion-Hmmmmmm

Then comes the Hit. Only allows 7 days to deliver the documents.
Opinion-No time for them to appeal. Uh huh.

Next we see what happens.

who had control of the senate when he was was confirmed....

Even better than what I imagined. No need to put salt on this popcorn.

Hey, who knows, maybe you guys will finally "Get Trump" this time.

That is what it has been all about with the Democrats.

We will see.

who was in control of the senate when the judge was confirmed?

Republicans are not like Democrats, they wouldn't make accusations, innuendos and character assassinate a Judge just because he is a Lib.

Yeah, if you like comedy on par with male genitalia and fart jokes.


OBSTRUCTION: I don't know how the fed statute is written but where I'm from you can't charge someone with obstruction unless they have actually hindered the investigation in a meaningful way. By all accounts Mueller was able to complete his investigation.

EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE: because the report has been released, it's not likely that it can then be protected under executive privilege. It'd be like putting the cat back in the bottle. BUT anything not in the report I think stands a decent chance of being protected.

Clearly this Congressional "investigation" is nothing but pure political posturing.

But for our friends who believe it has a legitimate purpose:

Pit, OCD, Daman, others... what is there to investigate? Obstruction? If the Mueller Report is abundantly clear that Trump committed obstruction as you guys claim... then why not simply start impeachment proceedings based on that?

Impeachment doesn't require proving your case "beyond a reasonable doubt". All it requires is making a case to convince a sufficient number of votes in favor of impeachment (in the House) and removal (in the Senate).

Trump doesn't have to be indicted in a criminal court in order to justify impeachment. The fact that he wasn't/couldn't face indictment doesn't prevent the initiating of proceedings.

Seriously guys. They don't need anyone to testify, Barr or whomever. You guys are convinced of Trump's guilt based on what you've seen and you don't even have the access Congress does.

You keep supporting further obstruction.

?

Interfering in the right of congress to the oversight of the executive branch by thumbing their noses at congressional subpoenas. Just because someone obstructs in plain sight doesn't mean it isn't obstruction.

See, Don McGhan already testified before. There is no excuse or executive privilege to be claimed after the fact.

Congress, by law has a right to Trump's tax returns. Not supplying those returns, demanding and threatening to sue others if the hand over those returns is obstruction of justice.

And some people sit back and applaud his criminal behavior.

Congress doesn't have "oversight" of the Executive Branch. It's not it's job, it's function, or in it's purview under the Constitution.

All 3 branches are a check on each other, no one branch above the other. Is it too damn much to ask that you self proclaimed defenders of democracy and the Constitution against the evil fascist Trump have a clue what you are talking about?

Geezuz

Yes, McGhan already testified and no executive privilege can or should apply. I essentially said as much in concept.

Congress doesn't have carte blanche to things like tax returns just because they want to see them. Even the President has the same 4th Amendment Rights as we do. Congress has to have a legitimate LEGISLATIVE purpose. If you told me they want his tax returns public for the time he's in office to insure any income outside his Presidential pay is on the level, I'd be cool with that and do you one further by saying ALL the elected officials should have their tax returns public while they are in office.

But a fishing expedition of decades worth of returns to see if anything ever illegal was done is not a legitimate legislative purpose.

And no, refusing to cooperate with Congress is not "obstruction of justice"... it can't be as a point of law because Congress can't prosecute people. It can learn things and recommend/request criminal prosecution from the DOJ, but it is not a law enforcement entity.

Like I said earlier... Congress doesn't need a criminal conviction or the go ahead from a grand jury to impeach. THAT is their check on criminal behavior.

I'm on my phone but I'll keep this short. Mueller found 11 instances of obstruction in his report. After a 2.5 year investigation, one could easily make the argument for hindrance. Especially in regards to Trump's conduct towards Manafort, Flynn and his multiple efforts to fire DoJ officials (Comey and Mueller). The DoJ's current stance is that they do not have the power to indict the President and that is a job for Congress. Which is whatever.

I do not believe Nancy wants to impeach Trump as a way to win the 2020 elections. I also do not believe she has the votes to do so. The Republicans do not want Trump impeached because his personality is now the party. He defeated the moderates and the crazies, and has won the support of the people of the GOP. So the Establishment does not want to upset their base, because they fear that they will be voted out like they were when the Tea Party came about.

Those are my thoughts.

Oversight of the Executive by Congress does not mean Congress is above the Executive. It just means that Congress is intended to act as oversight in the event the Executive abuses its power or otherwise commits actions considered impeachable.

This administration is going all in on the idea of the "unitary executive" and it will be up to the courts to determine whether the President does indeed hold that power or not. If the president is found to be unable to be challenged by either the Executive or Legislative branches, then they are an absolute unitary executive and no oversight applies to them. I personally find that scary, but there have been proponents of the unitary executive in the past. Dick Cheney was one, many in Reagan's and Nixon's admin also. If you liken the president to being the CEO of the United States, then you'd like a strong unitary executive. If you feel the 3 branches of the government should be co-equal, you likely find the idea of a strong unitary executive to be scary and to have strong tyrannical potential.

First on CNN: Justice Department willing to hand over counterintelligence if Schiff backs off 'enforcement action'
CNN Digital Expansion 2017
By Laura Jarrett, CNN

Updated 2:27 PM ET, Tue May 21, 2019


(CNN)The Justice Department is trying to stave off an "enforcement action" against Attorney General William Barr this week, making a rare offer to have the House Intelligence Committee review materials from special counsel Robert Mueller's report if House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff agrees to back down.

Last week Schiff said that he would hold a business meeting Wednesday to take an unspecified action against the Justice Department for not providing the committee documents related to Volume I of Mueller's report on links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
The Justice Department had previously offered to show all committee members a less redacted version of the Mueller report, but now says it's continuing to review the initial tranche of 12 categories of documents Schiff wants, and will make them available "in relatively short order," according to a letter obtained by CNN.
"The Department has already begun the process of identifying, locating and reviewing the materials potentially responsive to the categories of documents," Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote Tuesday, "a process that will not continue should the Committee take the unnecessary and unproductive step of moving to hold the Attorney General in contempt."
Boyd's letter also confirms that last week's offer of having all members of the House Intelligence Committee review the less redacted version of the Mueller report remains on the table -- and it now extends to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
CNN has reached out to Schiff's office for comment.

Trump’s taxes: 1924 law gives Congress authority to see returns

https://www.accountingtoday.com/articles...-to-see-returns

Congressional oversight of the executive branch is a critical part of the United States federal government’s system of checks and balances. This report provides an overview of the major forms of congressional oversight as well as the organizations involved. Congressional oversight processes include those related to investigations, impeachment, confirmation of nominees, appropriations, authorization, and budget. Congress conducts much of its oversight through committees, with the support of a number of federal agencies and offices that investigate, audit, and provide information and analysis on executive branch activities.

https://www.loc.gov/law/help/parliamentary-oversight/unitedstates.php

You can have your own opinion, but not your own facts.

Justice Department does not comply with court order to release transcripts of Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russian ambassador

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...e24f_story.html

Get your popcorn ready, it's about to hit the fan!

The time has come to break out the handcuffs and quit letting these people break the law.

Been time for that. Time for firing squads now if you ask me.

I've never been a supporter for firing squads and I won't follow the lead of those I see as selling their morals down the river. It would make me no better than them.