Republicans Just Launched A Scheme To Shield Trump From Russian Scandal
Congressional Republicans are extremely concerned about the flurry of leaks that exposed the secret calls between Trump’s former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn. House and Senate have united in their determination to investigate the matter.
But they don’t care about the revelations that the leaks have produced, despite the fact that Flynn’s conduct was potentially treasonous – they’re intent on silencing the leakers themselves and put a halt to the constant undermining of President Trump, and by extension their own, legitimacy and authority.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has announced that he will be forming a special committee to investigate the leaks, ferret out the leakers, and prevent the public from knowing what’s actually happening behind closed White House doors.
In a letter to the Inspector-General of the Justice Department, which is now run by Trump lackey Jeff Sessions, Chaffetz announced that:
We have serious concerns about the potential inadequate protection of classified information here. … In light of this, we request that your office begin an immediate investigation into whether classified information was mishandled here.
The hypocrisy here is just mind-blowing. After using his committee to conduct an endless witch-hunt into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over unfounded concerns that she mishandled classified information on her private email server, Chaffetz seemingly doesn’t care that the Donald Trump Administration was aware that Michael Flynn was potentially compromised and vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians, but left him with access to highly classified information for weeks.
Never mind the fact that just last week Trump conducted a high-level national security discussion in front of unsecured civilian diners at Mar-a-Lago.
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) have both come out in support of the plan to investigate the leakers and ignore the trail to the Oval Office. It is absolutely reprehensible that they would put their partisan agenda ahead of the security of our nation, and we must hold them accountable.
Speaker Ryan: "What I do worry about though, is if classified information is being leaked. That is criminal" https://t.co/V75X42IGFh
— CNN (@CNN) February 16, 2017
