Justice Department tells Lindsey Graham Rod Rosenstein will recuse himself from oversight of Robert Mueller if ‘deemed appropriate’

A top Justice Department official has told Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will continue in his oversight role of special counsel Robert Mueller, and will only recuse himself if “deemed appropriate by department officials.”

The South Carolina Republican had written to Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller’s probe, asking if he should recuse himself due to a conflict of interest.

In a Wednesday letter obtained by the Washington Examiner, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd writes that “investigations of ongoing efforts by foreign agents to influence our government are complex and extraordinarily important.”

“Nonetheless, [Rosenstein] would recuse from all or part of any matter if recusal were deemed appropriate by Department officials who are informed about the matter,” wrote Boyd. “Otherwise, he has a responsibility to fulfill his oath to well and faithfully execute the duties of his office.”

DOJ Letter to Graham on Rosenstein recusal by Washington Examiner on Scribd

Graham is expected to respond to the letter later Wednesday in an interview with Fox News.

In his May 31 letter, Graham asked Rosenstein if he considers himself a potential witness in Mueller’s investigation.

“If not, why not?” he wrote. “If so, should you recuse yourself from further interactions with and oversight of the Mueller investigation?”

Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in May 2017 after the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Rosenstein is acting attorney general in this situation, and has oversight into every move the Mueller investigation makes. He is also the only DOJ official with constitutional authority to fire the special counsel.

Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to the Trump campaign. He is also investigating if President Trump obstructed justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey, which happened less than two weeks before Mueller was appointed.

Graham noted that Trump relied on a memo written by Rosenstein to fire Comey, and wondered if that could be the source of a potential Rosenstein-Mueller conflict.

Graham's questioning of Rosenstein now makes him one of the lone Senate Republicans who has thus far waded into a tense situation between Trump-allied House Republicans and the Justice Department.

House Republicans have accused Rosenstein and the Justice Department of stonewalling their attempts to get access to documents they've requested about various matters, from the Russia investigation to the Hillary Clinton email probe — though the Justice Department and FBI have turned over thousands of pages of documents, and briefed certain lawmakers on those documents.

The pressure from Graham, a top Senate Republican, adds yet another layer to the public criticisms of Sessions by President Trump, who has renewed attacks against his attorney general in recent days for recusing himself from the Russia investigation in the first place.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice-department-tells-lindsey-graham-rod-rosenstein-will-recuse-himself-from-oversight-of-robert-mueller-if-deemed-appropriate

Top Senate Republican unveils bill to overturn Trump tariffs

A top Senate Republican unveiled a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would allow Congress to overturn President Trump’s recent burst of tariffs with a simple-majority vote.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker accused Trump of “abusing” the authority to impose tariffs in the name of national security. The legislation presents a challenge to the White House’s argument that steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union hurt U.S. national security, and necessitate tariffs.

“If the president truly believes invoking Section 232 is necessary to protect the United States from a genuine threat, he should make the case to Congress and to the American people and do the hard work necessary to secure congressional approval,” Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said Wednesday.

Corker’s bill would create a fast-track process for overturning the tariffs. The legislation, if adopted, would create a 60-day period in which Congress could review such tariffs and vote on a resolution of approval.

The bill is designed to “guarantee a vote” on the resolution by stipulating that a debate on the resolution cannot be filibustered. And because it “would apply to all Section 232 actions moving forward, as well as those taken within the past two years,” it would ease the path to reversing the president’s most recent trade policies.

“In general, these kinds of tariffs are a big mistake, and using national security as an excuse is a bigger mistake,” Sen. Lamar Alexander — another Tennessee Republican who chairs the committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions — said of the bill.

Trump’s team defended the tariffs as a necessary tool to force trade reform.

“Don’t blame Trump. Blame the nations that have broken away from those conditions,” Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters Wednesday. “I think free world trade is a very good thing indeed. But it is broken, and President Trump is trying to fix it. And that’s the key point.”

But the senators argue that Trump can’t use Section 232 to advance that goal.

“Making claims regarding national security to justify what is inherently an economic question not only harms the very people we all want to help and impairs relations with our allies but also could invite our competitors to retaliate,” Corker said.

The legislation is co-sponsored by leading Senate Democrats, including one of the most vulnerable lawmakers up for re-election this year.

“The implications of these tariffs are significant – on our own producers and businesses because of retaliatory tariffs we’re now seeing and on our relationships with our allies who could use the same claims of national security to impose tariffs on us,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said Wednesday. “Huge economic policy decisions like tariffs shouldn’t be taken lightly, and Congress should serve as a needed check to make sure we aren’t losing out in the end.”

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/top-senate-republican-unveils-bill-to-overturn-trump-tariffs

Ted Cruz explodes over new report on Obama's 'secret agreement' with Iran: 'Devil's bargain'

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, condemned actions taken by the Obama administration that gave Iran access to the U.S. financial system and subsequent untruths administration officials delivered about the role that access played in negotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Despite senior Obama administration officials testifying that "Iranian access to the U.S. financial system was not on the table" during negotiations of President Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran, "the U.S. Department of the Treasury, at the direction of the U.S. State Department, granted a specific license that authorized a conversion of Iranian assets worth billions of U.S. dollars using the U.S. financial system," a Wednesday report from Republicans on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations claims.

"The Obama Iran nuclear deal was a devil's bargain, but one exclusively designed to help the devil," Cruz said in a statement responding to Wednesday's report. "The Obama administration covertly greased the nuclear deal with bribes and secret agreements that made it even worse for America. Over the years we've discovered some of them: There was the nuclear side deal to let Iran inspect itself. There was the ransom deal that gave Iran $1.7 billion in cash. There were several wire transfers from America to Iran, ranging from roughly $1 million to $10 million, including a purchase of excess nuclear-related material that Iran never should have been producing and America did not need from them."

Cruz noted that "the Obama administration was even working in secret to circumvent the weaker sanctions left over from the nuclear deal - and they were lying to Congress about it."

"They subordinated American law and the U.S. financial system to the deal, hatching a scheme that would have put the U.S. dollar and U.S. banks to work moving money for the Iranians," he continued.

The Texas Senator said the government owes "it to the American people to get to the bottom of whatever else the Obama administration sacrificed at the altar of the Iran deal."

Cruz said it is time to give the public access to "all of the many unclassified documents outlining what Iran was actually promised," in order to discover other possible, "secret agreements" within the JCPOA.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ted-cruz-explodes-over-new-report-on-obamas-secret-agreement-with-iran-devils-bargain

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Time for Bob Corker to get out sooner rather than later, before his term is up.