Rosenstein slams Comey for becoming a 'partisan pundit'

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein criticized former FBI Director James Comey for becoming a “partisan pundit” in the two years since he was fired by President Donald Trump.

In some of Rosenstein’s first extended remarks since leaving the Justice Department last week, the former deputy attorney general called Comey’s dismissal, which set off a firestorm in Washington and resulted in the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, “reasonable under the circumstances,” citing Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Rosenstein, who authored the memo that the Trump administration initially held up as the reason for Comey’s firing, said the president did not tell him what to put in that memo. And he said that though he didn’t dislike Comey — “On the contrary, I admired him personally” — the former FBI director crossed certain “bright lines” that were “not within the realm of reasonable decisions.”

“I would be the last one to condemn anyone for a judgment call,” Rosenstein said in remarks to the Greater Baltimore Committee's annual meeting. “These jobs are difficult. They involve choices that invite criticism.”

Still, the former deputy attorney general said “the clearest mistake” Comey made was announcing his recommendation about the investigation into Clinton’s private email server at a news conference in which he discussed “details about the investigation without the informed consent of the prosecutors and the attorney general.” He also criticized Comey for his letter to lawmakers in the 2016 presidential campaign's final days informing them the Clinton email investigation had been reopened.

The former deputy attorney general said that had he been in Trump’s shoes when the president was deciding whether to fire Comey in 2017, he would have included “a more balanced analysis of the pros and cons.” He also said he would have ensured Comey’s dismissal was carried out with “far more respect and far less drama,” alluding to Comey finding out about his dismissal on TV during a trip to Los Angeles.

“So I do not blame the former director for being angry. I would be too if I were in his shoes,” Rosenstein said. "But now the former director seems to be acting as a partisan pundit, selling books and earning speaking fees while speculating about the strength of my character and the fate of my immortal soul. I kid you not."

Rosenstein’s criticism of Comey is the latest salvo in what has evolved into a war of words between the two former colleagues. Comey has become a major public figure in the wake of his dismissal and has been at times lauded as a hero by Trump’s critics. Several weeks ago, Comey penned an op-ed in The New York Times ripping into Attorney General William Barr and accusing Barr and others in Trump’s administration of lacking the “inner strength” to stand up to the president and writing that Trump “eats your soul in small bites.” In a televised town hall last week, Comey described Rosenstein to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as a person “of accomplishment but not real sterling character, strong character.”

"That is disappointing," Rosenstein shot back Monday. "Speculating about souls is not a job for police and prosecutors."

But while he defended Trump’s decision to fire Comey and his own role in the move, Rosenstein criticized the president’s manner of doing so and called the department’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia justified and said he would never have let anyone interfere with that investigation.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/14/rod-rosenstein-james-comey-doj-1319967

Sex Cult Sponsor Made Illegal Donations to Hillary Clinton's Campaign – Report

The cult, which was exposed last year, reportedly sought political favours from the former presidential hopeful and for that purpose came up with a scheme to overcome limitations on campaign contributions.

Clare Bronfman, an heir to the billionaire philanthropist Edgar Bronfman and a benefactor to the NXIVM marketing company, which is considered by US authorities to be a cover for a sex cult, conducted an illegal fundraising campaign in support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008, the New York Post reported, citing testimonies of former cult member Mark Vicente.

https://sputniknews.com/us/201905141075007969-sex-cult-sponsor-clinton-campaign/

SPUTNIK! Not really sauce but interesting that they are blasting this today.

Democrats Cling to Hillary at Expense of Nation's Future

In a recent BBC interview, Nigel Farage, leader of the Britain’s Brexit party (the group that advocates for the U.K. to leave the European Community) condemned those who refused to acknowledge the wishes of the British people to remain a sovereign nation.

Painting with a broad, but accurate, brush, Farage declared, "You're in denial, the BBC is in denial, the Conservatives are in denial, the Labour party is in denial."

Something similar is going on in the politics of this country.

The Democrats and their allies in the media cling to the belief that somehow there must be something illegitimate in Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.

The Russia collusion delusion having been exploded by Robert Mueller, there has been a quick shift to the Barr canard, the ridiculous suggestion that somehow U.S. Atty. Gen. William Barr misrepresented to Congress and the people that the president was innocent of obstruction of justice.

Wiser heads realize, of course, that the president, if he obstructed anything, was obstructing injustice, that is, he was seeking to counter the wrongful use of federal investigative and intelligence agencies by Obama administration officials and the Clinton campaign to undermine his campaign and later his presidency.

We should soon see prosecutions of those errant officials, but it is time to come to grips with the source of the denial of those who still seek to tarnish this president and his administration.

Even without training in psychology it is easy to understand that when one’s most basic values are threatened, when it is demonstrated that one’s basic assumptions about reality are shattered, one does not easily accommodate.

Human nature being what it is, it is more common to indulge in fantasy that supports one’s former views than to make the difficult adjustment to actual reality.

Progressives and the left believed with former President Obama that the arc of history was bending in their direction, but they were deceived. What history actually teaches us is that humans flourish when they adhere to a traditional set of moral values, and when their primary loyalties are to God, to their families, to their "little platoons" as Edmund Burke called them (their local, fraternal, ecclesiastical and charitable organizations), and to their country itself.

Hillary Clinton (following in the steps of President Obama) stood, for many Americans, as a repudiator of these traditional values and loyalties, and the current advocates of Democratic Socialism such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., similarly spurn what, in Donald Trump’s felicitous phrasing, made America great.

Someday the mainstream media may acknowledge this reality, and the scales may fall from the eyes of Mr. Trump’s enemies. Their blindness now causes them to rail against him, and to imagine he is everything he is not.

Fortunately, given time, misconceptions tend to dissipate, especially when good men and women of faith and courage bear appropriate witness. That task now falls to the Trump administration and its supporters, as well as those now investigating the perpetrators of the Russia hoax.

The true friends of the Constitution are not those in Congress who seek wrongly to harass the president and his family by endless political proceedings having nothing to do with the needs of the nation.

The show trials sought to be conducted by congressional enemies of the president may play to the zeal and financial support of the Democratic base and may strengthen the position of some Democrats among their supporters.

They will do nothing, however, to preserve the rule of law, or to restore the foundation of shared beliefs on which this country, Great Britain, and, indeed, many other nations, depend.

https://www.newsmax.com/stephenbpresser/electoral-college-farage-uk/2019/05/14/id/915952/

On a lighter and more positive note, lets all list our favorite Israeli foods!

We can save the best for last, and make a Middle East QAnon cook book!