Ratcliffe New Director Of National Intelligence -- Investigation Of Investigators Heats Up

The Justice Department is now conducting a review of the Trump-Russia investigation and top Republican investigators are saying those who committed crimes during the investigation will be brought to justice and held accountable.

With Attorney General William Barr and Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz spearheading the investigation, Rep. John Radcliffe (R-TX) said during a Fox News interview Sunday that he trusts they will provide answers.

Radcliffe went on to say that he has no intentions of pointing any fingers at anyone before knowing the facts, despite Democrats doing just that to Trump. He emphasized that it is clear criminal activity took place during the Obama administration and that included his government officials.

On “Sunday Morning Futures” in an interview with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo, Ratcliffe stated,


“I think the first thing we need to do is make sure we don’t do what the Democrats have done.”

“They accused Donald Trump of a crime and then they try and reverse engineer a process to justify that accusation. So I’m not going to accuse any specific person of any specific crime, I just want there to be a fair process to get there. What I do know as a former federal prosecutor is that it does appear that there were crimes committed during the Obama administration.”

The House Judiciary and Intelligence committee member is reportedly replacing Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence. Dan Coats' last day in office will be August 15th. President Trump just announced,

"I am pleased to announce that highly respected Congressman John Ratcliffe of Texas will be nominated by me to be the Director of National Intelligence. A former U.S Attorney, John will lead and inspire greatness for the Country he loves."

Ratcliffe himself was particularly critical of special counsel Robert Mueller’s struggle during his testimony in front of the committee last Wednesday. Majority of questions from the GOP line honed in on the origination of the investigation but Mueller refused to answer with the excuse that it is “outside my purview.” 

Ratcliffe went on to note the importance of filing in the gaps that US Attorney John Durham has been tasked to do by Barr.

“Now that the things that Bob Mueller said he didn’t know about and his team clearly didn’t look at, those things that would be fair for Bill Barr and the Department of Justice to look at. Because we know that things happen in the Obama administration that haven’t been answered. There’s been no accountability for that yet.”
“Well, the special counsel told us ... that they didn’t do it. And that if they didn’t do it, the only place we can get answers is from the Justice Department right now”.

“The American people want that.  Their faith and trust, Maria, has been shaken in our Justice Department, and the only way to get that back is for there to be real accountability with a very fair process.  Again, I have supreme confidence in Bill Barr’s ability to deliver that.  And at the end of the day, wherever the outcome may be, as long as we know that the process was fair, the evaluation was fair, justice will be done.  Look, the truth always defends itself.”

The current investigation into alleged government surveillance of Trump campaign advisors, including advisor Carter Page, is also being closely followed by Barr. He expects the investigation to be completed this fall and prosecutorial action could be taken depending on the results and recommendations.

Ratcliffe has recommended three leads for the “investigation of the investigators.”

The first was in relation to former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Ratcliffe stated,

“You talked earlier about Michael Flynn. His phone call with the Russian ambassador was a highly classified NSA intercept.  Someone in the Obama administration leaked that call to the Washington Post. That’s a felony.”

In February of 2018 when Jeff Sessions was Attorney General, he promised that the Justice Department was already investigating that leak and that he himself has been overseeing the progress and at the time stated, “I am directing it personally and we’re pushing it aggressively.”

Secondly, Ratcliffe suggested that investigators check out a conflicting congressional testimony between Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson.

Fusion GPS was the opposing research firm behind the British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier.  The dossier was made up of unverified claims of Trump colluding with Russia and was the primary source of information used by the FBI to justify the surveillance of Page. Ratcliffe stated,

“Glenn Simpson from Fusion GPS in talking about the Steele dossier, said under oath that he and Bruce Ohr did not meet until after the election. Bruce Ohr said under oath that they met three months before the election. One of them is not telling the truth. We need a process to identify that.”

Ratcliffe‘s third recommendation of interest is former FBI Director, James Comey’s memos on his interactions with Trump before being fired in May of 2017.

“Where it all started, Jim Comey. He admitted that he leaked his confidential conversations with the president to a reporter. Did that include classified information? We need a fair process to find out answers to that,” said Ratcliffe.

Comey himself admitted that he leaked one of his memos to a friend to leak out to the press with the intent that it “might prompt the appointment of special counsel.” The first Comey memo was reported on May 16th, 2017 and the very next day then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to serve as special counsel.

Ratcliffe went on to say,

“I trust, because Bill Barr has earned my trust already and the trust of the American people, that there’ll be a fair process with John Durham and with Michael Horowitz to get answers to that and provide accountability where it really belongs.”

Ultimately we are forced to wait in anticipation as the drama unfolds. But while there is injustice, justice can only be served once the facts are exposed. Time will tell what comes to light, but this investigation will undoubtedly go down in the history books as a turning point in American politics.

Source:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-taps-rep-john-ratcliffe-to-be-the-next-director-of-national-intelligence

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/john-ratcliffe-ag-william-barr-will-deliver-justice-to-any-obama-officials-who-committed-crimes

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dan-coats-dni-director-national-intelligence-expected-resign

Author: 777 Media Source