Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham Lets Democrats Know, ‘Impeachment’s a Dead Cat’
Dec. 23, 2019 (EIRNS)—Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, told Fox News yesterday “This is the latest in a series of constitutional train wrecks orchestrated by Nancy Pelosi.” The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to send impeachment to the Senate this week. After voting up impeachment on Dec. 18, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is delaying sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 majority. “Impeachment is a dead cat. The Democrats should stop playing with it,” Graham asserted.
On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Graham told host Maria Bartiromo, yesterday, when she raised the original investigation of Trump, and the FBI’s abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act:
“So, the Horowitz report is the first step in a long journey regarding FISA abuse. ... No, Comey, it wasn’t sloppy; it was criminal. I’m going to call every person who signed the warrant application.... We’re going to look long and hard at FISA abuse; we’re going to pass laws to make sure this never happens again. Accountability will only be successful if somebody gets fired, and I’m looking at Christopher Wray to fire somebody at the FBI. And somebody needs to go to jail, and I’m looking Durham to hold people criminally accountable for the laws they broke....
“Did President Obama know about the counterintelligence surveillance of the Trump campaign? Did Vice President Biden know? How much information was provided to Susan Rice? I want to know how far up the chain the investigation went. I want to know why so many people could sign a warrant application so flawed....”
The Senator described the irregular and apparently unlawful procedures the Justice Department employed in its zeal to have President Donald Trump impeached. He showed, for example, that in May 2017, former Rep. Trey Gowdy questioned former CIA Director John Brennan, airing a clip from Gowdy’s questioning in Intelligence Committee hearings: “Do you know if the Bureau ever relied on the Steele dossier as any—as part of any court filings, applications, petitions, pleadings?” Brennan replied, “I have no awareness.” “Did the CIA rely on it?” “No.” Asked why not, Brennan continued, “It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had.” Graham simply said this was false, and he wanted to know if the CIA was part of an effort to get to the media the fact that Trump was “under investigation.”
Graham clearly suspects that the FBI and CIA actively worked, along with Steele, to get the dossier out to, and in, the media. He said he “would let [U.S. Attorney] John Durham decide” whether Brennan had committed perjury in that exchange with Gowdy. And how far “up the chain” this process went: “I want to know did President Obama, was he aware of the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign? And I’d be shocked if he was not,” Graham said.
Graham said after the impeachment trial is over,
“Working with Senator Johnson and Grassley, I’m going to ask questions about the role Hunter Biden played after Burisma came under investigation, after they raided the president of Burisma’s home. He picks up the phone. He calls the State Department.... So, the double standard here is unbelievable,”
Graham said.
