The Federalist Pages No. 38: Feinstein Goes Rogue

The Federalist Pages No. 38:
January 10, 2018
Feinstein Goes Rogue
A Judge Halts Trump's DACA Order
Mueller Wants To Talk To Trump
 
by
Rep. Julio Gonzalez, M.D., J.D.
 
The Transcript
 
In an unauthorized move, on January 9th, Senator Feinstein released, in its entirety, the transcript of the August 22, 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee interview of Fusion GPS director, Glenn Simpson.  The interview was part of the Senate's investigation into potential acts of collusion between Russia and then candidate Donald Trump.  It is from this interview that we get information regarding Christopher Steele's activities with Fusion and information regarding the meeting that took place between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian operatives.
Although the release of the entirety of the transcripts brings little extra information to light regarding Fusion's findings and the funding of Fusion activities, there are a few points that stand out.
First, it was Christopher Steele who suggested that Simpson go to the FBI with the information they had just obtained regarding potential cooperation between the Trump Campaign and foreign operatives.  Recall that Steele was the former British intelligence officer hired by Fusion to look into potential ties between the Trump campaign and foreign operatives.  It was Steele that produced the now mostly debunked Russian Dossier that was a) largely funded by the Democratic National Committee; and b) laced with false information provided by the Russians. 
What a coincidence that Steele would be the one to first suggest that Fusion go to the FBI to suggest launching an investigation into the Trump Campaign!
All of this suggests one of two things.  Either Steele is the absolute worst spy in the world and is lucky to be alive in light of his foolhardiness, or Steele is a willing conspirator with the Democrats and the Russians to frame Donald Trump.  Interesting that the press is not evaluating Steele's motivations further.
Second, it appears the reason why Simpson felt comfortable approaching the FBI regarding Trump is because there was a corroborating source inside the Campaign.  Who was this source?  How reliable was he?  And was it Steele himself who discovered this "source"?
The transcript does not shed much light on this topic because of Simpson's and his attorney's, Joshua Levy, interest in protecting their sources.  After all, said Levy, someone had already been killed as a result of the release of the Dossier!
This last point is absolutely fascinating, but perhaps even more intriguing is the total lack of follow up by the Judiciary Committee's lawyers.  There were no questions from the attorneys regarding who was killed, the circumstances by which he or she was killed, and for what reason. 
In a moment of shear incompetence, the comment was just allowed to sit there, unaddressed.
And there is one more implication to the release of the transcript by Senator Feinstein: the damage to the credibility of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Recall that Simpson sat before the Committee voluntarily.  Ostensibly, he did this as the result of a willingness to cooperate with the investigation.  No subpoena was issued, but at the beginning of the inquiry, the lawyers told Simpson that the interview was confidential and that he was prohibited from discussing it with anyone outside of that room. 
Admittedly, Simpson has called for the release of the transcript, so potentially, there was no angst on his part regarding the unauthorized actions of Senator Feinstein. 
But consider this.  What do you think this breach of confidentiality will do to the willingness of witnesses to cooperate with future investigations? 
The answer, of course, is decidedly negative.
 
The DACA ruling
 
In another striking development on January 9, Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee from San Francisco, issued an injunctive order prohibiting President Trump from moving forward with the rescindment of President Obama's DACA order.  Although it only applied to established DACA applicants and left untouched the ban on future applications, the order is offensive nevertheless, and demonstrates the terrible problem plaguing our country as a result of the actions of activist judges.
Essentially, the plaintiffs, which included the State of California, argued that President Trump has acted randomly and capriciously in removing the DACA order because, amongst other reasons, he did not give notice and did not allow of a period of public commentary prior to issuing his rescindment. 
But here's the thing, neither did Obama. Obama himself issued his own DACA order singlehandedly, without due process, and outside any compliance with any statutory requirements.  So, when President Trump acted to discontinue the DACA order, he was actually rescinding an illegal act, making Alsup's ruling even more egregious. 
Additionally, the judge applied his order to the whole nation.  This latter issue is particularly problematic as it is allowing the judiciary to paralyze policy decisions on a national scale even though the district of any particular judge does not encompass a large geographical area.
This latter problem is actually one that can be fixed by Congress.  Congress has the authority to create and defined the powers of the lower courts.  As evidenced by the results of this case, it is time for Congress to limit the scope of judicial orders to only the geographical extent of their district.
 
 
Mueller Wants to Speak to the President.
 
Recently, we have been getting indications that Special Counsel on Russian Collusion, Robert Mueller, wants to speak to the President of the United States in conjunction with his investigation.  Of course, it comes as no surprise that Mueller would have questions for Donald Trump, but Donald Trump, as President of the United States doesn't have to comply.  As a matter of fact, any counsel's inclination when representing the President ought to be to prevent such an interview from happening. 
But apparently, President Trump wants to speak to Mueller in the hopes that such a conversation would finally result in the end of the Mueller's misguided investigation.  After all this time investigating potential avenues of Russian collusion between the Trump campaign and any foreign operatives, Mueller has not yet found any significant evidence for it.  The whole effort has been a disaster for the Democrats who could not stand to face the reality that their darling candidate, Hillary Clinton, had lost to Trump.  So, they launched these phony charges of collusion in an attempt to have Trump removed from office; except that there was no collusion.
So we are now left with a situation where all this money and energy has been expended just to find that what Trump had been saying all along was true.
Perhaps even more intriguing are the topics that Mueller wishes to discuss with Trump.  Mueller wants to talk to Trump about Flynn and Comey's firing, and not about Russian collusion.
What does this mean to Donald Trump?  It means that the end of the investigation is likely coming to an end, and that, defeated, Mueller is finding no evidence of collusion.
Just like President Trump said.