On Monday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show,” Klavan talks about the upcoming inspector general (IG) report about the FISA abuse in the Trump-Russia probe. Video and partial transcript below: 
The IG report is coming out. Now, this is the interesting thing, because this entire impeachment charade has been to mask the malfeasance — I have now used the word “malfeasance” twice in one show, which is a record, I think — of the Obama administration. The scandal-free Obama administration, which spied on Donald Trump. 
So now there&#8217;s a story that has come out, CNN broke the story and it was in The Wall Street Journal as well, and remember — Kimberley Strassel came on, from The Wall Street Journal, and told us not to think that this IG report is going to be a big deal. It&#8217;s supposed to come out in full on December 9, and she said, [paraphrasing] “don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to be a big deal. It is the Durham report from the DOJ that&#8217;s the big deal.” 
But here&#8217;s from The Wall Street Journal:
<blockquote>The Justice Department&#8217;s inspector general is expected to conclude there was a proper legal basis for the government&#8217;s application to monitor a former Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser. &#8230;</blockquote>
This is Carter Page — 
<blockquote>&#8230; [B]ut that errors and lapses in judgment were made during the process, according to people familiar with the matter. </blockquote>
The usual sources —
<blockquote>Among the findings identified in the report is that an FBI lawyer altered an email related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser, people familiar with the matter said Friday. The conduct didn&#8217;t change the watchdog&#8217;s overall conclusion.</blockquote>
So in other words, they&#8217;re saying the IG is going to say, “No, it was right to monitor Carter Page, but somebody tinkered with the FISA warrant, with the information on the FISA warrant.”
Now, first of all, there&#8217;s so much about this that needs to be unpacked, the fact that it broke on CNN, [which] now has Andrew McCabe — he&#8217;s a CNN commentator. They&#8217;ve got all these FBI commentators of the former general counsel, I’m getting this from Andrew McCarthy at National Review. James Baker is a frequent CNN guest, so these are the people spinning the IG report, before it comes out, hoping to make it &#8230; as unimportant as they possibly can. 
This is a Deep State enterprise, to make it seem that the FBI did nothing wrong. But first of all, the first thing you should remember is that Rod Rosenstein — this is back in June of last year — he was before the House Judiciary Committee doing an oversight of the FBI, and Matt Gaetz had him on the ropes, and he was saying, [paraphrasing] “When you signed these FISA reports, did you even read them? Did anybody brief you on them?” 
But I want to play the second cut by Rod Rosenstein, where he&#8217;s trying to explain the process by which he approved of these FISA warrants. Listen to this: 
<blockquote>ROSENSTEIN: We sit down with a team of attorneys from the Department of Justice, all of whom review that, provide a briefing for us about what&#8217;s in it, and sir I’ve reviewed that one in some detail, and I can tell you, sir, that the information that&#8217;s public about that doesn&#8217;t match with my understanding of the one that I signed.</blockquote>
So in other words, he was told what was in the FISA warrant — he was briefed on it by guys like Peter Strzok and all the other FBI characters, and he signed off on it. Then it came in and he said, “Wait, that&#8217;s not what you told me was in this report,” and obviously what we&#8217;re talking about is the fact that they used this Steele dossier, paid for by the Clinton campaign, as evidence that they should be able to to spy on Donald Trump. 
Now, what they&#8217;re talking about — and this is something that Adam Schiff does all the time, you’ve heard him do it before — he keeps saying that Trump denies it was Russian interference in the election. That&#8217;s not the case. He keeps saying that when Trump says there was Ukrainian interference in the election, that means he&#8217;s denying that there was Russian interference in the election. That&#8217;s not the case. There can both be Russian interference and Ukrainian interference, and according to Politico, the Democrats were working with the Ukrainians to get dirt on Donald Trump or to get things that were helpful to Hillary Clinton.
So none of this is what Trump is saying. You know, all that Trump is saying, “I didn&#8217;t do it. I&#8217;m not with the Russians. I&#8217;m not working with the Russians,” which turned out, as we know from the Mueller report, turns out to be absolutely true. That&#8217;s why Trump is saying, let&#8217;s have a trial. …
Of course, he wants a trial in the Senate. He&#8217;ll waltz back into the White House if there&#8217;s a trial in the Senate. 
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-andrew-klavan-show/id1045171376?mt=2">Listen to full episodes of “The Andrew Klavan Show” on iTunes.</a> 
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Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe Testifies To House Committee On FBI’s Budget

KLAVAN: CNN Actually Broke A Story About The Deep State.

Donald Trump

Rod J. Rosenstein

Russia

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein slammed former FBI Director James Comey for becoming a &#8220;partisan pundit&#8221; after President Trump fired him, cashing in by &#8220;selling books and earning speaking fees.&#8221;
Rosenstein also said Comey&#8217;s dismissal by Trump was &#8220;reasonable under the circumstances.&#8221;
The former deputy attorney general, who left the Justice Department last week, delivered a speech Monday to business leaders in Baltimore. He addressed Comey&#8217;s recent op-ed piece in which the former FBI director said &#8220;Trump eats your soul in small bites.&#8221;
&#8220;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,&#8221; Rosenstein said. &#8220;I kid you not. That is disappointing.&#8221;
&#8220;Speculating about souls is not a job for police and prosecutors. Generally, we base our opinions on eyewitness testimony,&#8221; he said.
Rosenstein said he once &#8220;admired&#8221; Comey &#8212; who was reportedly beloved in the Bureau &#8212; but his view changed after his mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, in which he cleared the Democratic presidential candidate in unusual fashion.
&#8220;The clearest mistake was the director&#8217;s decision to hold a press conference about an open case, reveal his recommendation and discuss details about the investigation, without the consent of the prosecutors and the attorney general,&#8221; Rosenstein said. &#8220;Then, he chose to send a letter to the Congress on the eve of the election stating that one of the candidates was under criminal investigation, expecting it to be released immediately to the public.&#8221;
&#8220;Those actions were not within the range of reasonable decisions. They were inconsistent with our goal of communicating to all FBI employees that they should respect the attorney general&#8217;s role, refrain from disclosing information about criminal investigations, avoid disparaging uncharged persons, and above all, not take unnecessary steps that could influence an election,&#8221; Rosenstein said.
During the summer preceding the 2016 presidential election, Comey held a dramatic, last-minute press conference in which he said &#8220;no reasonable prosecutor&#8221; would proceed with charges against Clinton, although he did say she was &#8220;extremely careless&#8221; in handling classified information.
Rosenstein supported Trump&#8217;s decision to fire Comey, saying that was &#8220;reasonable under the circumstances.&#8221; But he did add that he would have given a fuller analysis of the &#8220;pros and cons&#8221; of firing Comey had he been &#8220;asked to make a recommendation before the removal decision was made.&#8221;
&#8220;If I had been the decision maker, the removal would have been handled very differently, with far more respect and far less drama,&#8221; Rosenstein said, &#8220;so I do not blame the former director for being angry.&#8221;
But Rosenstein returned to the state of his soul, questioned by Comey in the former FBI director&#8217;s recent op-ed.
&#8220;My soul and character are pretty much the same today as they were two years ago. I took a few hits and made some enemies during my time in the arena, but I held my ground and made a lot of friends. And thanks to them, I think I made the right calls on the things that mattered,&#8221; he said.
And Rosenstein said he was not affected by partisan politics, instead regarding only the rule of law when he made prosecutorial decisions.
&#8220;People spend a lot of time debating whose side I was on, based on who seemed to benefit the most from any individual decision,&#8221; Rosenstein said. &#8220;But trying to infer partisan affiliation from law enforcement decisions is what you might call a category error. It uses the wrong frame of reference.&#8221;

Rosenstein Rips Comey As ‘Partisan Pundit,’ Says Trump Right To Fire Him

Department of Justice

James Comey

Deputy AG: Obama Admin Didn’t Tell Public ‘Full Story’ On Russia; ‘Someone’ Selectively Leaked Classified Info

Obama Administration

Robert Mueller

Trump Administration

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham vowed on &#8220;Face the Nation&#8221; this weekend that he would hold a hearing to investigate former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe&#8217;s widely reported claim that high-ranking figures in the Justice Department, particularly Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein, had discussed using the 25th Amendment to oust President Trump.
In an interview with &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; last week promoting his new book, McCabe said he and Rosenstein seriously discussed potentially orchestrating a coup through the 25th Amendment, which empowers the Cabinet to remove a sitting president if he&#8217;s deemed &#8220;unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.&#8221; Rosenstein, he said, &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/17/politics/mccabe-fbi-rosenstein-wire/index.html">offered to wear a wire into the White House</a>&#8221; to catch Trump saying something disqualifying, a claim Rosenstein has dismissed as a sarcastic joke. &#8220;He was absolutely serious,&#8221; McCabe told &#8220;60 Minutes.&#8221; &#8220;And in fact, he brought it up in the next meeting we had. I never actually considered taking him up on the offer. I did discuss it with my general counsel and my leadership team back at the FBI after he brought it up the first time.&#8221;
Calling McCabe&#8217;s claim that they were seriously discussing a quiet coup a &#8220;tremendous allegation,&#8221; &#8220;Face the Nation&#8221; host Margaret Brennan asked Graham if he&#8217;s ever asked Rosenstein if the conversation ever actually happened.
Noting that Rosenstein&#8217;s &#8220;publicly denied it,&#8221; Graham stressed, &#8220;The whole point of Congress existing is to provide oversight of the executive branch. So through good reporting by &#8217;60 Minutes,&#8217; there&#8217;s an allegation by the acting FBI director at the time that the deputy attorney general was basically trying to do an administrative coup, take the president down by the 25th Amendment process. The deputy attorney general denies it.&#8221;
The South Carolina senator then made his vow to the audience: &#8220;So I promise your viewers the following; that we will have a hearing about who&#8217;s telling the truth, what actually happened. Mr. McCabe, you remember, was dismissed from the FBI for leaking information to the press. So you&#8217;ve got to remember the source here.&#8221;
Saying he believes the country &#8220;needs to know if it happened,&#8221; Graham said it was simply &#8220;stunning&#8221; that a leader of the FBI would proudly go on television and brag about the &#8220;attempted bureaucratic coup.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know who&#8217;s telling the truth,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I know Rosenstein vehemently denied it, but we&#8217;re going to get to the bottom of it. I do know there was a lot of monkey business about FISA warrants being issued against Carter Page, about dossiers coming from Russia that were unverified. Mr. Mueller is going to look at the Trump campaign as he should to see if they violated any laws during the 2016 election. And I&#8217;m going to do everything I can to get to the bottom of the Department of Justice FBI behavior toward President Trump and his campaign.&#8221;
Brennan responded by expressing concern that such an inquiry might be doing &#8220;some damage&#8221; to &#8220;the credibility of the FBI,&#8221; to which he fired back: &#8220;Quite the opposite. If it happened we need to clean it up. The FBI has gotten off track in the past. It&#8217;s one of the greatest organizations in the world. The Hoover years have proven to be pretty dark periods for the FBI. The latter part of the Hoover days where politicians were being blackmailed. There is no organization beyond scrutiny. There is no organization that can&#8217;t withstand scrutiny. And the FBI will come out stronger. But we&#8217;ve got to get to the bottom of it.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="330" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GbCle3OboFc" width="640"></iframe></div>
President Trump has since responded to McCabe&#8217;s claims by calling for action against those involved.
&#8220;Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe,&#8221; Trump said in a series of tweets Monday morning. &#8220;He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught[.] There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous &#8216;insurance policy&#8217; in full action!&#8221;
&#8220;This was an illegal coup attempt on the President of the United States,&#8221; he wrote, quoting Dan Bongino on &#8220;Fox and Friends.&#8221; &#8220;True!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught&#8230;..
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1097469642048716801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;.There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous &#8220;insurance policy&#8221; in full action!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1097473080253968384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8220;This was an illegal coup attempt on the President of the United States.&#8221; Dan Bongino on <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxandfriends</a> True!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1097488256848007173?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

WATCH: Graham Vows To Investigate Those Involved In Attempted ‘Coup’ Against Trump

Andrew McCabe

Lindsey Graham

Think back to the day after Election Day 2016. On that day &#8212; after Donald Trump had stunned the world and won the White House &#8212; sore loser Hillary Clinton offered a three-word excuse: &#8220;Russia did it.&#8221;
Now, forget that neither Hillary nor any of her sycophants in the Democratic Party have explained how Russia &#8212; supposedly running computer bot farms that posted &#8220;fake news&#8221; on Facebook &#8212; got millions of people in Wisconsin and Michigan to vote for Trump, thereby turning the election in his favor. Once she made the claim, the party&#8217;s lapdogs in the media (think CNN&#8217;s Jim Acosta) picked up the mantra.
Flash forward to today. After 18-plus months and more than $25 million, special counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s probe into the matter has produced little. A former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, Trump&#8217;s former campaign chairman, and some low-level aides have been indicted, but all on charges totally unrelated to the Russia collusion claim. A dozen Russians who ran a &#8220;bot farm&#8221; were indicted, too, but there&#8217;s been nothing close to a smoking gun found to connect them to Trump.
Meanwhile, as all this was going on, some appointees of former President Barack Obama and their minions were busy quietly trying to oust Trump from office. Like Andrew McCabe, who was appointed deputy FBI director by Director James Comey in 2016. In an interview that aired Sunday night, McCabe told &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; that after Trump fired Comey, he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein &#8220;talked about why the president had insisted on firing the director and whether or not he was thinking about the Russia investigation, and did that impact his decision.&#8221;
The pair discussed Rosenstein wearing a wire to a meeting with Trump, and also talked about the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment, which declares that a majority of the president&#8217;s Cabinet can deem the president &#8220;unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office&#8221; and oust him.
On Sunday, talk show host Rush Limbaugh labeled that a &#8220;silent coup.&#8221;
&#8220;The Mueller investigation, I believe, is a cover-up of all of that. It&#8217;s to distract everybody&#8217;s attention,&#8221; Limbaugh told &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5U5lZ_W1xw">Fox News Sunday</a>.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re losing sight of what happened here,&#8221; Limbaugh said. &#8220;People unelected simply because they don&#8217;t like a guy&#8217;s hairstyle or like where he came from decided the American people&#8217;s decision was invalid and began a systematic process to get him thrown out of office. This is a silent coup. These guys, if you ask me, ought to be the ones in jail. They ought to be the ones under investigation. What they have done, working with agents from the Obama intelligence agencies, is simply unprecedented. &#8230; This is one of the greatest political hoaxes that has ever been perpetrated on the people of this country, certainly in a couple of generations.&#8221;
Limbaugh said that the fact the investigation is still going on more than two years after the election shows the power of the &#8220;deep state.&#8221;
&#8220;And it&#8217;s all of Washington, D.C., and it&#8217;s all arrayed against Donald Trump, and it&#8217;s designed to get his approval numbers down maybe into the 30s or 20s. They can then go to him and say, Mr. President, you&#8217;ve lost all support. You have no support,&#8221; he said, adding: &#8220;This has been an effort to impeach him. The effort that was underway for collusion didn&#8217;t work. Now the Mueller report that may not happen is going to be used to continue to leak things that may be in it.&#8221;
And Limbaugh said there&#8217;s actually method behind the madness. &#8220;They&#8217;re going to ratchet this up for the next election and we&#8217;re going to face two more years of this collusion stuff. &#8230; It&#8217;s something people need to be paying a heavy price for, for what they&#8217;ve done on the investigatory side of this.&#8221;
On Monday, Trump raged about McCabe&#8217;s appearance on &#8220;60 Minutes.&#8221;
&#8220;Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught,&#8221; Trump wrote on Twitter.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught&#8230;..
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1097469642048716801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more,&#8221; he added. &#8220;This was the illegal and treasonous &#8216;insurance policy&#8217; in full action!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;.There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous &#8220;insurance policy&#8221; in full action!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1097473080253968384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Limbaugh: Russia Probe Is ‘Silent Coup’ Perpetrated By ‘Obama Intelligence Agencies’

Hillary Clinton

Rush Limbaugh

The recent Michael Cohen developments have overshadowed a key piece of news: emails between the Department of Justice and the FBI show that top officials in both felt the need to rein Donald Trump in following the firing of FBI Director James Comey. What does that mean? Was &#8220;the swamp&#8221; really trying to negate the results of the 2016 presidential election? The Daily Wire&#8217;s own Andrew Klavan broke it all down on Monday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Andrew Klavan Show.&#8221;
Quoting from a CNN report, Klavan noted that deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and other &#8220;top FBI officials&#8221; saw President Trump &#8220;as a leader who needed to be reined in.&#8221;
&#8220;Everything you&#8217;re hearing is the justice department and the FBI deciding that Donald Trump was a president who needed to be reined in,&#8221; said Klavan. &#8220;The guy that you elected needed to be reined in. You sent an off-beat oddball, who wasn&#8217;t one of the elites, who wasn&#8217;t a guy who people were going to be seen with. They thought &#8216;it was nice of you to vote for him, but we&#8217;re going to reverse this election by starting an investigation that will rein him in.'&#8221;
&#8220;Just imagine if the FBI had been caught doing this to Barack Obama, who certainly violated all kinds of rules of constitutional governance,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;His IRS scandal and all the rest. Just imagine if the FBI had said &#8216;we&#8217;re gonna rein this guy in.&#8217; So when you read what I say next, you should understand that this is all part of the program of the swamp to reign this guy, Donald Trump, in. Because in an empire of lies, only a crazy man will speak the truth, because they come after you for your crazy, not for your truth. There&#8217;s always a legitimacy to it.&#8221;
He continued: &#8220;But we should also think about the fact that this kind of guy is our president. It&#8217;s the kind of guy we had to elect to fight with the swamp. Because, I&#8217;ll say it one more time, in an empire of lies, only a crazy man will tell the truth, only a guy like Trump, so now they&#8217;re going after him for his crazy. We have to make sure not to get on the crazy train with him. But also to defend him from what is essentially a power grab.&#8221;
Video and transcript below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TaS4MI-1YNs?start=1105" width="560"></iframe></div>
<blockquote>
There were emails that went back and forth between the FBI director and Rod Rosenstein at Justice, in which they said &#8211; this is CNN reporting:
&#8220;In the hectic 8 days after Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstien and top FBI officials viewed Trump as a leader who needed to be reined in, according to two sources describing the sentiment at the time.&#8221;
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Now you know these sources are giving this to a friendly outlet, CNN &#8211; &#8220;swamp news&#8221; &#8211; the news from the swamp by the swamp, to protect themselves.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
&#8220;They discussed a lot of options, including the idea of Rosenstein wearing a wire while speaking with Trump, which Rosenstein later denied. Ultimately, then acting-FBI director Andrew McCabe, took the extraordinary step of opening an obstruction of justice investigation even before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, the sources said.&#8221;
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
So they were talking about this even before Comey was fired! Everything you&#8217;re hearing is the justice department and the FBI deciding that Donald Trump was a President who needed to be reined in. The guy that you elected needed to be reined in. You sent an off-beat oddball, who wasn&#8217;t one of the elites, who wasn&#8217;t a guy who people were going to be seen with. They thought &#8220;it was nice of you to vote for him, but we&#8217;re going to reverse this election by starting an investigation that will rein him in.&#8221;
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Just imagine if the FBI had been caught doing this to Barack Obama, who certainly violated all kinds of rules of constitutional governance. His IRS scandal and all the rest. Just imagine if the FBI had said &#8220;we&#8217;re gonna rein this guy in.&#8221; So when you read what I say next, you should understand that this is all part of the program of the swamp to reign this guy, Donald Trump, in.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
It is not a point about whether he&#8217;s a good person. You know what I think of his morals and the way he&#8217;s lived his life. It&#8217;s not whether he&#8217;s nice, it&#8217;s not even whether he has done stuff that we don&#8217;t like, it&#8217;s the motive. It&#8217;s about power for these people, and you know that because it doesn&#8217;t count when the other side does the same things. In the sentencing guideline, they essentially say that Michael Cohen was guilty of violating federal election law by paying off some of the dames that Trump was sleeping with and didn&#8217;t want it going around.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Because in an empire of lies only a crazy man will speak the truth, because they come after you for your crazy, not for your truth, there&#8217;s always a legitimacy to it. Trump sent out a tweet when all this stuff came out:
&#8220;Totally clears the President, thank you.&#8221;
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
That&#8217;s not the point. Some people on the right were saying &#8220;how can you call this a federal campaign violation if Trump has been paying off women all along?&#8221; &#8211; which he probably has been. But we should also think about the fact that this kind of guy is our President. It&#8217;s the kind of guy we had to elect to fight with the swamp. Because, I&#8217;ll say it one more time, in an empire of lies only a crazy man will tell the truth, only a guy like Trump, so now they&#8217;re going after him for his crazy. We have to make sure not to get on the crazy-train with him. But also to defend him from what is essentially a power grab.
</blockquote>
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Klavan: The Swamp Wants To ‘Rein In’ Donald Trump

Andrew Klavan

Conservatism

Democratic Party

Michael Cohen

Republican Party

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he does not plan to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, despite weeks of rumors indicating Rosenstein was likely facing his final weeks at the Department of Justice.
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/after-meeting-delay-rosenstein-fly-trump-air-force-one-n917706?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma">Trump was asked during a short presser</a> before getting on Marine One whether he intended to dismiss Rosenstein during a trip the pair was scheduled to take together to Florida Monday afternoon.
&#8220;No, I don&#8217;t,&#8221; he answered.
Instead, Trump said, he was &#8220;looking forward&#8221; to having a lengthy discussion with Rosenstein, the first since a New York Times piece appeared accusing Rosenstein of instructing DOJ employees to record any conversations they had with the president, and suggesting that Rosenstein had been discussing Trump&#8217;s fitness for office with members of the president&#8217;s Cabinet.
&#8220;Looking forward to being with him,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;We&#8217;ll be talking on the plane. I have a good relationship other than there&#8217;s been no collusion.&#8221;
Rosenstein flatly denied the Times&#8217; allegations and accused the Times of relying on a single anonymous source. NBC News reported later that other DOJ employees thought Rosenstein&#8217;s comments about taping the president were &#8220;sarcastic.&#8221; The White House summoned Rosenstein for a meeting last week, and Rosenstein reportedly anticipated being fired. He was not.
He was not on Monday, either. When asked, upon disembarking Air Force One in Florida, Trump was asked how his discussion with Rosenstein went and the president simply replied, &#8220;great.&#8221;
The White House added in a statement later that &#8220;The President and Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, met for about 45 minutes aboard Air Force One. They discussed various topics including the International Chiefs of Police event later today, support for our great law enforcement officials, border security, how to better address violent crime in Chicago, and general DOJ business.&#8221;

Trump: I Am NOT Firing Rod Rosenstein

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will not meet with President Donald Trump until next week, the White House announced Thursday, so that news of the meeting won&#8217;t &#8220;interfere&#8221; with ongoing Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders made the schedule change official in a discussion with reporters early Thursday afternoon after the Senate hearings were well underway.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Trump-Rosenstein meeting moved to next week, according to WH Press Sec Sarah Sanders. &#8220;The President spoke with Rod Rosenstein a few minutes ago and they plan to meet next week. They do not want to do anything to interfere with the hearing.&#8221;
&#8212; Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) <a href="https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1045354129365905409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2018</a></blockquote>
Rosenstein resumed regular duties, taking a Cabinet-level meeting at the White House and then returning to the Justice Department rather than meeting with the president, who was in New York City Thursday morning for the United Nations General Assembly but is expected to return home to Washington sometime in the afternoon.
Trump had planned to meet with Rosenstein to discuss a New York Times report from last week, alleging that Rosenstein encouraged his colleagues to tape all conversations they had with the president and that Rosenstein was quietly pressuring Cabinet officials to consider the 25th Amendment, which would allow them to remove the president if they felt he was unable to execute his duties.
Rosenstein flatly denied both allegations in interviews over the weekend, accusing The New York Times of relying on anonymous sources. A report in NBC News Monday suggested that colleagues thought Rosenstein&#8217;s quip about &#8220;wearing a wire&#8221; to meet Trump was a &#8220;sarcastic&#8221; remark.

Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Will NOT Meet With The President Thursday

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has not been fired, and has not tendered his resignation, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement posted to Twitter Monday afternoon.
Rosenstein&#8217;s meeting at the White House Monday morning was designed to help clear the air over a New York Times report alleging that Rosenstein suggested his employees tape conversations they have with President Donald Trump and that Rosenstein encouraged associates to petition Cabinet members to consider removing Trump from office.
Sanders cleared up the confusion on social media.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Statement on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: <a href="https://t.co/yBgAydv9oR">pic.twitter.com/yBgAydv9oR</a>
&#8212; Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1044267286322970625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
Earlier reports suggested that Rosenstein was on his way to the White House Monday morning to submit a &#8220;verbal resignation&#8221; to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. Instead, it seems Rosenstein was not in imminent danger of being fired, and his meeting with Kelly included a phone call with Trump so that Rosenstein could give his response to The New York Times&#8217;s story.
Rosenstein denies the Times&#8217;s allegations, calling the report false, and accusing the Times of relying on anonymous sources with no connection to Rosenstein&#8217;s office. In an NBC News report Monday, a source close to Rosenstein said the deputy AG&#8217;s suggestion that employees &#8220;wear a wire&#8221; around Trump was &#8220;sarcastic.&#8221;
ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl says Rosenstein is back at work, and attended a Cabinet-level meeting after his discussion with Kelly.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This may be the strangest day yet at the Trump White House. Rod Rosenstein was summoned to the WH to meet with John Kelly this morning. He expected to be fired. He wasn&#8217;t. And now Rosenstein is attending a previously scheduled cabinet-level meeting (filling in for Sessions)
&#8212; Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl/status/1044261344562884610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
Further conversations between Trump and Rosenstein are, apparently, scheduled for Thursday.

White House: Rosenstein Hasn’t Been Fired, Will Meet With Trump On Thursday

John Kelly

New York Times

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has &#8220;verbally resigned&#8221; his position in the Department of Justice, effective Monday, according to <a href="https://nym1-ib.adnxs.com/click?Z2ZmZmYmEEDl0CLb-d4IQAAAAAApXCtArkfhehQuCkAAAAAAAAARQK_drKyAGz5Bg2FylcbQnDXv_ahbAAAAACkSiwDkGgAAiAsAAAIAAAAsimUG6CgQAAAAAABVU0QAVVNEAMoD-gCdhAAAAAABAQUCAAAAALAAtiA2_AAAAAA./cnd=%21GQvNSQiX3I0LEKyUljMY6NFAIAAoADEAAAAAAAAAADoJTllNMjozODM0QDVJAAAAAAAA8D8./cca=Mjk1MiNOWU0yOjM4MzQ=/bn=75946/referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fadministration%2F408076-axios-rosenstein-says-he-plans-to-resign/clickenc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wayfair.com%2F%3FrefID%3DANCFACTGhostBid%26ct%3D%26cb%3D2034120522%26CID%3D24166061%26CRID%3D107317804%26Size%3D970x250%26Seller%3D6884%26PID%3D832622%26TagID%3D9114153%26ai%3D4701225300488150447%26anuid%3D3863192131706446211">reports from Axios and others</a>.
Chief of Staff John Kelly has reportedly accepted Rosenstein&#8217;s resignation.
Sources close to Rosenstein told the national security publication that Rosenstein was &#8220;expecting to be fired&#8221; following a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-wear-wire-25th-amendment.html">New York Times report</a> from last week detailing conversations Rosenstein allegedly had with other administration officials in which he suggested recording conversations with President Donald Trump and proposed &#8220;recruiting Cabinet members&#8221; to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
Rosenstein disputed The New York Times&#8217;s story, blaming anonymous sources looking to assail his character for the &#8220;inaccurate and factually incorrect&#8221; allegations. He also denied that there is any reason to invoke the 25th Amendment, which allows the Cabinet to replace the President if he is unfit to serve.
Trump told a radio station Monday morning that he had not yet examined The New York Times report but that he had not ruled out firing Rosenstein.
&#8220;I haven&#8217;t gotten all the facts, but certainly it&#8217;s being looked at in terms of what took place,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;If anything took place and I&#8217;ll make a determination sometime later, but I don&#8217;t have the facts.&#8221;
Monday morning, multiple reports indicated that Rosenstein was headed to the White House expecting to be terminated, but President Trump is in New York City, preparing to speak to the United Nations General Assembly.
Rosenstein, of course, was responsible for overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation into whether the Trump campaign actively colluded with Russian officials to alter the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. That job will now likely fall to Solicitor General Noel Francisco.

BREAKING: Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein ‘Verbally Resigns’ From DOJ, According To Reports

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein allegedly plotted to secretly record President Donald Trump last year after he fired FBI Director James Comey; Rosenstein reportedly sought to recruit Trump administration officials who could help him invoke the 25th Amendment to have Trump removed from office.
The New York Times report states that Rosenstein made the suggestions after Trump fired Comey and after it had been revealed that Trump sought Comey&#8217;s loyalty and wanted the investigation into former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, brought to an end. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/us/politics/rod-rosenstein-wear-wire-25th-amendment.html">NYT</a> reports:
<blockquote>
Mr. Rosenstein was just two weeks into his job. He had begun overseeing the Russia investigation and played a key role in the president&#8217;s dismissal of Mr. Comey by writing a memo critical of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Rosenstein was caught off guard when Mr. Trump cited the memo in the firing, and he began telling people that he feared he had been used.
</blockquote>
The Times states that Rosenstein discussed secretly recording Trump and using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office with officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI.
Multiple officials, who could only speak on the condition of anonymity, said that Rosenstein&#8217;s comments were documented in memos written by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Shortly after the Times&#8217; story was published, ABC News confirmed the report with their own sources who were familiar with the memos.
While Rosenstein&#8217;s plans were never enacted, he reportedly told McCabe that he believed he could persuade Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-DHS Secretary John Kelly to lead a movement that would involve using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. The Times adds:
<blockquote>
The extreme suggestions show Mr. Rosenstein&#8217;s state of mind in the disorienting days that followed Mr. Comey&#8217;s dismissal. Sitting in on Mr. Trump&#8217;s interviews with prospective F.B.I. directors and facing attacks for his own role in Mr. Comey&#8217;s firing, Mr. Rosenstein had an up-close view of the tumult. Mr. Rosenstein appeared conflicted, regretful and emotional, according to people who spoke with him at the time.
</blockquote>
Rosenstein responded to the Times&#8217; report by saying it was &#8220;inaccurate&#8221; and &#8220;incorrect.&#8221;
&#8220;I will not further comment on a story based on anonymous sources who are obviously biased against the department and are advancing their own personal agenda,&#8221; Rosenstein said in a statement to the Times. &#8220;But let me be clear about this: Based on my personal dealings with the president, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment.&#8221;
&#8220;Andrew McCabe drafted memos to memorialize significant discussions he had with high-level officials and preserved them so he would have an accurate, contemporaneous record of those discussions,&#8221; Michael R. Bromwich, counsel to McCabe, said in a statement, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/407807-rosenstein-discussed-secretly-recorded-conversations-with-trump">The Hill</a>.
&#8220;When he was interviewed by the Special Counsel more than a year ago, he gave all of his memos &#8212; classified and unclassified &#8212; to the Special Counsel&#8217;s office,&#8221; the statement continued. &#8220;A set of those memos remained at the FBI at the time of his departure in late January 2018. He has no knowledge of how any member of the media obtained those memos.&#8221;
This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Rosenstein Plotted To Secretly Record Trump, Invoke 25th Amendment To Remove Him From Office, Report Says

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein says the government will take legal action against cities and countries that open injection sites for drug users. 
In an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/opinion/opioids-heroin-injection-sites.html">op-ed</a> published on Monday in The New York Times, Rosenstein called the injection sites &#8220;dangerous&#8221; and claimed that they &#8220;would only make the opioid crisis worse.&#8221;
The so-called &#8220;safe injection sites&#8221; allow drug users to inject themselves with their own heroin, fentanyl, and other drugs with provided needles and under supervision and are typically government-funded. 
Rosenstein called the injection sites illegal and claimed, &#8220;It is a federal felony to maintain any location for the purpose of facilitating illicit drug use.&#8221; He added that &#8220;cities and counties should expect the Department of Justice to meet the opening of any injection site with swift and aggressive action.&#8221;
He also claimed that injection sites &#8220;create serious public safety risks,&#8221; citing the threat claiming &#8220;a bystander or emergency medical worker who comes into contact with such drugs can be gravely harmed.&#8221;
Rosenstein called for an end to the drug crisis but says injection sites are not the solution. &#8220;Americans struggling with addiction need treatment and reduced access to deadly drugs,&#8221; Rosenstein wrote. &#8220;They do not need a taxpayer-sponsored haven to shoot up.&#8221;
Safe injection sites <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/12/628136694/harm-reduction-movement-hits-obstacles">have been proposed in several cities</a>, including San Francisco; the California State Senate passed a bill last week to give legal immunity to drug users who use the centers.
California State Sen. Scott Wiener, whose district includes San Francisco, took to Twitter to respond to the op-ed, calling it &#8220;atrociously misinformed,&#8221; and claimed that &#8220;safe injection sites are successful &amp; save lives wherever they&#8217;re implemented.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Even by Trump Administration science-denial, fact-denial standards, this atrociously misinformed piece by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein takes the cake. Safe injection sites are successful &amp; save lives wherever they&#8217;re implemented. <a href="https://t.co/GJgLM8ZC8s">https://t.co/GJgLM8ZC8s</a>
&#8212; Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) <a href="https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1034553903533051904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Threatening criminal prosecution &#8211; the Trump drug addiction strategy &#8211; isn&#8217;t how you break addiction,&#8221; he said in another tweet. &#8220;We tried that &#8211; the War on Drugs &#8211; &amp; it failed. Let&#8217;s try strategies that actually work.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Threatening criminal prosecution &#8211; the Trump drug addiction strategy &#8211; isn&#8217;t how you break addiction. We tried that &#8211; the War on Drugs &#8211; &amp; it failed. Let&#8217;s try strategies that actually work.
&#8212; Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) <a href="https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1034553907521839104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
In an interview <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/28/san-franciscos-safe-injection-sites-justice-department-759017">with Politico</a>, Wiener pointed out that the federal government and California have clashed over drug policy before. &#8220;The fact the federal government is backwards on so many issues has never been an obstacle to California moving in a progressive direction,&#8221; he said.
A meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Drug Policy found that the sites had &#8220;no effect on overdose mortality or syringe/equipment sharing.&#8221;
In May, the mayor of New York City <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/nyregion/nyc-safe-injection-sites-heroin.html">announced</a> a plan to open injection sites. Several other states and cities have also explored the possibility of opening sites, including Seattle, Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Maine.

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