Loretta Lynch Must be Held Accountable for her Stewardship as Obama's Attorney General

BREAKING NEWS -- Otto WArmbier has died. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, and we hold all those being held by the rogue North Korean regime in our prayers as well. • • • THE REAL NEWS OF THE DAY is that FBI Director James Comey may have taken more government records than just his Trump meeting notes when he left office. • • • JUDICIAL WATCH IS CALLING FOR AN FBI ACCOUNTING. Fox News and WND have reported that Judicial Watch is calling on Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to recover and release federal records and memos JW claims were “unlawfully” removed by former Director James Comey, threatening the FBI with a lawsuit should the bureau not comply. Comey testified to Congress that he took notes on a government computer of his meetings with President Trump and later leaked them to the New York Times through a friend, who turned out to be a law professor. Reports about Comey's notes prompted the invitation for Comey to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding claims that President Trump and his team colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 election and tried to shut down investigations into the matter. • Now, we learn that Comey, who last year shamelessly declined to refer Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information for prosecution, took government records with him as he left office, raising questions for Judicial Watch, which has sent a letter to acting FBI Director McCabe warning that the agency has a responsibility under the Federal Records Act to retrieve all of the government documents Comey took with him. The letter from Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton notes that Comey “confirmed that, while in office, he created various memoranda regarding his meetings with President Trump. Mr. Comey also confirmed that, after his departure from the FBI, he provided at least some of these memoranda to a third party -- Columbia Law School Professor Daniel Richman -- for the purpose of leaking them to the press. Various media outlets now have reported that Professor Richman has provided these memoranda to the FBI. It is unclear whether he still retains copies of the memoranda.” The JW letter argued that in the hands of a law professor "friend" not the proper place for government records to be : “These memoranda were created by Mr. Comey while serving as FBI director, were written on his FBI laptop, and concerned official government business. As such, they indisputably are records subject to the Federal Records Act. 44 U.S.C. §§ 2101-18, 2901-09, 3101-07, and 3301-14. The fact that Mr. Comey removed these memoranda from the FBI upon his departure, apparently for the purpose of subsequently leaking them to the press, confirms the FBI’s failure to retain and properly manage its records in accordance with the Federal Records Act.” Fitton said that even if Comey no longer has possession of the memos, as he now claims, some or all of them may still be in possession of a third party, such as Professor Richman, “and must be recovered.” • Even more important, the Judicial Watch letter states that : “Mr. Comey’s removal of these memoranda also suggests that other records may have been removed by Mr. Comey and may remain in his possession or in the possession of others. If so, these records must be recovered by the FBI as well.” • • • THE DEEP STATE AT WORK. The leak of Comey's memos from his meetings with President Trump is just one of many by government officials attempting to slow down President Trump’s policy agenda. Critics describe the leakers as part of the “Deep State” -- established career bureaucrats within the federal government, many of whom were appointed by President Obama and strongly oppose President Trump. The document leakers, if discovered, could be charged. Fitton said in his letter : “As you may be aware, the Federal Records Act imposes a direct responsibility on you to take steps to recover any records unlawfully removed from the FBI. Specifically, upon learning of ‘any actual, impending, or threatened unlawful removal, defacing, alteration, corruption, deletion, erasure, or other destruction of records in the custody of the agency,’ you must notify the Archivist of the United States. 44 U.S.C. § 3106. Upon learning that records have been unlawfully removed from the FBI, you then are required to initiate action through the Attorney General for the recovery of records." Fitton warned McCabe that Judicial Watch has the right to sue if the proper steps are not taken to pursue and retrieve improperly handled government records : “Mr. Comey took government records and the FBI and Justice Department are obligated to get them back. The former FBI director isn’t above the law and current leadership of the FBI should stop protecting him and take action.” • Judicial Watch has also said it is pursuing a separate legal challenge to the State Department’s failure to “take any action” to retrieve all the emails of former Secretary of State Clinton. • • • GOP TO FOCUS ON OBAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL LYNCH. While Lynch could ultimately be responsible for the mishandling of government documents by Comey and Hillary Clinton, Senate Republicans are for th tiem being demanding to hear from Loretta Lynch after former FBI Director James Comey raised concerns about her involvement in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee cite Comey’s testimony earlier this month that he was concerned over the former attorney general telling the FBI to refer to the Clinton investigation as a “matter,” which resembled the Clinton campaign line. The move could allow Republicans to attempt to pivot away from the investigation into Russia’s election meddling -- which top GOP lawmakers have signaled belongs to the Intelligence Committee -- and focus on Lynch, who has long been a target of Republicans. • TheHill reported Sunday that Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican who is a member of both the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, said it “would be very helpful” for Lynch to testify before the Judiciary panel, which oversees the Justice Department. Cornyn said : “Frankly, a lot of what Hillary Clinton was exposed to by Director Comey’s misconduct and the way he handled that was apparently in response to his lack of confidence in the attorney general, and I think there is a lot we could learn from that." Senator Lindsey Graham also wants to hear from Lynch and is pushing for the Judiciary Committee to “get more involved. The accusations now that...the current and former attorneys general were political -- that has nothing to do with Russia as much as it has to do with how the Department of Justice is being run. I want to find out all about that.” A spokesman for Senator Chuck Grassley, Judiciary Committee chairman, stressed that no decisions have been made and staffers needed to first “gather evidence." But the spokesman said it was “likely” after Comey’s remarks before the intelligence panel that Lynch’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee “will become necessary at some point.” A spokesman for Senator Ted Cruz said the Texas Republican would “absolutely” support Lynch testifying. Senator Orrin Hatch said : “Well, I kind of would like to get the whole thing behind us, but she should be interrogated [by a committee] because there’s some real questions about whether her actions were proper.” • • • TRUMP AND THE RNC AGREE. President Trump has focused on AG Lynch as the federal investigation into possible ties between his campaign and Russia heats up. The President tweeted last week : "AG Lynch made law enforcement decisions for political purposes...gave Hillary Clinton a free pass and protection. Totally illegal!” Trump allies, including the Republican National Committee, have also questioned Lynch's behavior. One RNC official asked the Washington Post : "Why is no one investigating Attorney General Lynch's Department of Justice for obstruction of justice in the Clinton email investigation....There is compelling evidence to back up the claim that AG Lynch engaged in obstruction of justice.” • This plethora of evidence concerning Lynch and OBama and the Hillary email investigation is much more clearcut than the insinuation and use of fake reports that are the basis of the current Special Counsel investigation of President Trump and his team for alleged "collusion" with the Russians to win the election. • • • COMEY'S DAMNING TESTIMONY ON LYNCH AND SENATOR GRASSLEY'S JUSTICE COMMITTEE. Comey raised concerns about Lynch before he was fired. He told the Judiciary Committee in early May that he had been worried the Justice Department couldn’t “credibly” decline to prosecute Clinton without "grievous damage to the American people's confidence in the justice system.” He also privately told Intelligence Committee members that he confronted Lynch on whether she had agreed to shut down the FBI's investigation. Comey worried her controversial meeting with former President Bill Clinton had created a conflict of interest, according to Circa, a website tracked closely by conservative media. Grassley has signaled that possible obstruction of justice during the Obama administration should be included in the committee’s work. Grassley has argued that such a move is relevant because the Trump White House initially pointed to Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation to justify his firing. Grassley's spokesman said : “The Committee is examining the removal of Director Comey and allegations of improper influence on the FBI’s handling of the Russia and Clinton email investigations. In his recent appearances before both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, Mr. Comey raised issues about whether these investigations were subjected to inappropriate political influence.” • GOP senators appeared surprised by Grassley’s decision to expand his Judiciary Committee investigation, which would also include looking at potential political interference by Trump’s Justice Department into FBI investigations. Grassley's move comes after some Republican members of the Judiciary Committee were already skeptical of Grassley’s threat to subpoena Comey to testify before the Judiciary Committee after the former FBI director met with the Intelligence Committee. The Senate panels are conducting separate investigations into Russia’s election meddling, which includes Comey’s firing. But Senator Richard Burr, the Intelligence Committee chairman, said his panel would steer clear of investigating obstruction of justice, telling CNN that it has “never been part of our” probe. • • • DEAR READERS, any push to pivot to Lynch and the Clinton email investigation would spark opposition from Democrats, who are publicly showing their frustration with the lack of progress on the committee’s effort to get answers on Russia’s election interference and Comey’s firing. • BUT, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, signaled that the committee should look into whether Lynch tried to downplay the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s email setup. Feinstein told CBS : “I think we need to know more about that. And there's only way to know about it, and that's to have the Judiciary Committee take a look at that.” But, she’s also called for bringing in top Trump administration’s officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Other top Democratic lawmakers, as we might expect, have not endorsed digging into Obama's Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Asked about Feinstein's comments to CBS, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer sidestepped the issue, saying he wanted to hear from the former Obama official : “Well, before I say anything further on this, I want to hear what Loretta Lynch’s side of the story is. I haven’t heard that yet." Democrat Senator Dick Durbin added he wanted to talk to Feinstein but warned against rehashing Clinton scandals when “we have a front-and-center investigation that relates to the national security of the United States. Going back in the previous administration, I guess all of us have some questions about it, but we have a current investigation that is front and center in the American people’s attention span, and that’s what we ought to focus on." • That is the usual Democrat apporach -- investigate Trump and forget about any illegal actions by President Obama's administration in order to preserve the Democrat narrative that only Republicans are criminals. • Hopefully, Senator Grassley will provide the leadership needed to investigate in a complete manner Hillary Clinton's misuse of government emails, some classified. That would bring closure in one way or another to an issue that continues to divide and seriously offend Americans.