For Attorney General Sessions, ‘draining the swamp’ could start at the Justice Department

by WorldTribune Staff, February 2, 2017

If President Donald Trump is serious about “draining the swam”, he will need to focus on the Justice Department, situated right “in the heart of the swamp,” a Washington insider said.

Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions “is going into an agency characterized by people like fired Acting AG Sally Yates – hundreds of embedded political operatives who overtly or subversively will act against the policies of this administration,” Chris Farrell wrote for Judicial Watch on Feb. 7.

Swamp central: The U.S. Department of Justice on Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.

“These are the so-called ‘4th branch of government’ – the career civil servants of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area who run the government decade after decade, regardless of election outcomes,” Farrell wrote.

Those operatives reside in heavily left-leaning parts in and around the D.C. metropolitan area.

D.C. residents went 93 percent for Hillary Clinton; in Prince Georges County, Maryland – 89 percent went for Clinton; and in Arlington County, Virginia – 77 percent.

“This, in large part, is representative of AG Sessions’ workforce at Justice Dept. headquarters,” Farrell wrote.

The Senate is expected to vote on Sessions’ nomination on Feb. 8. Democrats could attempt a filibuster, but when they were in control of the Senate, they established a rule that would require only 51 votes to break a filibuster and Sessions is believed to have those votes.

Sessions will also have to “manage a compromised FBI Director” in James Comey – a director “who current and recently retired FBI agents tell me they don’t trust,” Farrell wrote. “One wonders why President Trump reportedly decided to keep Director Comey on. Perhaps it’s a Machiavellian move? Perhaps President Trump prefers to keep Director Comey wounded, and close by. It’s a tough time for the FBI that will require extra scrutiny by the attorney general.”

Farrell continued: “The FBI’s culture has been contaminated by a perverse sense of loyalty to the institution over faithfulness to the Constitution. Turning a blind eye to criminality and putting one’s obsession with a paid retirement with benefits – really, just careerism – cannot come before or over one’s duty. Period. Attorney General Sessions has got to break this phenomenon wide open and clean house.

“President Trump was elected to ‘drain the swamp’ – the American public wants answers and justice for things like Fast & Furious, Hillary Clinton’s outlaw email server, the political weaponizing of the IRS. The Justice Department lies in the heart of the swamp.”

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