by WorldTribune Staff, October 9, 2020
The investigation into the origins of the effort to overthrow President Donald Trump is ongoing, but time may be running out to fully uncover the truth, a key senator said.
“Should Joe Biden win the presidency, the truth may be hidden forever,” Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote in an Oct. 8 Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined “An American Coup Attempt”.
“We have reached the moment of truth,” Johnson wrote.
“For years, our efforts to obtain documents and testimony from federal intelligence agencies, including the FBI and CIA, have been stonewalled. Now Mr. Trump has authorized his subordinates to declassify and provide all information relevant to our investigations. Will they comply with his directive, or will the insurrection continue? We will hear howling and screaming that the president is politicizing the agencies and threatening national security. But what is the greater threat to our democracy — transparency, or the continued coverup of an attempted coup against the duly elected president?”
Johnson said that what he views as a constitutional crisis “began on the day of President Trump’s election, when unelected bureaucrats mobilized against his presidency. This is a crisis in the executive branch, perpetrated by subordinate officials who don’t see themselves as answerable to the president. They have effectively established a fourth branch of government — a permanent, unaccountable bureaucracy.”
Throughout the crisis, Johnson wrote, “many journalists abetted the plotters by abandoning even the pretense of objectivity and claiming that Mr. Trump poses a grave threat to the country. These members of the press were willing recipients of leaks that created and perpetuated the false narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Not one member of the media has exposed these sources of false information. They know who the leakers and plotters are; they won’t tell you.”
Johnson continued: “Fortunately, there are people who are working to uncover the truth. Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, Attorney General William Barr, former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, his successor, John Ratcliffe and my committee, along with the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees, are working to declassify important information and make it public.”
The window to get to the truth, however, is closing.
The Washington Examiner reported on Friday that Attorney General William Barr told Republicans not to expect more indictments or a significant report from U.S. Attorney John Durham before the Nov. 3 election.
The reporting matches what Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo reported in late September: “I’m being told by sources it is now too close to the election and could be viewed as politically motivated,” Bartiromo said on her Fox News program, Sunday Morning Futures. “However, I can confirm Durham’s investigation is significant, and it is expanding.”
Politico reported on Thursday that Trump’s tweetstorm and the recent flurry of declassifications “don’t appear to be coincidences” and cited “sources on and off the Hill” who claimed Durham “is not expected to release information related to the probe before Election Day.” The outlet reported, “Senate Republicans running similar investigations were told of the intention within the last week — and it’s why they’ve been stepping up their releases of declassified documents.”
An Associated Press report on Thursday said that Trump is “increasingly at odds” with Barr over the status of Durham’s inquiry. Trump “increasingly critical about a lack of arrests” while Barr is “frustrated by Trump’s public pronouncements about the case” and has “privately expressed frustration over the president’s public pronouncements,” the report said.
The attorney general is “broadly in agreement with Trump on the need to investigate the origins of the Russia probe,” according to a person “familiar” with his thinking, but has “often bemoaned Trump’s lack of understanding about the intricacies of the legal system and the steps that need to be taken to complete an investigation,” the AP report added. A “friend of Barr’s” said there is “tension” between Trump and Barr on the matter, and while the attorney general “believes deeply in the importance of the Durham investigation and in the president’s authority to exercise control over federal agencies, he will not tolerate interference in specific investigations.”
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‘We have reached the moment of truth’ about coup attempt by intelligence agencies, media added by World Tribune on
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