Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a popular figure among conservatives, profusely thanked Attorney General Bill Barr for using the s-word during the latter’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning.
“Spying!” Jordan shouted to begin his remarks. “That one word, that’s why they’re after you, Mr. Attorney General.”
The Ohio Republican then launched into a lengthy paean about Barr’s alleged integrity in the face of what is perceived by the Trumpworld faithful to be a years-long counter-intelligence operation against the White House.
“Fifteen months ago, April 10th, 2019, in a Senate hearing, you said this sentence, quote: ‘I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal. Spying on a political campaign is a big deal.’ It sure is,” Jordan said, referring to statements previously made by Barr. “And since that day—since that day—when you had the courage to state the truth, they attacked you and they’ve been attacking you ever sense, every day, every week, simply for stating the truth that the Obama-Biden administration spied on the Trump campaign.”
Jordan then pulled out a receipt from the paper of record.
“One year ago — New York Times headline said this, quote: ‘F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016,'” Jordan said, referring to a May 2019 article about infamous Trump 2016 Campaign adviser and Mueller probe target George Papadopoulos.
Per that article:
The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it Spygate.
“They sent someone pretending to be someone else to meet a person associated with the Trump campaign,” Jordan summarized. “You know what they call that? You know what they call that? Spying.”
The representative’s attention then moved to allegations regarding President Donald Trump‘s alleged affection for viewing watersports.
“One month later, October 2016, they use the dossier to fire Carter Page,” he noted. “A ‘salacious, unverified dossier.’ Jim Comey‘s words–not mine. They took it to the FISA court, didn’t tell the court that the Clintons paid for it, didn’t tell the court that the guy who wrote the document, Christopher Steele, had already communicated to the Justice Department that he was ‘desperate to stop Trump from getting elected.’ Guess what? There were 15 more lies that they told the court. Seventeen in total. They’re outlined by the inspector general. Each and every one of them in his 400 page report.”
Jordan went on to complain that House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has refused to hold hearings on the alleged Spygate scandal and has specifically blocked Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz from testifying before the committee.
“They did all of this without any basis for launching the investigation to begin with,” Jordan continued. “How do we know that? How do we know there was no basis? They told us. Now, they didn’t want to, but thanks to [Ric] Grenell, who released the transcript of their testimony, we now know that there was no basis for them to start the investigation in the first place.”
The Buckeye State conservative cited a Who’s Who of Obama staff:
Susan Rice, here’s what she said. “I don’t recall intelligence I would consider evidence of a conspiracy.” How about James Clapper? “I never saw any direct evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was conspiring with the Russians to meddle in the election.” Say that again, “I never saw…evidence that…the Trump campaign was conspiring,” yet they investigate him. There was never a proper predicate, so why did they do it? They told us that, too. Peter Strzok, August 2016, asked, “is Trump going to win?” What’s his response? Remember, this is Strzok, the guy who ran the investigation. “No, no he’s not, we’ll stop it.”
Jordan then ran through Trump’s unexpected election, the firing of Michael Flynn, and Comey’s subsequent firing as well.
“The guy who was going to keep it all quiet? He’s been fired,” Jordan said. “Now how do they continue the cover-up? Real simple. Jim Comey leaks his memos with the express purpose of getting a special counsel appointed to investigate something they know is not true, and that’s exactly what happened. We get two years, 19 lawyers, 40 agents, 500 witnesses, 2,800 subpoenas and a $30 million cost to the taxpayer and they come back with nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Finally, he recited more effusive praise for Barr:
And so all they got left is to attack the attorney general who had the courage to state the truth from the get-go–the first time he testifies right after he’s confirmed. You guys attack him every day, every week, now you file articles of impeachment against him. [Editor’s note: this definitely didn’t happen.] It’s ridiculous. He had the courage to do what no one else would do at the Justice Department. Sally Yates wouldn’t call it spying. Rod Rosenstein wouldn’t do it. Chris Wray sure as heck isn’t going to do it. Mr. Attorney general, I want to thank you for having the courage to call it what it was, spying, for having the courage to say that we are getting the politics out of the Department of Justice that had been there in the previous administration.
[image via screengrab/C-SPAN]
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