| | | BREAKING: Rep. Jamie Raskin SMELLS A RAT. The Maryland Congressman, in his role as the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is launching an investigation into the politically-motivated removal of former Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Siebert.
Depending on who you ask, Siebert either resigned under pressure or was fired from the position that he had just barely settled into when he refused to indict former FBI Director James Comey and other perceived enemies of Donald Trump, citing a lack of sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute them.
Seibert was quickly replaced by Lindsey Halligan, one of Trump’s personal attorneys with zero prosecutorial experience, who quickly did what her former client had been pressuring the Justice Department to do, issuing a hastily constructed and ill-conceived indictment of Comey, with the prosecution of other people on Trump’s hit list sure to follow.
This was all a bridge too far for Congressman Raskin, who wrote: “President Trump is waging an unprecedented campaign of vengeance against his enemies. That campaign, including the charges against Ms. James, Mr. Comey, and others that we all see coming, is a scandalous and indefensible assault on equal and impartial justice in America.”
Raskin is calling for the DOJ and the White House to deliver any documents or communications relevant to Siebert’s departure, as well as any correspondence with Federal Housing Finance Authority head Bill Pulte, who made criminal referrals to the DOJ alleging mortgage fraud by other Trump opponents including NY State Attorney General Leticia James, California Senator Adam Schiff, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
Speaking of the former Acting Federal Attorney, Rep. Raskin wrote that Siebert “concluded that there was no basis to bring charges against Mr. Comey. Federal prosecutors investigated President Trump’s claims that Mr. Comey had lied under oath about authorizing leaks to the press and assessed whether he had improperly disclosed classified information.”
“As part of that investigation, Mr. Siebert subpoenaed and interviewed Daniel Richman, one of Mr. Comey’s close friends and advisors, about whether Mr. Comey had authorized Mr. Richman to leak memos to the press. Mr. Siebert ultimately was unable to identify any basis for bringing criminal charges against Mr. Comey.”
But that’s not all.
“Based on his investigation, Mr. Siebert concluded that there was no basis to bring charges against Ms. James. Criminal mortgage fraud requires ‘knowingly mak[ing] any false statement’ for ‘the purpose of influencing’ a mortgage decision. Mr. Siebert found significant evidence that Ms. James’s erroneous entry on one of several mortgage forms was simply an inadvertent mistake,” Raskin continued.
“In particular, Ms. James had emailed a mortgage broker shortly before signing the disputed document, emphasizing that ‘[t]his property WILL NOT be my primary residence.’ On another loan form that asked, ‘Will you occupy the property as your primary residence?, Ms. James checked the box marked ‘NO.’ As Mr. Siebert evidently concluded, it is hard to see how Ms. James committed criminal mortgage fraud when she repeatedly made clear to her lenders that she did not intend to reside at the property,” the Maryland congressman added.
Raskin also indicated that he would be looking into the circumstances surrounding the appointment of Siebert’s replacement, Lindsey Halligan.
“Her installation raises the urgent question of what promises she made to secure this position — and whether she has pledged to bring the very prosecutions that Mr. Siebert, after careful investigation, determined were legally baseless,” Raskin declared.
As the Trump administration drones on about being the victims of a politicized Department of Justice, in actuality, they have been the worst perpetrators in history of turning the DOJ into Trump’s retribution machine.
Let’s hope that Congressman Raskin can uncover the evidence of the behind-the-scenes machinations that went into this latest legal travesty.
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