The Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee have written to Chairman Bob Goodlatte sharply questioning his reluctance to hold hearings on the Trump administration’s possible obstruction of justice, the firing of FBI director James Comey and the actions of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
With our Committee on the sidelines, the situation grows more perilous by the day. Last month, President Trump took to Twitter to threaten Mr. Comey, cautioning that he “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” Two weeks ago, the President floated the notion of firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller before his investigation even gets off the ground—over the loud objections of Democrats and Republicans alike. Last week, the President took aim at Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein: “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt.” In anticipation of the President’s next attack, the public is now openly speculating about the line of succession at the Department of Justice.
In our Committee meetings, you have expressed reluctance to investigate these matters because “the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are also conducting investigations.” It falls to us—and not to the intelligence committees—to examine questions about obstruction of justice, the dismissal of the FBI Director, and any attempt to influence or pressure the leadership of the Department of Justice. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, agrees with us [see here] on this point, and our Senate counterparts are already working with Special Counsel Mueller to lay out the next steps of their investigation.
At other times, you have expressed unwillingness to debate these questions because “investigations into these matters are ongoing.” We appreciate the sensitivity of the work of the Special Counsel, but nothing about an ongoing investigation prevents us from acting responsibly and conducting our own oversight… [T]he investigation into Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server did not prevent you from asking either the Attorney General or the FBI Director about the case—long before the investigation itself had concluded.
…..
At the beginning of this Congress—under your leadership and pursuant to your amendment to our oversight plan—the Committee made a commitment to conduct oversight into allegations of misconduct by executive branch officials.
We ask you to respect that commitment, and schedule hearings with the leadership of the Department of Justice and the FBI without delay.
Congressman Goodlatte has not had the courtesy to even respond to any of the previous letters from Judiciary Committee Democrats since November (see here, here, here, here, here, here and here). Unfortunately there’s no reason to expect anything different this time.
Goodlatte Watch 
The arrogance of Representative Goodlatte or should we say Comrade Goodlatte is astonishing. He seems bent on protecting a despicable Trump who clearly is compromised. Half of his wealth comes from Russia financed golf courses and the other half through 6 bankruptcies. He doesn’t represent the hard working Virginians of the Sixth Congregational District and that must change.
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Can we stop petitioning to convince corrupt extremists like Goodlatte to see the error of his ways. Goodlatte, Trump and a majority of the Republican party is either corrupt or complicit. Their objectives and the citizens of this country are not aligned. The perception that we’re all on the same team with different views of how to get there is wrong. Extremists that have wormed their way into positions of power such as Goodlatte do not share the citizens of this countries objectives. Their distorted view of the universe calls for the electorate to serve their needs. These are not well individuals and they re in fact enemies of the state and all of us. The sooner this is understood the sooner we’ll be able to put these detestable people in the rear view mirror. Democrats are also corrupt but have in many cases chosen objectives that are more suitable to the underclasses needs.
We need to begin selecting our politicians based on character integrity their decency and their honor. We have lost our way and select our politician’s based on inadequate perceptions of today’s issues – HA
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Did anyone else sit in on Bob’s tell town hall Thursday, June 29? I did and I was appalled at Goodlatte’s answer to a Lexington caller about conducting an investigation, but Bob never mentioned the current administration. He did go on a long diatribe about Hilary’s email server and Bill Clinton’s work in the Clinton Foundation as if these were problems. Maybe we should endorse a full investigation of these issues by Bob just to let him look like the idiot he is.
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Thanks, Dan. Anything else you can tell us about the “telephone town hall”?
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It was filled with questions such as:
Are there too many lawsuits.
How can we make cable more affordable
Issues related to Medicare/SSI
Bob mostly pontificated and gave long rambling answers.
He passed issues off onto Debbie Garrett (I think that’s her name) who runs his Staunton office. Bob also let people know Debbie lives in Buena Vista.
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