In The News
US Rep. Scott Perry explains his effort to impeach Rod Rosenstein
Washington,
August 8, 2018
For starving click-bait columnists and insatiable consumers of far-left unbridled outrage, deploying personal attacks and eroding the underpinnings of our great Nation are the preferred weapons of choice for those more interested in protecting fragile, emotion-based beliefs and sowing societal chaos than pursuing actual truth and justice. For this tactic to succeed, opposing opinions and well-established history must be rendered so absurd that “feeling like something may be true” morphs into the impenetrable imitation of what actually is.
In the old days, we called this propaganda. Today, we call it “news.” Enter the latest bigoted dispatch from York Daily Record’s Mike Argento, “U.S. Rep. Scott Perry dabbles in conspiracy theories in the Russia investigation,” wherein the author masters the art of rhetorically hyperventilating without the slightest bit of factual oxygen. Before turning both bombastically-biased barrels toward me, Mr. Argento labels the Declaration of Independence as a conspiracy theory - dismissing it as a work of fiction from our Founding Fathers worthy more of ridicule than admiration for defining the right of the People to defy the established order and choose their government. While certain to fire-up and further divide us, what’s more frightening is the paucity of any pursuit of truth. What’s entirely absent is any substantive investigation into what might be true regarding the introduction of Articles of Impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Had Mr. Argento bothered to do so, perhaps his understandably dwindling readership would have an opportunity to decide for themselves whether this is a worthy pursuit of Congress. The question simply is this: was Mr. Rosenstein collaborating with individuals within the FBI to use falsified information to smear then-presidential candidate Trump, and try to destroy him after the election? For starters, five top officials at the DOJ and the FBI have either been fired, quit or reassigned pursuant this issue. But to really understand the story, you have to start with the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court, a result of the attacks on 9-11 when the U.S. government realized we didn’t have a legal way to track foreign terrorists who wished to kill Americans. What’s different about the FISA from our typical courts is that it’s one-sided – only the government presents evidence on whether would-be terrorists are worthy of surveilling or pursuing. Thus, our government must be really careful, because we don’t want to suspend due process for American citizens. But it appears some in our government did just that - by manufacturing evidence that led to an order authorizing surveillance of a U.S. citizen, which relied on information from a former British intelligence agent hired by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to concoct “research.” In the end, the American People need an answer as to who used the FISA Court to pursue an American citizen? And to be clear about this, not only who used it, but who made up the evidence to pursue him? Congress has been holding hearings asking DOJ this question; for the better part of a year, we get only stonewalling and refusal to give us what we need to determine those answers. Moreover, the House voted a month ago and ordered Mr. Rosenstein to produce this information; he’s refused. On top of that, we have testimony that he’s threatened staff members of the House Intelligence Committee about the investigation; saying that if they didn’t stop pursuing him, he would start investigating them – a flat out abuse of authority. So we went to our House Leadership after Mr. Rosenstein’s most recent failure to comply, asked for a Contempt of Congress Hearing to determine whether Members think he’s contempt; if so, then a full House vote is then required to decide. Leadership refused, leaving rank-and-file Members with no other remedy to get to the truth other than using a “privileged motion” – one of which is the Articles of Impeachment. To be clear, we’re not interested in impeaching Mr. Rosenstein, and we’re really not interested in a contempt hearing. What we want are the facts regarding this FISA application and the evidence – to ensure that we know who did it, why it was done, whether authority was abused and – most importantly – to ensure this never happens again. Complicated? Yes. Conspiracy-based kookiness? No. But in today’s media where research and relationships take a backseat to rushing to judgement and fomenting outrage, we’re left with vitriol and incivility instead of the truth – not a worthy trade-off and one far below the dignity of our People and our great Nation. |