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Trump says “Witch Hunt ends” after judge dismisses DNC lawsuit

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Tuesday, President Donald Trump won a major courtroom victory when a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from the Democratic National Committee related to alleged interference in the 2016 campaign.

Trump praised Judge John Koeltl, a Clinton appointee, for the favorable ruling. Koeltl ruled that the Trump officials named in the DNC’s lawsuit were shielded from the allegations under the First Amendment and that Russia could not be sued in the courts for the election interference.

“Wow! A federal Judge in the Southern District of N.Y. completely dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Democratic National Committee against our historic 2016 campaign for President,” Pres. Trump wrote on Twitter. “The Judge said the DNC case was “entirely divorced” from the facts, yet another total & complete….vindication & exoneration from the Russian, WikiLeaks and every other form of HOAX perpetrated by the DNC, Radical Democrats and others. This is really big “stuff” especially coming from a highly respected judge who was appointed by President Clinton. The Witch Hunt Ends!”

The DNC filed its lawsuit in April 2018, alleging that the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks and the Russian government conspired to prevent former Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton from winning the 2016 election. The Democrat’s lawsuit cited a 2016 Trump Tower meeting in which Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner met with a Russian woman who had reported ties to the Vladimir Putin government and Russian Intelligence agencies and was reportedly offering to share information on Sec. Clinton. The DNC argued that a Russian attempt to hack a DNC back-up server the next day was evidence of coordination.
The judge dismissed the case writing that the DNC failed to provide evidence that the Trump campaign figures assisted the hackers and pointed out that there is no law against using information published by WikiLeaks.

Tuesday’s ruling was another setback for Democrats in Congress who had hoped to impeach the President. An 18 month investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller failed to provide any indictments of the President or members of his family.

Manafort was indicted and convicted; but that was for tax evasion having to do with money he made working as a campaign manager for a deposed Pro-Russian Ukrainian President. Manafort made the money overseas, did not pay U.S. taxes on it, and then smuggled portions of it into the United States without ever reporting it to the IRS or paying a tax bill. Trump fired Manafort during the campaign when much of the tax issues were revealed.

House Democrats are continuing their own investigations; but even if Trump were impeached, the Republican controlled Senate would be unlikely to act on those charges. The House can only impeach. It would require the Senate to remove the President. Two American Presidents have been impeached, Andrew Johnson and William J. “Bill” Clinton. The Senate has never voted to remove a President. President Richard M. Nixon (R) resigned rather than face impeachment.

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Some Republicans are calling for an investigation of the investigators.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) has said that he supports a Senate review of the justification for surveillance warrants against Carter Page, a foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign that were based on the “Steele Dossier” which was written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who was paid by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign to investigate Trump.

“Whether or not it’s illegal, I don’t yet know,” Graham said. “What makes no sense to me is that all of the abuse by the Department of Justice and the FBI – the unprofessional conduct, the shady behavior – nobody seems to think that’s much important. Well that’s going to change, I hope.”

An investigation by Republicans in the House of Representatives, before the Democrats took control of the House in January, discovered incendiary text messages in which FBI agents Peter Strzok, Lisa Paige, and others professed their hatred for Trump and hinted at an effort to undo the 2016 election.

Some GOP partisans have gone so far as to suggest that the Steele Dossier and its use by the FBI and DOJ in the waning days of the Obama Administration to get FISA warrants on the Trump campaign and the Trump transition team and then leak selected information obtained from those warrants to the press and Congress in order to spur calls for the special counsel investigation amounted to a de facto attempted coup d’etat by professionals within the DOJ and the intelligence community.

The Justice Department’s Inspector General also is conducting its own review of the Russia investigation.

Former State Representative Perry O. Hooper Jr. (R-Montgomery) is asking for a full Senate Judiciary Committee investigation of the investigators.

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“It’s time the Senate Republicans bow up,” Hooper told the Alabama Political Reporter. “U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee should call his Committee into a Special meeting to start the process of Investigating the Investigators.”

“US Senator Graham should subpoena Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and the three bias attorneys that served on the Investigating team for questioning,” Hooper added. “I would also suggest that the Committee invite US Attorney General to attend the meetings.”

“The first question Senator Graham and his Committee should ask is, why were the three bias attorneys allowed to serve on the Investigation team, when they obviously had a conflict of interest,” Hooper told APR. “This is wrong! There should have been an ethical standard required for any attorney that has a conflict of interest. It’s Time Senate Republicans Bow Up and start Investigating the Investigators.”

Hooper currently serves on the National Trump/Victory Committee, the Alabama Republican State Executive Committee and is contemplating a 2020 run for Congress, representing Alabama’s open Second Congressional District where incumbent Martha Roby has announced her decision not to run for a sixth term.

(Original reporting by Fox News, the Patriot Channel, USA Today, and the Hill’s Brett Samuelson contributed to this report.)

Brandon Moseley is a former reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter.

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