Ran Investigations Agains Hillary and Benghazi

(CNN)Demands to close it downwards. A waste of taxpayer money. A never-ending witch chase.

The criticisms of special counsel Robert Mueller'south investigation into President Donald Trump and Russia that take ratcheted up in contempo months hearken dorsum to the investigation that roiled Congress during the last administration: Benghazi.

The tables have turned with party doing the criticizing. And there are, of course, significant differences: The Benghazi Select Committee investigation was a congressional probe, while Mueller is a Justice Department-appointed special counsel who is leading a criminal investigation.

But there are still notable similarities over how the Mueller and Benghazi probes transformed into political flashpoints on Capitol Hill, bitterly dividing the two parties.

For months now, a growing number of Republicans take called on Mueller to wrap up his investigation, which originated as an FBI counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 that the special counsel took over in May 2017.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chaired the Benghazi Select Commission for more than 2 years, joined the chorus Thursday when the told Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to "finish it the hell upwards."

"If you take evidence of wrongdoing past whatever member of the Trump campaign nowadays information technology to the damn k jury. If you lot have evidence that this President acted inappropriately, nowadays it to the American people," Gowdy said to Rosenstein, who supervises the Mueller probe. "Whatever you got, finish it the hell upwardly, because this state is being torn apart."

Gowdy's comments sparked outrage from Democrats, who charged that Mueller has been on the case for a year less than Gowdy investigated Benghazi from 2014 to 2016.

"Chairman Gowdy urgently demanded that the Justice Department wrap upwards the investigation, nevertheless he literally spent years and years investigating Hillary Clinton as office of the GOP'due south 8-committee investigation of Benghazi, which resulted in nothing but a drench of simulated Republican allegations that helped become Donald Trump elected President," said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who was the top Democrat on the Benghazi commission.

Democrats fence that the two probes are night and day. Benghazi was a congressional investigation designed to harm Hillary Clinton'southward entrada, they say, while Mueller has already landed indictments and guilty pleas from several senior members of the Trump entrada.

"There take already been 5 guilty pleas... one person'south already been sentenced,' said Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat. "You can compare that to the Ken Starr Whitewater investigation, which lasted 4 years and produced zip, or the vii congressional committees that went after the Benghazi holy grail and came dorsum with zero, including our beloved Mr. Gowdy."

Benghazi by the numbers

The Benghazi Select Commission was tasked with investigating how four Americans were killed, including The states Ambassador Chris Stephens, when attackers raided the U.s.a. compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

The select committee itself was created past House Republicans in May 2014. The commission issued its final report on the Benghazi attack a little more than two years later in June 2016 and was officially shut down in Dec 2016. The select panel spent $7 one thousand thousand during the form of the probe.

The committee ultimately issued an 800-page study, which faulted the Obama administration on a number of fronts, and lawmakers questioned Clinton for xi hours in an October 2015 hearing.

The length and price of the investigation were two frequent points of criticism for Democrats, but the larger fight was whether the committee was really an effort to derail Clinton's presidential campaign.

Gowdy said the Benghazi investigation wasn't about targeting Clinton, but Democrats seized on comments from Republicans similar Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who said in October 2015 ahead of Clinton's testimony that the probe had successfully driven her poll numbers downwardly.

Cummings, the superlative Democrat on the select panel, said post-obit McCarthy's comments that the committee was "an unethical abuse of millions of taxpayer dollars and a crass assault on the memories of the four Americans who died."

The Democratic study on the Benghazi investigation included a section titled: "Select Committee squandered millions of dollars in a partisan effort to assail a presidential candidate."

Republicans pushed dorsum confronting those criticisms, accusing Democrats of trying to shield Clinton.

"About Democrats on the Benghazi commission have endorsed Clinton and they are at present running a protection effort for the former Secretary," the select committee said in an October 2015 statement.

In the end, the committee's 800-page written report did not comprise any bombshells about Clinton'south actions — like the merits of a "stand down" guild to help the Americans that was never proven. But it was the Benghazi committee that led to the revelation of Clinton's individual email server, which many Democrats say ultimately dragged down her campaign and allowed Trump to prevail in the 2016 election.

Attacking the investigation, so and now

Fast forward to 2018 and the tables have turned, with Trump and his Republican allies calling Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Trump'south team and Russia a partisan witch hunt and runaway waste of taxpayer dollars.

"There was No Collusion with Russia (except by the Democrats). When will this very expensive Witch Hunt Hoax always end? So bad for our Country," Trump tweeted earlier this month.

Mueller'southward appointment was greeted with broad bipartisan support, only the avalanche of attacks have dragged down his poll numbers, too, especially among Republicans.

Trump and his conservative allies have seized upon anti-Trump text messages exchanged between FBI agent Peter Strzok and old FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who both worked on Mueller's team at one bespeak, suggesting they take tainted the special counsel probe.

"I asked amanuensis Strzok at least a one-half a dozen times, did special counsel Mueller or anyone on his team ever ask you about these troubling text messages and whether whatever of your actions taken, whether any of your decisions made and whether any of the evidence you collected may take been corrupted or tainted or in any way influenced by the hatred, bias, or prejudice expressed in these texts?" said Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican. "He repeatedly and unequivocally said no."

Mueller was appointed equally special counsel in May 2017, not long after James Comey was fired as FBI managing director. In the 13 months since his investigation began, Mueller'due south team has charged nearly ii dozen individuals and companies, including senior members of Trump's team, and five people have pleaded guilty.

In a spending report released terminal calendar month, Mueller'due south team disclosed that information technology had spent $17 one thousand thousand since the special counsel was appointed in May 2017.

The charges brought by Mueller's team are non connected to collusion betwixt Trump's team and Russia, which has also sparked criticism that Mueller is going after Trump's team for charges that occurred well before the campaign fifty-fifty began.

But Democrats have countered that the charges show that Mueller's investigation is legitimate and moving expeditiously — and they non his probe is non even so consummate.

"I ask my colleagues to consider this question as we go on," said the elevation Democrat on the Business firm Judiciary Committee, New York Rep. Jerry Nadler. "When the special counsel's work is complete, when the enormity of what he finds has been laid bare, how will the American people judge your deportment today?"

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Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/29/politics/benghazi-committee-special-counsel-robert-mueller/index.html