Civil Discourse – Desecrating DOJ – Joyce Vance

The Justice Department is investigating whether anyone in the Obama administration violated federal law during the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election. The Washington Post reports that the attorney general has ordered a grand jury to hear evidence. If that precise phrasing is accurate—that Pam Bondi has a grand jury hearing evidence—that suggests that the case is quite far along or that a serious investigation is underway. But the notion of revisiting 10-year-old events that were thoroughly investigated by both a special prosecutor appointed by Donald Trump, John Durham, and a Senate Subcommittee led by Marco Rubio without prosecution of these officials smacks of political interference.

The threshold for opening an investigation is a low bar; all it takes is a reasonable belief that a federal crime has been committed. Typically, a case begins with investigators talking to witnesses and collecting information to assess the facts and see if their suspicions pan out. Grand jury subpoenas can be issued to collect evidence, for instance, asking a bank to submit financial records in a fraud case. Frequently, a grand jury doesn’t actually hear the evidence until prosecutors are close or ready to indict. In other cases, an investigative grand jury is used to obtain evidence, sometimes for a lengthy period of time.

So, it’s not exactly clear what’s going on here or even whom the targets might be. This could be just a smoke screen, thrown up at this precise moment to distract from the Jeffrey Epstein debacle. Or it could be an investigation in progress or even a matter ready to indict, although that seems less likely. But it’s extraordinary that we know about it at all. Even though witnesses aren’t bound by the same grand jury secrecy rules that prosecutors and others are, it’s extremely unusual to have this sort of public revelation of a grand jury process. Subjects of an investigation aren’t usually eager to have that fact known publicly. Others, including prosecutors, are subject to prosecution for criminal contempt if they reveal grand jury proceedings. The source of the leaks that led to public reporting of this investigation is unclear.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

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