New York Dem drops the hammer on right-wing conspiracy theories about Mueller and FBI

A New York Democrat lambasted Republican lawmakers for letting President Donald Trump skate away from oversight -- and he took down Fox News conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton and law enforcement officials.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) grilled deputy U.S. attorney general Rod Rosenstein before the House Judiciary Committee on reports that the White House wants another special prosecutor to investigate special counsel Robert Mueller and other law enforcement officials probing Trump.

"Now with the year coming to a close, with the leadership of the Department of Justice finally before us, what do my Republican colleagues want to discuss?" said Nadler, the ranking Democrat. "Hillary Clinton's emails. Let me repeat that. With all of these unresolved issues left on our docket, a week before we adjourn for the calendar year, the majority's highest oversight priority is Hillary Clinton's emails and a few related text messages."

Nadler hammered his Republican colleagues for joining the White House call to investigate Mueller and FBI officials, saying they were helping cover up the indictments and guilty pleas of Trump campaign officials.

"I understand the instinct to want to change the subject after the (Mike) Flynn and (Paul) Manafort indictments, but this request is grossly misguided for a number of reasons," he said. "First, it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the special counsel regulations criminal investigations pose a conflict of interest to the Department of Justice. The Russia investigation is such a case, because of the attorney's ongoing recusal and because department leadership insisted in the removal of Director Comey for many reasons."

The Democratic lawmaker said there's no evidence to warrant another special prosecutor, despite claims hyped by the president, his attorneys and Fox News.

"So far, there has been no credible factual legal claim that anybody at the Department of Justice violated any law by deciding not to bring charges against Hillary Clinton or by attempting to meet with Fusion GPS," Nadler said. "In other words, there is no investigation to which the department could even assign a new special counsel. Second, the list of grievances raised by the majority for review by a new special counsel also seems wildly off the mark."

He said there's nothing wrong with Comey drafting an early statement about the Clinton investigation, and he said there's nothing wrong with FBI agents expressing their private political views via private text message.

"In fact, the regulations expressly permit that kind of private communication," Nadler said. "I have reviewed those text messages and I am left with two thoughts. First, Peter Strzok did not say anything about Donald Trump that the majority of Americans were not also thinking at the same time, and second, in a testament to his integrity and situational awareness, when the office of the inspector general made Mr. Mueller aware of these exchanges, he immediately removed Mr. Strzok from his team."

He suggested an investigation might be more appropriate into pro-Trump bias at the FBI in the days ahead of last year's election.

"To the extent we are now entangled with oversight of political bias at the FBI, this committee should examine evidence of a cooperated effort by some agents involved in the Clinton investigation to change the course of a campaign in favor of President Trump by leaking sensitive information to the public and by threatening to leak additional information about new emails after the investigation was going closed," Nadler said.