Maybe that’s the problem: politicians are considered temporary, federal employees are lifers and they’re perfectly comfortable reminding the elected of their place. The phrase “I don’t know” has been replaced by employees routinely telling oversight congressmen what they won’t do.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) got into a heated spat over the whereabouts of Hunter Biden’s laptop during a House Judiciary hearing on oversight of the FBI’s Cyber Division on Tuesday.  The Republican firebrand used his allotted time to grill the division’s assistant director Bryan Vorndran, who repeatedly told Gaetz he didn’t have any information on where the hard drive belonging to President Joe Biden’s son is currently located.

‘Sir, I’m not here to talk about the laptop. I’m here to talk about the FBI’s cyber program,’ Vorndran told Gaetz after the lawmaker asked where it was.
— Daily Mail, 3/29/22

People who are well-paid, if not overpaid, with dollars taxpayers should cough up documents formally requested within a reasonable amount of time and if they’re summoned to appear at a hearing, should be prepared to truthfully answer any question posed to them. If they can’t (or won’t), they should have to clear out their desk and find a job in the real world where the rules are very different.

§192. Refusal of witness to testify or produce papers
Every person who having been summoned as a witness by the authority of either House of Congress to give testimony or to produce papers upon any matter under inquiry before either House, or any joint committee established by a joint or concurrent resolution of the two Houses of Congress, or any committee of either House of Congress, willfully makes default, or who, having appeared, refuses to answer any question pertinent to the question under inquiry, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 nor less than $100 and imprisonment in a common jail for not less than one month nor more than twelve months.

Seeing how the average federal employee salary is $90,510, these fines are pretty low. Hopefully a future Congress will one day make it hurt a lot more if they publicly say “no” to the boss. That could do a lot to assure the public that those whom they keep well fed will not only do their jobs but also can be truly held responsible for their performance.

A source familiar with Durham’s ongoing investigation of the bogus Russian collusion operation tells @FDRLST: “Durham isn’t doing anything. Dropping his investigations. He’s worried about blowback from Biden. What an absolute disgrace.”
— Sean Davis, Co-Founder of The Federalist Tweet, 11/15/20

It makes one wonder why there’s nothing on The Federalist website, at least as of November 16, 2020, reflecting what this latest “source” said.

This is just an opinion but yes, it would’ve been great if the “report”, indictments and/or arrests came out BEFORE the 2020 Election, but if Mr. Durham’s stubbornly meticulous results means all of those Swamp rat fucks have to drain their bank accounts for lawyers and end up going to prison, I believe that’s more important as a stark deterrent to this ever happening again.

If these people walk, it will.

One of the very first questions asked of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a man we repeatedly hear is of the highest integrity, should have been how can we trust that you’ll be fair to all involved when you appear to have slept very well knowing that you once left innocent men in prison for years?

For the record, Mueller did not railroad four innocent men into prison – two onto death row – for a Chelsea murder they did not commit back in 1965. That frame job was handled by the Boston office of the FBI, where at one point at least six G-men were taking payoffs from organized crime. Everyone knew the four men were innocent, but the FBI wanted them to rot in prison, so the scandal would not be revealed.

Fast forward to 2006. Mueller is now the FBI director. After 35 years in the can, two of the four innocent men are dead, the other two have finally been freed. The four men or their estates are suing the feds for wrongful imprisonment. It is not a frivolous lawsuit – they will eventually win a judgment of $102 million.

The plaintiffs – the victims – are trying to get the necessary information from the crooked FBI now run by Mueller about how they were framed. But Mueller absolutely stonewalls the release of the information.
— Howie Carr, 1/30/19

How is that relevant? Well, if government officials are comfortable letting anyone sit in jail for crimes they didn’t commit and those government officials are willing to commit illegal acts to keep that person incarcerated, we are all at high risk.

During the course of the Mueller probe, supposedly looking for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign collusion with Russia, many people were were ensnared in perjury traps, prosecuted for “process crimes”, and with one they had to go back many years and prosecuted him for “crimes” that dozens (if not more) of wealthy financiers do on a daily basis but are unscathed because they probably donate to the right political party’s officeholders.

Finally, the much-anticipated testimony of Robert Mueller produced a tired old man who clearly didn’t do much of the work, thus couldn’t speak as to the contents of the report that bears his name. It didn’t go unnoticed.

According to several people who used to work for him, he was not in peak form Wednesday. He said up front that he would not go beyond the language of his 448-page report. But he declined even to read passages of the report. And, surprisingly, he did not seem conversant in the details of his investigation, repeatedly referring questioners to the language of the report without saying in his own words what it meant.
— NBC News, 7/24/19

While the media willfully reported the Democrats’ simple-to-recite talking points: attack on our democracy, no one else could get away with it, etc., the important points made by Republicans will be more than absent during most of the post-hearing coverage….

Mueller’s handiwork may be exposed for glaring omissions that, when brought to public light, leave key questions unanswered, especially about how the FBI’s unprecedented probe of the Trump campaign started.
— The Hill, 7/23/19

Democrats rely on the misinformation and/or underreporting by their media so far too many are outraged that any nation would try and interfere with our elections. It’s sad that so many liberal Democrats are totally clueless that election interference BY the United States of foreign elections has been done for decades and they’ll know many of those involved.

For the many hours of the hearing, coordinated Democrats led off by praising Mueller’s service to his country and work as special counsel. But if a man can have no problem knowing people are falsely imprisoned just so he and his buddies and continue to make a good taxpayer-funded income with perks and pension, then we’re not talking about anyone who can be trusted, especially leading an investigation in search of a crime involving the president.

And while the media has been accusing President Trump of “collusion” for the last few years, it appears they went to extraordinary lengths to get FBI employees to talk, regardless of the ethics and procedural protocols in place for a reason.

In addition to the significant number of communications between FBI employees and journalists, we identified social interactions between FBI employees and journalists that were, at a minimum, inconsistent with FBI policy and Department ethics rules. For example, we identified instances where FBI employees received tickets to sporting events from journalists, went on golfing outings with media representatives, were treated to drinks and meals after work by reporters, and were the guests of journalists at nonpublic social events.
— OIG Review of Various Actions by the FBI and DOJ in Advance of the 2016 Election

While the summary is not specific, it sounds like the “then FBI Deputy Assistant Director (DAD)” could be none other than former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok.

The inspector general (IG) indicated, without explanation, that “prosecution of the DAD [deputy assistant director] was declined.”

While going out of their way to make life as hellacious as possible for their targets, they DO take care of their own.

The investigation’s findings will be referred to the FBI for potential further action, the IG said.

The official became the second high-level FBI employee to be formally rebuked by the IG over media contacts seen as improper.
— Fox News, 5/29/19

Not saying 100% it’s Strzok, but it wouldn’t be a surprise and “further action” is certainly long overdue.

Yet, when they clearly behave in an inappropriate manner in the discharge of their duties and are called on their impropriety and possible prosecutorial biases, we’re to accept their excuses and accept the overused retort that “It is not who I am” when actions show it indeed was….

Deputy Assistant FBI Director Peter Strzok was one of the thousands of comfortable in the federal government who clearly had a pro-Hillary Clinton bias, looked the other way when investigating her yet had no problem destroying the lives of anyone associated with the Donald Trump presidential campaign or his subsequent administration.

We can only imagine the prosecutorial blitzkrieg people like Strzok would have rained down upon anyone who sought to undermine a Hillary Clinton administration utilizing the full power of the Department of Justice. There would be no mercy, let along an opportunity to blow off subpoenas to testify in front of Congressional oversight committees as did Lisa Page, the colleague Strzok was screwing around with. That is, until she was threatened with the possible loss of her pension, assets and maybe even freedom.

It must suck to be looking at the potential destruction of your professional life and personal finances as these career employees have done to countless American citizens, guilty or not, simply because they could and it might achieve a preferred career boost.

“It is not who I am”….

Yes, it was and is.