In order to present an accurate record of events, it is important to remain focused on specifics. During the period from May, 2017, through April of 2019, Main Justice in Washington DC was split into two divisions.
In one division there was the Special Counsel Robert Mueller team in control of everything related to DOJ and FBI activity around the 2016 election, with emphasis on the Trump-Russia headlines. This division handled 100% of everything that was sucking up the oxygen in Washington DC. Andrew Weissmann was in charge of this division.
In the second division, there was everything else the DOJ was doing, which is to say not much. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was heading this division.
The liaison between both divisions was Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, who generally didn’t know what was going on inside the Mueller/Weissmann operation; but, as he later testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee [June 2020 link], Rosenstein had the job of signing off and authorizing everything Weissmann et al were doing. Rosenstein authorized every request and not a single ‘ask’ from the Mueller team was ever denied – including expanding the scope of the Mueller investigation, twice.
Why does this matter? It matters because everything happening in Main Justice from May ’17 to April ’19, activity that was grabbing every scintilla of media attention, was being done by the Mueller/Weissmann team. Key word ‘everything.’
There was not a single action from Main Justice that was not controlled by Andrew Weissman and company. This action includes the recent revelations of staff and congressional members from the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) having subpoenas for their private emails, phone records, text message and communication.
Andrew Weissmann sent over 2,800 subpoenas for records [See 156-Pages of Examples Here]. Some of those subpoenas were sent to various telecommunications and social media platforms so they could monitor what congress was doing.
In essence, and this is a very important part of the record that is being missed, Weissmann and his team, having been given the primary responsibility of covering up the corrupt DOJ and FBI activity from the 2016 election, needed to know what Devin Nunes and Kash Patel knew. As a result, Andrew Weissmann and team, using the figurehead of Robert Mueller as a pretext and patina, put members of congress under watch.
DAG Rod Rosenstein was likely unaware of what Weissmann and team were doing. In the world of the bureaucratic state, willful blindness has benefits and avoids a person taking a position on whether they are directly part of the corrupt activity. As a man comfortable with the Machiavellian ways of the deep swamp, Rod Rosenstein was the perfect and useful weasel on a leash for this specific role as DOJ liaison.
Again, why does this matter?
This context matters because it is much more of an explosive revelation to realize there were two sets of investigators, each investigating each other. Devin Nunes was investigating a corrupt DOJ and FBI. Weissmann and team trying to cover for corruption within the DOJ and FBI.
Chairman Devin Nunes trying to find out what was going on and put the pieces of an opaque puzzle together. Meanwhile Andrew Weissmann was in the role of blocker to the interest of Nunes, and was a stakeholder is knowing what Nunes was piecing together.
Mueller/Weissmann were on offense against President Trump, and Weissmann/Mueller were simultaneously on defense against the House Intel Committee.
Andrew Weissmann was charged with protecting the prior corrupt activity and shielding it from sunlight. In order to accomplish this goal, he had to know what Devin Nunes and Kash Patel were doing. Thus, amid the 2,800 subpoenas and search warrants, Weissmann was investigating the House investigators.
That’s the background for this story: “DOJ snooped on House Intelligence Committee investigators during Russia probe, subpoenas show”
It wasn’t the generic “DOJ” doing the snooping….
… It was the Mueller team!
.
