The chair of the House Judiciary Committee sees no reason to investigate Donald Trump’s firing of James Comey or his abuse of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. According to Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, it’s much more important for the committee to investigate Hillary Clinton. Goodlatte’s logic for what he’s not doing is … special, when you hold it up against what he is doing:
"Until Mr. Mueller’s investigation is complete, it is redundant for the House of Representatives to engage in fact-gathering on many of the same issues he is investigating," Goodlatte said at a hearing last week.
Given all the probes, he said there’s no reason for his panel to use “taxpayer dollars to investigate the Trump campaign’s connections -- or lack thereof -- to the Russian government."
So: it would be redundant and a waste of taxpayer dollars to investigate stuff that’s happening now and being done by an important person who poses an ongoing threat to the independence of the Justice Department and FBI—institutions Goodlatte’s committee oversees—because there is another investigation happening.
But going back and investigating the Justice Department investigation into Clinton’s email, and her faked-up ties to foreign governments invented by Republicans to defend Donald Trump? That’s a great idea! Not redundant at all, despite the long string of House Republican investigations into Clinton over the past years. It’s true that they mostly focused on Benghazi, with substantial detours into her email, but inventing new things to investigate that are not real to begin with is … only a good use of congressional time and taxpayer dollars if you’re 1) obsessed with Clinton and 2) working hard to protect Trump. Which is pretty much the slogan of today’s Republican Party, unfortunately.