Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testifying before a House committee Wednesday.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

In a powerful rebuke to Donald Trump and Republicans, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified Wednesday that he saw no good reason to fire special counsel Robert Mueller from his investigation into possible collusion between the president’s campaign and Russia.

Republicans grilled Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, following recent revelations that two FBI officials on Mueller’s team were mocking the president in text messages.

Rosenstein defended Mueller, saying he is properly overseeing the investigation and has taken action when confronted with allegations of bias on the special counsel team.

“I know what he is doing,” Rosenstein told the House Judiciary Committee. “I am not aware of any impropriety.”

Rosenstein added that he would not comply with Trump if the president ordered him to fire Mueller, unless there was “good cause” for his removal.

“As I’ve explained previously, I would follow the regulation: If there was good cause, I would act,” Rosenstein said. “If there were no good cause, I would not.”

Photo via FBI

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Two senior FBI officials involved in the special counsel’s investigation into possible collision between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia mocked the Republican candidate and expressed their extreme dislike for him.

The remarks were made in text messages between a top counterintelligence agent, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer, several media outlets report. 

The pair, who also criticized Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, described the prospect of a Trump presidency as “terrifying.”

The text messages, which were sent to lawmakers Tuesday night as part of an ethics investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general, included insults aimed at Trump, calling him him an “idiot,” “awful” and a “loathsome human.”

Strzok has been removed from the special counsel’s team after the text messages surfaced.

Republicans are using the text messages to attack the credibility of the investigation led by Robert Mueller.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

President Trump’s lawyers are calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a second special counsel to investigate possible conflicts of interest and other issues in the Justice Department and on the special counsel team probing the Trump campaign.

“The conflicts of interest here and the impropriety is a very serious concern,” Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s personal lawyers, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “You have to look at all of 2016 and what was going on in the Department of Justice.”

One of the concerns involves Bruce G. Ohr., a senior DOJ official who met privately with a private research firm involved in the salacious, but unconfirmed, dossier. Ohr’s wife worked for the firm, Fusion GPS.

Trump’s lawyers also cite anti-Trump text messages between two senior FBI officials who were involved in the special counsel investigation .

The FBI’s current headquarters in Washington D.C., named after J. Edgar Hoover.

By Editorial Board
Dallas Morning News

File photo of a Border Patrol agent.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Customs and Border Protection is paying a private company $297 million to help hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents.

The move is part of President Trump’s push to put more agents on the ground to protect against illegal immigration.

Since Border Patrol is struggling to meet the hiring mandate, it’s turning to a division of Accenture, an international professional services corporation, for a five-year contract, the San Diego Union Tribune reports. 

The Union-Tribune wrote:

The scope of work in the contract requires the company to manage “the full life cycle of the hiring process” from job posting to processing new hires. The company, the agency said in email response to questions, will augment the agency’s existing internal hiring programs.

It also calls for a “hard-hitting, targeted recruitment campaign consisting of promoting the CBP law enforcement careers and opportunities” and a public education campaign about CBP and Border Patrol jobs.

Accenture wil be paid to assist hiring 5,000 Border Patrol agents, as well as 2,000 customs officers and 500 agents for the Office of Air and Marine Operations. The award was made on Nov. 17, with Accenture being selected above four other bidders, federal contract records show.

To skeptics of the hiring push, the Accenture contract makes little sense. “They’re spending almost $40,000 per hire,” said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. “Just off the bat that seems like a pretty desperate move.”

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