WHILE THE LEFT STARTS DANCING IN THE STREETS OVER THE FACT THAT THE WITCH HUNT, LEAD BY RUSSIAN COLLABORATOR AND URANIUM DELIVERY BOY, ROBERT MUELLER CALLS A GRAND JURY, A FOX NEWS REPORTER EXPLAINED WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING AND WHY THOSE ROOTING AGAINST THE PRESIDENT SHOULD KEEP THEIR EXPECTATIONS IN CHECK …
The media hasn’t been this excited since Chris Matthews got that thrill up his leg.
And it’s a leak that did it, of course. One deliberately aimed at hurting the Trump presidency.
If anyone doubted that this investigation was anything but an attempt to smear Donald Trump, the latest development — and the media’s breathless response — tore that idea wide open.
Political circles inside the Beltway, cable shoutfests and liberal late-night comics this week were buzzing with the news bombshell Thursday that a grand jury is hearing evidence in the case of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. But liberals shouldn’t be popping the impeachment champagne just yet.
A Washington that got used to an imperial presidency during the Obama administration might have forgotten it, but this is exactly how it’s supposed to work.
That was the take on Friday from veteran journalist and Fox News “Media Buzz” columnist Howard Kurtz.
Kurtz took a point-by-point approach to popping the bubbles of excitement that greeted Thursday’s report inThe Wall Street Journal that special prosecutor Robert Mueller had impaneled a grand jury to hear evidence in the investigation that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian operatives to sway the result of the November vote.
Kurtz’s conclusion – which should be obvious to anyone not blinded by partisan or ideological rage – is that the excitement is misplaced.
First of all, prosecutors impaneling grand juries is not only routine, it’s to be expected. It’s how a prosecution investigation proceeds – to establish that a crime has been committed and who is likely the criminal.
As Kurtz put it, far from being a bombshell itself: “The shocker would have been if Mueller completed his investigation without bringing in a grand jury.”
Apparently shocked breathless by a story it got scooped on in its own backyard, The Washington Post described the development as “a sign that investigators continue to aggressively gather evidence in the case.”
Kurtz’s answer is a lancet: “True. Did anyone expect anything less?”
Not to be outdone in the hype department, the reliably liberal USA Today intoned that “the move would give Mueller, a former FBI director, enormous power to subpoena documents and compel witnesses to testify under oath.”
As Kurtz responds: “Yep. Which he already had.”
In other words, the seating of a grand jury is the process playing out.
But it’s important to remember that it’s a process that started with the appointment of a special prosecutor that was engineered by former FBI Director James Comey through a highly unethical, if not illegal, leak to The New York Times.
Grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret. But Mueller’s grand jury was exposed to the Wall Street Journal by “people familiar with the matter.” That is, people with an ax to grind against the administration as sharp and as bitter as Comey’s.