Tag: Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham: ‘I’m not going to be the Republican Christopher Steele’

He wants to move forward with investigations without relying on sources from Ukraine and Russia.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham addressed the president directly Sunday as he pledged to carefully investigate Joe Biden’s son.

“If he’s watching the show, here’s what I would tell the president: I’m going to get to the bottom of the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] process, because it was an abuse of power at the Department of Justice and the FBI,” the South Carolina Republican said on CBS‘ “Face the Nation.“

He added: “We’ll make sure Hunter Biden’s conflict of interest is explored, because it’s legitimate.” Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham’s tarring of Alexander Vindman

Washington Post logoGraham warned about Russia feeding propaganda through Ukraine. Then he engaged in his own conspiracy theory about Vindman.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) gave his first Sunday show interview in the post-impeachment era of Donald Trump’s presidency. And it was something.

Over the course of a lengthy conversation with “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, Graham left open the possibility that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was being “played by the Russians.” He was also asked whether Trump knows that information from Ukraine could be Russian propaganda, and he could muster only, “I hope so.” And he indicated he is increasingly skeptical about allegations that originated in Ukraine and said the Judiciary Committee he chairs may not pursue them, after all.

The totality of it suggests that an influential senator has undergone a rather conveniently timed shift when it comes to Trump’s conspiracy theories about Ukraine. Now that the theories don’t need to be vouched for in the name of defending Trump, Graham appears to be distancing himself from them. Continue reading.

Graham Says DOJ Will Probe Bidens, Warns Russia Probers ‘Going To Jail’

Sen. Lindsey Graham took to the Sunday talk shows to bask in the Senate’s nullification of Donald Trump’s impeachment for using the tools of his power to extort the Ukrainian government into providing him “dirt” on a Democratic election opponent. It is not just Trump who appears to feel unleashed; Graham, too, was eager to describe the next steps of the administration-led descent into American fascism.

A first step: Trump “private lawyer” Rudy Giuliani’s smear campaign against the Bidens is now moving into Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department. Whatever Barr’s prior pretenses may have been, Barr is now explicitly establishing the means by which Rudy’s propaganda can be filtered into official “investigations” of Trump’s targeted enemies.

Throughout the House and press investigations into the Ukraine scandal, Trump Attorney General Barr either refused comment or denied that he was involved with the Giuliani efforts, despite Trump specifically naming both Barr and Giuliani as contacts for the Ukrainian president in the “transcript” of Trump’s now-infamous phone call. Whether this was a lie or not—and it is almost certainly a direct lie by a complicit Barr—such pretenses have now vanished. Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham says DOJ is handling information from Giuliani on Bidens

Washington Post logoSen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that the Justice Department is vetting information that President Trump’s personal attorney has delivered regarding Hunter Biden’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Graham, citing an early-morning conversation with Attorney General William P. Barr, said that Rudolph W. Giuliani is giving his information to national security experts and that he would back off his own plans to use the Senate Judiciary Committee as a vehicle to investigate the Biden family.

“The Department of Justice is receiving information coming out of the Ukraine from Rudy to see — he told me that they have created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified,” Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham faces revolt from Republican colleagues over plan to investigate whistleblower: WaPo reporter

AlterNet logoAppearing on CNN’s “New Day” on Monday morning, Washington Post congressional reporter Rachael Bade claimed some Republican lawmakers are balking at a plan by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to go after the whistleblower whose report led to the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) served notice that the Republican-majority Senate Intelligence Committee will investigate the whistleblower, stating, “The Senate Intel Committee under Richard Burr has told us that they will call the whistleblower,” before adding, “I want to understand how all this crap started.”

According to Bade, that sentiment is not universal among Republican lawmakers. Continue reading.

Graham Promises Senate Probe Of Bidens

From the February 2 edition of Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo:

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Schumer this morning signaling that the Democrats will not accept an acquittal as legitimate. Nancy Pelosi hinting that she is going to call Bolton in the House. John Bolton. What’s the dems next move? And how are you going to get anything done, Senator, if you actually got the other side constantly pushing to find out dirt on Donald Trump?

LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Well, the president has been successful in spite of all of this. I hope we can turn the page as a nation and focus on issues important. But as Nancy Pelosi calls Bolton, here is what I would say. They’re impeaching the president for suspension of aid that was eventually received, trying to leverage an investigation that never happened. This is ridiculous. Mueller broke their heart. They won’t let it go. They hate this man. Pelosi is no longer Speaker of the House. Just in name only. I don’t know if they will ever let it go. Here is what I’m going to do. If they talk to Bolton, I will bring in State Department officials, and ask them why didn’t you do something about the obvious conflict of interest Joe Biden had? Joe Biden’s effort to combat corruption in the Ukraine became a joke, when Joe Biden got before the Ukrainian parliament talking about sweetheart deals, and reforming the energy sector, I can only imagine how they were laughing under their breath. What about your son, Vice President Biden, sitting on the most corrupt board in Ukraine, Burisma, receiving $3 million dollars. I can only imagine if a Republican done what Biden had done. But we’re going to get to the bottom of this. And I can prove beyond any doubt that Joe Biden’s effort in the Ukraine to root out corruption was undercut because he let his son sit on the board of the most corrupt company in the Ukraine and we’ll not give him a pass on that. Continue reading.

Sen. Lindsey Graham Was ‘In The Loop’ On Ukraine Scheme, Says Lev Parnas

Rudy Giuliani told him “on several occasions that he spoke to Lindsey Graham about the situation, that Lindsey was always aware,” Parnas told Anderson Cooper.

Rudy Giuliani’s indicted business associate Lev Parnas accused Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) of being “in the loop” on the scheme to pressure Ukraine to launch an investigation into unfounded accusations against former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate.

Parnas, a Florida businessman who had donated to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, said he was “1 million percent” certain that Graham was aware of the Ukraine operation.

“Rudy told me not once but on several occasions that he spoke to Lindsey Graham about the situation, that Lindsey was always aware,” he told Anderson Cooper in a CNN interview Wednesday night. Graham was “aware of what was going on going back to at least 2018, maybe even earlier,” Parnas said. (Check out the video above beginning at 1:30.)

Lindsey Graham’s Most Compelling Arguments — For Impeachment

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of Donald Trump’s closest allies and loyal defenders, has regularly belittled or dismissed evidence that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival and assertions that Trump has acted to obstruct congressional investigations into the issue.

But in 1999, when Graham was one of the House managers for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, he regularly made public statements in support of an investigation of Clinton.

1) Graham implored senators to “please allow the facts to do the talking,” and told them, “Don’t decide the case before the case’s end.” Continue reading.

Graham, Paul rift deepens over Trump’s war powers

The Hill logoA high-profile debate over President Trump’s war powers is fueling a feud among Senate Republicans.

The fallout from a closed-door briefing on the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani has put a spotlight on the divisions among two of President Trump’s biggest congressional allies: Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“If I had an eye problem, I would go to him. If I had a constitutional question, he would be the last guy I would pick,” Graham said on Thursday when asked about Paul, who is an ophthalmologist. Continue reading.

‘Seriously corrupt’: Greenville SC resident pens letter to the editor demanding Lindsey Graham ‘recuse’ himself from impeachment after showing ‘disheartening level of cynicism’

AlterNet logoSouth Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has flaunted the fact that he has no desire to seriously evaluate the evidence against President Donald Trump when an impeachment trial takes place in the U.S. Senate. And a letter pushed in South Carolina’s Greenville News asserts that Graham and McConnell should both recuse themselves from the trial.

“Recent statements from U.S. senators have shown a disheartening level of cynicism never before displayed by Congress members involved in impeachment proceedings,” Greenville, South Carolina resident William Byars writes. “Both Senate leader Mitch McConnell and SC Sen. Lindsey Graham have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in even attempting impartiality in the Senate impeachment trial.”

Byars goes on to say, “Openly bragging about refusing to do one’s best to be impartial toward such a solemn responsibility is a display of a seriously corrupt attitude about governing. This behavior insults jurors throughout our court systems, on whom we depend to uphold the mutual trust that underpins our society.” Continue reading