The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on Wednesday involving allegations that the Trump administration had politicized the Department of Justice. The testimony comes on the same day that a D.C. Court of Appeals officially ordered the case against former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn to be thrown out because, it turns out, the Obama Justice Department had ensnared Flynn in a perjury trap. We now know that former President Obama and former Vice President Biden, along with a cadre of Obama-era White House officials, conspired to target Flynn and use the Justice Department to damage the incoming Trump administration. But sure, let's accuse the Trump administration of being the ones who politicized the Justice Department.
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) rules over his committee like a soviet official conducting a show trial. Nadler lets Democratic witnesses go way over their time limits but then comes down with an iron fist whenever a non-Democratic witness nears the five-minute mark. Since Nadler throws the rules out the window to let his witnesses drone on and on, Rep. Louie Gohmert decided to demonstrate the importance of rules and order by disrupting a Democratic witness who wouldn't stop talking.
Former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer was testifying that Attorney General William Barr posed "the greatest threat ... to our rule of law and public trust in it." Ayer himself then ignored House Rules by proceeding to testify for several minutes beyond his allotted time. It was then that Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) drowned out Ayer's testimony by tapping on his desk.
"Mr. Chairman, I would ask that the sergeant-at-arms be called upon to stop the disruption of this meeting," Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) said as Rep. Gohmert continued tapping. "I can’t hear this witness. This is a very important witness."
"Yeah, well he's way beyond his time," Gohmert fired back. "And if there are no rules about when people can talk, there are no rules about when you can make noise."
Nadler conceded Gohmert's point, but then allowed the Democratic witness to keep talking.
"Mr. Chairman this is outrageous. Do you have no respect for the rules whatsoever? asked Gohmert.
"He's two minutes beyond concluding, and you don’t let us have that kind of time. You gavel us down immediately," continued Gohmert. "You’re being grossly unfair. ... Either we have rules or we don't."
Nadler allowed the witness to resume his monologue, and Gohmert continued tapping on his desk.
"... according to House Rules, a chairman cannot capriciously determine the five-minute rule at the whim of what he wants," said Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) during a point of order.
Of course, Nadler refused to recognize the point of order, at which point Collins said the chairman has "not stated a recognizable way of running the committee in 18 months."
Katie reported earlier that Attorney General Bill Barr has accepted an invitation from Jerry Nadler to testify before the House Judiciary Committee during a general oversight committee meeting scheduled for July 28.