Not Under Oath?? What's The Point of Questioning Kushner, Manafort, Trump Jr. If They Can Lie As Much As They Want

It was revealed today that Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort won't be under oath when they testify this week to the Senate. We learned last week that Jared Kushner would also not be under oath.

Worse, after Republican Senator Chuck Grassley acted like he was going to be tough on the Trump administration and threaten subpoenas, he backed off -- and went from a public, under-oath testimony, to a private, lie-as-much-as-you-want affair.

And among all of this, we're still expected to believe that something will come out of the testimony? What's the point of a hearing if the subjects can just lie wily-nily.

They might as well have a monkey appear and randomly sign responses -- the answers may be just as accurate.

Furthermore, by keeping the public from seeing the Trump team sweat on TV, Congress is shielding them from any public oversight whatsoever.

For his part, Grassley insists that lying to Congress is illegal regardless of whether someone is under oath.

However, we have seen how that has worked out to date, given that but Kushner and Sessions are known to have lied to Congress -- and Kushner still has a top security clearance.

Unfortunately, this is part of a larger theme in which both parties have sought keep this investigation overly secret -- in some cases, for absolutely no reason.

It is understandable that some things need to be kept classified, such as methods used by Russia.

However, why is so much information about Kushner and others in government -- who serve the American people -- being kept? Why can't we see Kushner's disclosure forms, except through leaks? That's not a spy secret...

Why can't we find out what Trump has said to Rosenstein or White House Counsel? There is no attorney-client privilege there...

And why don't we know answers to such basic questions as did Trump make any policy changes to help Putin? How many times did Trump meet with Putin while on a State sponsored trip? Who in the government is pushing to kill sanctions on Russia? These are all public matters related to what's supposed to be a representative Democracy, yet we may never know the answers to any of them.

But it's much more than that: Watching members of the Intelligence or Judiciary committees on TV is absurdly frustrating.

This week, Rachel Maddow asked Democrat Adam Schiff whether he had looked into a story that was published in the Wall Street Journal.

He refused to answer -- and this is a DEMOCRAT.

Apparently, we -- as the people who sign these guys' checks -- are not even trusted to know something that has already appeared all over the press.

But not just that: we aren't even allowed to know whether the committee has looked into that something.

The most ridiculous component of all of this is that the Russians already know everything that's going on. As do other governments. The American people are the only ones that are NOT allowed to know.

It's time this government starts being transparent to the American people -- otherwise there will never be justice.

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Journalist Seth Abramson Finds Shocking TRUMP CAMPAIGN LIE, COLLUSION OFFER In Carter Page Testimony (more); Who is Rick Gates? All The Details About Manafort's Inside Man (more); Unbelieveable: Trump Taking Puerto Ricans' Passports If They Don't Pay For Flight, While His Team Flies Private On Your $$$ (more); NBA Champions Golden State Warriors Won't Be Visiting President Trump (more).

And here are some more related articles: Read The Entire Statement from Donald Trump Jr.

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A few more: Journalist Seth Abramson: Did Carter Page Broker Trump Putin Deal, Via Secret Passage? (more); With Celebs Giving Millions To Harvey Relief, Where's Donald Trump's Billions? (more).