December 9, 2019: Inspector General's Report Find's Russia Probe Was Justified

 

12/9/19: The Inspector General’s report is out regarding the F.B.I. investigation into the Trump 2016 campaign. 

This is the report that is going to prove that everyone in the F.B.I. hated Trump, and hated America, and that a coup was plotted. The “Deep State” was so slick in those days that the “Fake News” New York Times was first to announce, on March 2, 2015, that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a private email server, in violation of State Department rules. 

Way to stick it to Trump!

 

The coup gathered force on July 5, 2016, when the diabolical James Comey, Director of the F.B.I., announced that Secretary Clinton had been “extremely careless” in handling classified information on her private server. 

Another body blow to…Trump!!

 

That investigation was closed in July; but Comey decided to knife Trump in the back again, on October 28, 2016. This time, he announced that the investigation had been reopened and Clinton was under suspicion again. 

Yes, sticking it to….Trump…just ten days before voters went to the polls!!! 

(Sound of diabolical Comey laughter.)

 

Now the report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz is out. When the smoke clears, we learn that the F.B.I. was sloppy in investigating Team Trump. Some of the information they relied on was no good. Some sources were biased. Some were not totally reliable. One agent tampered with an email to make it easier to get a FISA warrant to eavesdrop on Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide. We even learned that Christopher Steele, of Steele dossier fame, had previously had a “personal” relationship with…dun dun dun…Ivanka Trump. 

Meaning: Ivanka was part of the “Deep State?” 

(Sound of diabolical Ivanka laughter.)

 

Politico neatly summed up the main takeaways from the Horowitz report: 

First, the F.B.I. did not use the Steele dossier as the basis for opening its Russia investigation as Trump and his allies have long insisted. The first critical warning came from an Australian diplomat.

Second, the F.B.I. was initially “waved off” when it requested a FISA warrant on Page. The F.B.I. then used the Steele dossier to bolster support for a claim that a warrant was justified. According to I.G. Horowitz, he “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the F.B.I.’s decision to seek FISA authority on Carter Page.” 

Third, “Lovely Lisa” Page, as President Trump has often portrayed her, and Peter Strzok, “her lover,” did indeed have an anti-Trump bias. They did not lead the investigation. Bill Priestap, head of the F.B.I. counterintelligence division, was in charge. Priestap used his “exercise of discretion in opening the investigation” and “was in compliance with Department and F.B.I. policies.”

 

Again, Horowitz “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] influenced his decision.” 

Some agents had a pro-Trump bias. The day after the election a supervisor volunteered to work on any special probe into the Clinton Foundation. He compared Trump’s victory to “watching a Superbowl comeback.” 

As Politico explained, another F.B.I. agent wrote, simply, “Trump!” A colleague replied, “Hahahah. Shit just got real.” Then they added a message from a third agent to their thread: “I saw a lot of scared MFers on…[my way to work] this morning. Start looking for new jobs fellas. Haha.” 

 

They all earned their felonies, fair and square. 

Fourth, Carter Page was the only Trump official under FISA surveillance. None of the six Trump officials convicted of felonies (so far) were illegally surveilled. They all earned their felonies, fair and square. 

Fifth, the F.B.I. had initiated an investigation into Paul Manafort by January 2016, two months before he joined the Trump campaign. Manafort was suspected of money laundering and tax evasion – related to  his payments from corrupt Ukrainian politicians and sleazy oligarchs. 

Sixth, the Carter Page warrant was handled badly and at least one F.B.I. lawyer may have committed a crime in altering documents.

 

Seventh, the F.B.I. dropped Steele as a source, after he revealed information to reporters. But Bruce Ohr, an attorney for the Department of Justice, met with Steele multiple times to discuss findings. The IG’s report finds Ohr “committed consequential errors in judgment.”  

Eighth: The F.B.I. had a source inside the Trump campaign; but that source did not play a role in the Russia probe.

 

* 

“An intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign.” 

AS MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED, different observers studied the glass and decided it was half full, or spilling over with toxic sludge, or insisted that the glass was a bathtub filled with bootleg gin. 

NBC went with this headline: “Internal Justice watchdog finds that Russia probe was justified, not biased against Trump.” 

Fox News went with: “F.B.I. demons plotted against God’s Chosen One.” (Okay, that’s a joke.) 

Attorney General Bill Barr, that pillar of unbiased rectitude, gets mad at Horowitz, who he put in charge, and tells reporters, “The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the F.B.I. launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken.”

 

President Trump goes bonkers, claiming, that the findings are “far worse than anything I would have even imagined. This was an overthrow of government,” he howls. “This was an attempted overthrow, and a lot of people were in on it, and they got caught. They got caught red-handed.” 

Actually, the one agent who tampered with documents got caught if anyone did. As for Trump and his pals? George Papadopoulos, General Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, and Roger Stone have all since been convicted of felonies of different colors, shapes, and sizes. 

All six lied in service to Donald J. Trump.

    

    

Six felons is a lot.