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FBI Gave Secrets to Steele
It has been clear to me for some time that the FBI is corrupt. How corrupt is still open for debate, but there has been no doubt in my mind about it, at the highest levels. This is, of course, nothing new. Under Hoover, it was as corrupt as such things can be. Still, we had hoped, in 2016 that was behind us. Not so.
This at Real Clear Investigations piece is scary. Any American should be horrified, but of course, the left will not be, and Never Trumpers won’t be, because let’s face it, there is nothing that will make either one of those groups change their mind. The Never Trumpers who can be won over have been (welcome all).
A month before the 2016 presidential election, the FBI met Christopher Steele in Rome and apparently unlawfully shared with the foreign opposition researcher some of the bureau’s most closely held secrets, according to unpublicized disclosures in the recent Justice Department Inspector General report on abuses of federal surveillance powers.
That is the opening paragraph. While DOJ lawyers want to put people away for seven years for process crimes, the FBI is breaking the law to help a candidate go after another in a presidential election.
The FBI’s decision to share classified information with a partisan operative and private foreign citizen is all the more curious because the team investigating figures associated with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump made extensive efforts to keep the very fact of Crossfire Hurricane a secret from their own colleagues at the bureau.
I have been in the behavioral health business for almost 30 years. I can tell you when people are hiding secrets from their friends, they are doing something wrong. It is clear the people doing this knew it was wrong when they were doing it.
The closing paragraphs are the strongest:
To appreciate the magnitude of the FBI’s breach of the rules governing classified materials, consider how the bureau’s former Director James Comey and former General Counsel James Baker have used classification to limit what Michael Horowitz was able to ask them. Comey and Baker “chose not to request that their security clearances be reinstated for their OIG interviews,” the Inspector General writes. “Therefore, we were unable to provide classified information or documents to them during their interviews to develop their testimony, or to assist their recollections of relevant events.”
The idea that the FBI is gratuitously sharing classified information with a foreign informant is rather extraordinary, says lawyer Bigley. “If one of my clients did this, they would be stripped of their security clearance, out of a job, and probably facing indictment.”
If nothing comes from this, we can be sure America is a banana republic now. The power of the DOJ is only to be used against conservatives and enemies of the deep state. The rules are only to advance their agenda. The laws are only enforced to attack their enemies.
I expect this information will be ignored across the board.
Published in General
It has always been corrupt, probably more than other Federal power, but like all modern Federal power it’s well organized, professional and focused. There is no fixing them, they are too remote, unaccountable and their power grows through time. Seeing them clearly for the first time, we should take advantage of the opportunity, it may not occur again.
Morning Bryan,
This will be another example showing how different folks see what is important or in my view the real threat. I will be interested in seeing how our Trump repulsed conservatives compare this new evidence of FBI corruption with the Trump tweet on Stone. I imagine Jonah and the rest will think the tweet is a serious threat to DOJ independence and will not even comment on the depth of the FBI/Steele coordinations. This example may be another demonstration that our former “conservative” thinkers are comfortable with the administrative state and the corruption which flows out of it. This morning Powerline also linked to the Felten reporting https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/02/eric-felten-buried-in-ig-report.php.
I, too, think that the Dispatch will ignore it
Let’s hope you are wrong about this. Horowitz bent over backward not to characterize this as expressly criminal activity. I wonder if Durham and Barr will correct that oversight.
In fairness to the FBI, eight years of the overtly, shamelessly partisan tone in the DOJ (which to start with, had never been fully cleansed of the legacy of the No-Integrity All-Stars who brought the Ted-Stevens and Arthur Anderson prosecutions) followed by the expectation that the even more overtly corrupt Hillary would be the next POTUS probably warped everybody’s moral frame of reference.
To the Mean Girl (R)’s, if it does not fit the Trump is Bad narrative then it Never happened.
They will step over, around, or move to the other side of the street entirely, rather than confront issues which may even inadvertently exonerate or help Trump in any way.
The government’s intelligence agencies are significantly staffed with, and sometimes run by, communists (see: Comey, Brennan). Their existence is probably unconstitutional, too. Not really sure why any conservative would bother defending either of these institutions. They should really be abolished, if you ask me.
What was the motivation for this breach of intelligence? The election was imminent. We don’t know exactly what information was shared, but it seems that this was full disclosure of the findings of Crossfire Hurricane thus far. My only thought is that the FBI hoped that Steele would be able to provide something that would legitimize a true November surprise, something that the actual intended recipient, Simpson, could leak to the press and turn the tide in the election. Steele could provide a sort of legitimate excuse, a screen, for justification of the disclosure should anyone question the meeting and discover the source of the breach. It is also likely that all involved could see the weakness in Clinton’s poll numbers, that she could lose. But Crossfire Hurricane was a nothingburger, reliant as it was on Steele’s own work, which Steele knew was highly dubious and likely based upon Russian lies.
So the November surprise was a dud. Simpson had nothing to leak, or at least nothing worth leaking. The claim payment for the “insurance policy” was worthless. Toothless Crossfire Hurricane continued nonetheless as a bloodless coup, evidence of deep state arrogance and corruption of the highest order. Its engineers and participants should now be rooted out, tried and punished as the traitors that they are.
I’ve read the entire Horowitz report and it’s quite devastating for the FBI despite its neutral language and the constrained terms of reference it operated within. At several points it reports on someone at the FBI trying to explain why something other than political bias led to all its “mistakes” and then the paragraph ends with a phrase like “the explanations were not satisfactory”.
I don’t however think during the campaign the FBI was the driving factor, mostly because despite its political bias it was so incompetent it couldn’t get out of its own way to announce the investigation during the campaign, which in turn frustrated Steele, FusionGPS and the Clinton campaign, leading them to leak the story to the press and Harry Reid. I think it will turn out to be Brennan at CIA who was driving things during the campaign phase.
The scenario becomes different post-election and pre-inauguration when, with the approval of senior Obama Administration officials, including the President, this was converted into a conspiracy to, at a minimum disrupt the incoming administration and, at maximum, unseat the new President. The FBI, specifically Comey and McCabe, was one of the key drivers in this phase.
Oh my.
The Injustice Department just announced that they would not go after coup-plotter McCabe.
As Mark Steyn just declared, penalties now only apply to those who support a Republican president.
What a joke!
Destroy General Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and all the rest through harassment and draining of personal savings for legal fees while those who tried to destroy an election and an elected president get no punishment. It’s bad enough they they bring these court case to juries in the District of Columbia and Manhattan which are essentially the two most anti-Trump/conservative locations.
I guess this will happen in every election now as there is no punishment for Democrats in the 21st Century.
The FBI, the Democrats are corrupt and Trump is stupid. This was my (NeverTrumper) position before the article and it is still my position. Trump is the only one who can change my mind about him and he seems incapable of doing that. I WANT to vote for him.
I don’t see the point of castigating Never Trumpers every time some new dastardly deed by the media, the Democrats or the FBI is revealed.
This is exactly the issue. Only Republicans pay a price.
Well, since Never Trump part of Conservatism, Inc, go after Trump for the slightest thing, it strikes those of us who support Trump as petty, since they don’t go after the FBI for big things. It is the different standard. If the Dispatch cannot condemn the FBI for this, or when Trump’s impeachment is presented as just by people on the Right, those of us who used to be their allies scratch their heads.
As the election heats up. I will return to my Binary Outcome argument. Of course, Never Trump pundits are no longer pretending that a binary outcome is not the case. They are Bernie Bros.
Not just you. It’s obvious. Did it start with Obama? I can’t imagine the Bush White House would have done this.
FWIW,
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/breaking-doj-will-not-charge-former-fbi-deputy-director-andrew-mccabe/
I am not positive, but I believe McCabe is only off the hook for essentially lying to FBI investigators(the FBI officially calls it something else) about leaking and other internal FBI related misconduct which was only related to the Trump Russia collusion issue in ancillary ways. Moreover, it does not mean this dirt bag did not commit serious serious professional malfeasance worthy of firing and never working in Federal law enforcement again.
Most importantly , McCabe is not off the hook for the big crimes of the Trump Russia collusion debacle, particularly signing off on the 4th Carter Page FISA.
I wouldn’t call stupidity Trump’s problem. Most of the city is corrupt and out to destroy him.
I think part of Trump’s problem for those who are not inclined to support him is that he gets upset — as most of city is corrupt and out to destroy him.
He picked Jeff Sessions who would not block a special prosecutor, and actually cowered when questioned by comedian Al Franken regarding conversations with the Russian ambassador; impeachment actually is the Constitutional check and balance on the president, not special prosecutors.
He picked Rod Rosenstein, and we remember how that worked out. However, if Rosenstein had put a short time limit on a Robert Mueller investigation which knew that there wasn’t a problem and only wanted to tie Trump down and embarrass him for over a year, things might have been different.
He picked Christopher Wray for FBI who seems to be worthless.
He has now picked Bill Barr. I guess he might end up being like another Mitt Romney. Is Barr capable of prosecuting ANY non-Republicans?
Brian, is it really lost on you that there is no contradiction between thinking both: 1) that the FBI has behaved horrifyingly corruptly in the Steele/Russia/FISA mess; and 2) that Donald Trump is a person of low, self-serving character who has done and said awful things and does not have the public good at top of mind when making decisions?
If it is, please explain how those two thoughts are mutually exclusive. I am firmly convinced of both and find no contradiction whatsoever between them.
Banana Republic.
Then write OP’s,comment, and encourage the paid pundits in the NT to become enthusiastic for 1) and stop focusing 100% of their efforts into 2).
The most egregious political scandal in US history has taken place on your watch and if students of history were to read the NT narrative for this time in history, they would learn nothing of the unprecedented FBI/DOJ/IC malfeasance and abuse of power, but they would certainly discover through it all …. Trump is Bad.
To clarify I believe this investigation was about McCabe’s leak to the WSJ about the Clinton investigation and is not related to his activities regarding Russia.
Barr just announced appointment of an outside counsel to review the Michael Flynn prosecution.
I am going to assume this is directed at me, since the Brian with that name spelled that way is no in this thread.
I don’t understand your question at all. Never had I said anything remotely like that. Perhaps you want me to have said that, but I have not.
Nothing Trump has done warrants what has been done to him legally. Nothing. Yet, Never Trumpers keep saying or acting like what has been done is reasonable, because they don’t like Trump.
Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, and even Barak Obama can all said to be persons of low, self-serving characters who has done and said awful things and does not have the public good at top of mind when making decisions. But, to Never Trumper, Trump, and only Trump, should be subject to 90% biased news, DOJ and FBI investigations and prosecutions of those around him on process crimes. Obama’s administration used the IRS to influence the outcome of an election and no one spent a day in jail.
So, I guess what I am really saying is that while I believe that Never Trumpers think Trump is a person of low, self-serving character who has done and said awful things and does not have the public good at top of mind when making decisions, they don’t actually think that the FBI has behaved horrifyingly corruptly in the Steele/Russia/FISA mess. If they did, I’d hear more about these actual crimes, than the latest reason they are angry at Trump.
I really think the problem is emotional, not rational. Trump is a heretic and the GOP now follows him. That is his real crime on the right.
I think President Trump loves America and its people. He most certainly has the public good in mind when making decisions.
Unlike the Swamp which has itself in mind first and only.
Both can be true and they are not mutually exclusive, but that’s hardly the point, is it? The point, to me, is this: Is there anyone other than Trump who cares about and is willing to try to address issue #1?
The essential element of NeverTrumpism was that Trump’s enumerated flaws would cause his administration to be a failure with adverse outcomes all over the place. Trump’s flaws are still on display but his 3+ years have been more successful than any of his recent predecessors.
If the perpetrators of the Russian collusion hoax were breaking faith and the law to prevent a great disaster, they may have been sincere in that belief but now that it was shown to be wrong, they gotta pay.
The only great threat to America during Trump’s presidency was the gross abuse of power by those who sought to push him from office. A Democratic President and Democratic Congress would certainly bury that evidence and allow the “deep state” entitlement mentality and politicization of the federal government to become even more entrenched. I don’t see how the Great Moralizers (Kristol, Will, Rubin et al) can continue to defend and promote that outcome.
So surrender is the only option?
J Edgar was corrupt. He entertained LBJ with Martin Luther King bedroom tapes. Every president left him alone and Nixon made the mistake of antagonizing Mark Felt after Hoover died.
http://abriefhistory.org/?p=638
Perhaps because the information is suspect. I am always skeptical of someone who claims to know “secret” information. And the article describes a conspiracy of silence theory that now encapsulates many, many people. It would have fallen apart by now.
J Edgar promoted J Edgar but he was not on the take nor partisan (until maybe the Dems took a McGovernite turn). He spied on everybody, especially political enemies. And generally assumed he was the law.
One evening in 1968, my father (a former DOJ attorney savvy about things Washington) looked up from his reading and said out of the blue that Eugene McCarthy must be the cleanest man in politics. I was a little taken aback because I did not think my father was all that in tune with McCarthy, so I asked
“How do you know that?
“Over a month ago, McCarthy said that Hoover had been in too long and that if elected one of McCarthy’s first acts as President would be to ask for Hoover’s resignation’.”
“So?”
“So, he called for J Edgar to be ousted and absolutely nothing bad or embarrassing about McCarthy has appeared in any newspaper since he said that.”
Maybe we read a different Eric Felton RCP Investigations piece or you are referring to a different “secret” but the information(ie: FBI giving Steele very secret information about the then ongoing FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation) is clearly no longer a current “secret” in that the “secret” is laid out in detail by Horowitz in the IG Report:
From the Felton RCP piece:
The report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz details how a team of FBI agents in early October 2016 shared with Steele extensive classified materials, just weeks before the bureau cut off ties with him for leaking his own research to the media. The secrets included foreign intelligence information still considered so sensitive that the IG’s report refers to it even now only as coming from a “Friendly Foreign Government.” In fact, this is a reference to Australia. That country’s ambassador to Britain sent the United States a tip about loose talk by junior Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. The FBI has described that as the predicate for its Trump-Russia investigation.
The FBI’s disclosures to Steele — described on pages 114-115 and in footnote 513, and supported on pages 386-390 and footnotes 252 and 513, deep in Horowitz’s report – were violations of laws governing the handling of classified material, according to the Inspector General and experts in national security law who spoke with RealClearInvestigations.