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DOJ Inspector General Report on FBI Investigation of Hillary Clinton
The Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton has been released. You can read the (568 page!) document yourself here. Share any revelations you find in it here in the comments.
The Washington Post reports that:
The Justice Department inspector general on Thursday castigated former FBI Director James B. Comey for his actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation and found that other senior bureau officials showed a ‘willingness to take official action’ to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.
The Wall Street Journal:
The inspector general also blasted FBI personnel who exchanged text messages that were critical of President Donald Trump during his campaign, saying the missives “cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigations and sowed doubt about the FBI’s” handling of the probe.
Nevertheless, the inspector general concluded in its 500-page report, that it found no evidence that the FBI or Justice Department allowed political bias to influence the investigative steps the watchdog examined as part of its wide-ranging inquiry.
A recently discovered text exchange, however, between FBI agent Peter Strzok, who led the Clinton investigation, and an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, raised concerns about how the FBI handled the discovery of Clinton-related emails on a laptop once used by one of her aides, Huma Abedin.
The IG Report states on page 13 (I’m a slow reader):
Published in PoliticsWe found that Strzok used his personal email accounts for official government business on several occasions, including forwarding an email from his FBI account to his personal email account about the proposed search warrant the Midyear team was seeking on the Weiner laptop. This email included a draft of the search warrant affidavit, which contained information from the Weiner investigation that appears to have been under seal at the time in the Southern District of New York and information obtained pursuant to a grand jury subpoena issued in the Eastern District of Virginia in the Midyear investigation.
My guess is that the report has lots of dirt in it, but Never Trumpers and Leftists will dismiss it for lacking a “smoking gun” anyway.
For instance, the summary states that Strzok was biased but that the IG couldn’t determine his bias influenced the investigation. Yeah, ok. Whatever.
Nonsense. They will claim it was a product of the Alt-Right and can be totally ignored.
One or the other.
P. 137:
There are some pretty serious accusations here, especially against Strzok. At a minimum Strzok should be fired from the FBI and a detailed review of his participation in the investigation into Russian electoral influence should commence immediately.
The DoJ Inspector General labored mightily and brought forth a mouse.
(With a nod to Phaedrus)
Yes, let’s condemn people for comments they haven’t made about a report none of us has read.
A prediction is not a condemnation. It is an assessment based on past behavior.
I thought “Never Trumper” was one of those derogatory terms deemed to be uncivil.
Oh well, it’s just the admin tossing it around. Nothing to see here.
The excerpts I’m reading on Twitter should result in a firing and possible prosecution of a large number of agents and leadership.
Where’s Jeff Sessions? Perhaps it’s time for Trump to find a new AG who will commit to cleaning house.
So Ricochet is comfortable with its employees poisoning the well of discussion with the first comment on an important issue. Curious way to promote civil discussion.
Um… that’s it?
The line that the IG found “no political bias” and this exchange revealed for the first time is astounding:
Page: [Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!
Strzok: No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.
How do you reconcile that? The nation’s highest law enforcement officials were openly talking about stopping the election of a major party candidate.
What’s equally appalling is that that exchange wasn’t redacted from previous documents provided to Congress, it was completely withheld.
Look, they stated there was no political bias. This from a senior official in the Federal government. What are you going to believe? A respected senior Federal government official who says there was no political bias or your own eyes?
EDs,
This is from the summary. This is the hole large enough to drag a blue whale out the door. What they are saying is that a decision that is patently incompetent on the FBI’s part will not be held against them. Instead, they can hide behind legitimate but less ‘effective’. No one in their right mind would consider that what Comey did with Hillary was anything but to distort the investigation to give her a pass. Right now Mueller has a baseball bat in his hand and is about to crack Michael Cohen over the head with it for nothing but politics.
Now for my summary. THIS SUCKS!
Regards,
Jim
It’s extremely troubling and we should immediately investigate whether improper actions were taken during the Russia investigation. Having read Chapter 12 over lunch it is imperative to determine if these comments are just the typical sort ones sees between friends discussing politics or if they were put into effect in an ongoing investigation.
Strzok should be terminated or placed on leave until the results of that investigation are determined.
I don’t. Assuming it’s accurate, it’s utterly damning of Strzok and undermines everything he touched.
As Jamie said, firing him ans stripping him of all clearances and privileges seems like a good first step.
I’m going to wait until I read Rush’s take on the report.
NeverTrump is a useful term that everyone understands. I don’t think there’s anything derogatory about it.
Page 4 of the report (33 of the PDF):
Note weasel words:
You don’t say.
Of course not.
https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari/status/1007338780137873409
How about poisoning the well of discussion by a staff member of a site that charges its members for civil discussion? How do you feel about that @max?
Uh isn’t this called bribery?
Apparently Comey has decided to claim that he is Mr.Magoo, that’s some defense there.
Doesn’t that indicate that Strzok thought there was no real substance to the Russian investigation that could implicate Trump? I’m missing some context from that quote.
Ah, corruption, the basic feature all government share.
Wow… “I don’t know whether I knew.” He obviously knew. Everyone knew. They were a very public couple. And he’s not actually even denying that he knew. He’s saying he doesn’t now know if he knew then. That is some 5th level equivocation.