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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
What secret information am I reffering to
Afternoon Cato and Julia,
Trump was not expected to win, the corrupt FBI folks had thought they were adding to the factors which would tarnish Trump and guarantee a win for Hillary. VDH has highlighted this often and noted that that would mean Brennan, Clapper, Page, Strozk, Ohr, Clinesmith, would all still be working at the FBI, along with many other corrupt folks. So without Trump we would note even glimpse the metastatic corruption of the admin state. I do not think Trump is stupid, but that is beside the point. We have a deeply corrupt admin state and some willfully blind “conservatives” are in a dither over tweets and blasé about our real threat, the corruption of the elites.
I’m not sure what you’re watching or reading or listening to, but I see plenty of anger at the FBI’s misbehavior among people on the right who are unenthusiastic about the president. Could it be that there’s just so much mainstream (read: leftist) disinterest that that is what you’re really noticing and reacting to?
Last time I checked, the Attorney General of the United States had launched a (much needed) investigation into it, lead by a prosecutor who is highly regarded by, among others, supporters of the president. We await the results. What more could you want? I personally hope a lot of heads roll and will share your concern if they don’t. But pending the outcome of that investigation, the answer to this question is “wait for the outcome of that investigation.”
I apologize for mis-spelling your name (again).
I concur with most of this. It is critical to the legitimacy of our system that there be consequences for the DOJ/FBI abuse of power directed at the Trump campaign and presidency. I am hopeful there will be.
I’m not a lawyer, so I may have this wrong. After the investigation is completed and the results made known to the degree possible consistent with security concerns, is there not still the step of deciding to bring charges against individuals? That is my concern. That no one will be charged at all.
I agree. It is certainly one of the benefits of the Trump presidency that we didn’t get a president who would have swept this corruption under the rug. I’ve no doubt Hillary would have done so, and probably rewarded the criminals. Doesn’t change my assessment of Trump’s character a whit. But it is an extremely valuable benefit of how the election turned out.
Well, McCabe got away with it. Given how dirty he was, I assume the rest will get away with it, too.
Link a for instance.
Because I see the opposite here on Ricochet from NT OP’s applauding the Mueller obstruction of justice conclusions, to OPs’ embracing of the (D) Ukraine impeachment efforts, as well as many NT pundits turning their noses up at politicians and journos who put their cojones on the line to report on Spygate in the early going when we all had a difficult time believing the upper echelons of our Federal law enforcement agencies could be so thoroughly corrupted
But less quantifiable is the NT lack of saying much at all, or rarely having politicians and journalists working to understand the scandal as guests on their Podcasts to discuss the details of the Spygate scandal.
This is nothing new. They have been know to coach witnesses into lying for years in trade for reduced sentences. This is what happens when congress puts no criminal penalties for government officials breaking the law and constitution. No criminal accountability for people with tremendous power breeds corruption. So what if a court slaps you on the wrist and tax payers have to pay for you breaking the law. Worse case you don’t get any more promotions.
I am a lawyer and you are correct. This is a criminal investigation and there will be no charges if it is concluded that there were no provable crimes. But if the Bill Barr lead DOJ reaches that conclusion after an exhaustive investigation, don’t we have to ask ourselves if maybe they’ve reached it in good faith and with solid grounds? I don’t expect that outcome and I too will struggle to understand it if it comes. But I will make that effort because people I trust, who are not operating with corrupt motivations, will have done the work.
Forget it Jake, it’s the FBI.
Yes, we’ll ask ourselves that. I allow for the possibility that the answer will be “no”.
Mine too. I’m an advocate of waiting for Durham, but if the crimes of the privileged have no cost then my calculations will change.
Me too.
And the bulwark is rooting for Bernie
No, the specific issue of whether he would be charged about leaking about the Hillary email investigation is all that was at issue here. This is separate from the Russia collusion story.
Actually, my concern is the opposite. Durham is a prosecutor and I assume will determine if there are indictable actions here. I think it likely there are. However, I think there are also actions that may not have broken a law but were unethical and improper. I’d like to hear about it all.
Let’s just say that I have almost no faith in our institutions to punish Swamp Dwellers who commit crimes. These people will get away with it, it will further alienate the citizen class, and the reelection of Donald Trump will be the least of their problems going forward. What happens when the citizen class has no trust in the government that deigns to rule over it?
I have never been a Bulwark fan and frankly, I’m getting a little annoyed with Jonah and David at the Dispatch. I subscribed to the Dispatch because I’m a long time Jonah fan and generally like David when he doesn’t get too preachy. I don’t even really disagree with them about Trump most of the time. But yes, I could do with a little less focus on Trump’s flaws and a little more discussion of other items of importance.
McCabe’s lawyer said this, “This means that no charges will be brought against him based on the facts underlying the Office of the Inspector General’s April 2018 report.” I’ve lost track by now, but when McCabe “lacked candor”, was he under oath? How is this different from what Flynn is supposed to have done?
I’d like to see Bernie as the Demo nominee myself, for two reasons: 1) I think it would all but guarantee Trump’s reelection, 2) the nation needs this socialism debate. Let’s find out how many of our fellow citizens are that stupid and/or delusional.
They want him to win the White House though
I don’t know. I was specifically responding to the notion that McCabe had been cleared of everything, including the Russia stuff, which he has not.
Understood, but my point was that we have ample evidence of illegalities and the PTB decided to let it slide. His lawyer claims this applies to everything in the IG’s report. Later, we’ll see if Durham is all hat and no cattle.
I’ve always regarded the Bulwark as a competitor to BabylonBee, but without the humor.
I share that concern. I didn’t pay much attention to the Ukraine stuff on the theory of “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” but since 2017 I’ve read every original document I could lay my hands on regarding the Russia stuff – IG Reports, Mueller Report, Intelligence Assessment, indictments and motion practice, the Page-Strozek texts, testimony released by the House & Senate committee etc. Though I’ve read sources like Andy McCarthy and Conservative Treehouse I’ve taken nothing they’ve said at face value without documentation.
At the start I thought there might be something to the Russia accusations given Trump’s horrible statements on Putin and Russia and his general lack of ethics. Instead, for the first and probably only time, I feel sorry for Trump as well as others caught up in this like Carter “The Most Innocent Man In America” Page, and am now convinced this is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime and there must be consequences. Some of the behaviors may be criminal but others may just be unethical, crappy, and a betrayal of the public trust. They all need to be called out and the people and institutions held accountable.
The IG Report referred to is the one on the Clinton email investigation not the more recent ones, including the December 2019 report on the FISA Warrants.
However, one disturbing aspect of this are reports over the past few months that a DC grand jury refused to return an indictment against McCabe on this matter. If true, it raises a bigger problem. If there are indictments related to the Russia hoax and if the indictments are sought in DC, will any grand jury in this 98% Democratic city approve them?
There will not be consequences
Theory: The State will protect you.
Practice: The State protects the State.