The Inspector General’s Report, into the Trump-Russia investigation includes more than its fair share of bombshell revelations. They’re not revelations the Democrats were hoping for, however. Quite the opposite.
Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed that the investigation uncovered 17 “inaccuracies and omissions” that the FBI neglected to include in its applications for a FISA warrant against Carter Page. As you may recall, Carter Page was a Trump campaign staffer accused of “colluding” with Russia during the 2016 election. Getting a FISA warrant to surveil and wiretap Carter Page meant they had a direct way of monitoring and surveilling the Trump presidential campaign
Some of the the “inaccuracies and omissions” were truly breathtaking. For example, they told the FISA Court that Page had numerous contacts with Russians, including some who may have worked for the Russian intelligence services. That’s pretty serious and on the face of it is a strong reason to monitor an American working on a political campaign. But the FBI “forgot” to mention to the FISA Court that Carter Page was working for another intelligence agency (the CIA) and was meeting the Russians at their behest.
The FBI also failed to mention that Christopher Steele who created the infamous dossier was often unreliable and had been fired as an FBI informant because he was talking to the media. In short, they failed to do any due diligence and when they found information that would cause the FISA Court to ask questions they “forgot” to include it.
The list goes on. Some on the left have argued that these “inaccuracies and omissions” are merely “mistakes” and perhaps could be blamed on incompetence or poor procedures. In a different case, perhaps that would be believable. We could assume that such a case – one in which incompetency runs rampant – would end up hurting and benefitting “both sides” of this case. Some of those “mistakes,” therefore, would have to work out in the Trump team’s favor, rather than in favor of those promoting the “Russia collusion” conspiracy (and vice versa). Right?
That’s not the case here. ALL 17 “inaccuracies and omissions” skew one way: against Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. That certainly cannot be a coincidence. Rather, it’s yet another indication of political bias in the FBI.
This isn’t shocking. My film, FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers reveals that disgraced FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page hoped to use the “Russia collusion” investigation as an “insurance policy” to prevent Donald Trump’s election or to serve as the basis of his removal from office following the election.
The IG report reveals there were forces within the FBI and federal government who hoped so desperately to prevent Donald Trump’s election as president that they unethically used official government channels to try to prevent that from happening. Clearly, they failed. However, these revelations should still be of a concern to all of us because they reveal deep corruption within the FBI. Those 17 “mistakes” in the FBI’s FISA application allowed for the unwarranted surveillance of a political campaign staffer. That should scare anyone.
Phelim McAleer is producing a verbatim reading of the Inspector General’s Report narrated by actor Adam Baldwin. The series can be found at www.HearTheIGReport.com.