In case you missed it, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz has released a scathing report condemning the FBI for rampant bias among agents during the 2016 presidential election.
There are a number of key findings in the report, but one exchange between FBI attorneys shortly after President Trump won the White House stands out.
"The third exchange we identified was on November 22, 2016. FBI Attorney 2 sent an instant message to FBI Attorney 1 commenting on the amount of money the subject of an FBI investigation had been paid while working on the Trump campaign," the report states. "FBI Attorney 1 responded, 'Is it making you rethink your commitment to the Trump administration?' FBI Attorney 2 replied, 'Hell no.' and then added, 'Viva le resistance.'"
"The resistance" is a movement by the left to oppose Trump's presidency at all turns and costs.
When asked about the exchange by Inspector General investigators, the attorney said the exchange was a simple matter of personal political expression and believed the conversations were private. It should be noted the conversation took place on official FBI equipment.
From the report:
We asked both FBI Attorney 2 and FBI Attorney 1 about this exchange. FBI Attorney 2 stated:
So, this is in reference to an ongoing subject. And then following that, like I interpreted [FBI Attorney 1’s] comment to me as being, you know, just her and I socially and as friends discussing our particular political views, to which I see that as more of a joking inquiry from her. It’s not something along the lines of where I’m not committed to the U.S. Government. I obviously am and, you know, work to do my job very well and to continue to, to work in that capacity. It’s just the, the lines bled through here just in terms of, of my personal, political view in terms of, of what particular preference I have. But, but that doesn’t have any, any leaning on the way that I, I maintain myself as a professional in the FBI.
We asked FBI Attorney 2 if “Viva le resistance” signaled he was going to fight back against President Trump. FBI Attorney 2 responded:
That’s not what I was doing.... I just, again, like that, that’s just like the entire, it’s just my political view in terms of, of my preference. It wasn’t something along the lines of, you know, we’re taking certain actions in order to, you know, combat that or, or do anything like that. Like that, that was not the intent of that. That was more or less just like, you know, commentary between me and [FBI Attorney 1] in a personal friendship capacity where she is just making a joke, and I’m responding. Like, it’s not something that, that I personally believe in that instance.
"We found this reliance on the 'private' nature of these messages to be misplaced. Because these messages were exchanged on government systems and devices, they were never 'private,'" investigators wrote about the reasons and excuses given for the exchanges. "Every Department employee sees a notice each time he or she logs onto the Department’s network informing him or her that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in communications exchanged on government systems."
Adding insult to injury, both attorneys were assigned to the Russia investigation.
FBI Attorney 2 acknowledged that both he and FBI Attorney 1 were assigned to the Russia investigation at this point in time and he “can understand the, the perception issues that come from” this exchange.FBI Attorney 1 stated that she and FBI Attorney 2 were friends and often had discussions unrelated to work. She acknowledged that that this was “not the right place to make those kind of comments.” We asked FBI Attorney 1 what she meant by the message, “Is it making you rethink your commitment to the Trump administration?” She stated, “I think what I meant was are you going to leave the government and start working to get more money.” We also asked FBI Attorney 1 what she understood FBI Attorney 2 to mean when he messaged, “Viva le resistance.” FBI Attorney 1 told us, “I think it was a joke obviously. But I think it was intended to say that, you know, he was committed to continuing to work for the Bureau, for these cases.” FBI Attorney 1 stated that nothing about this exchange affected her work on the Russia investigation.
This overwhelming bias concerned Inspector General investigators and tainted every investigation these attorneys and other biased agents were working on.
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