It’s no shocker that once the media saw that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz saw that there was no evidence of political bias in the FBI’s investigation of the alleged Russia ties that turned out to be pure myth, they would harp on that and disregard the rest. It’s not a good look for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The nation’s preeminent law enforcement and domestic intelligence agency known for its impartiality and professionalism were torched by the Horowitz report. Also, the Democrats’ entire impeachment narrative was blown up. In fact, if you didn’t think the Mueller Report destroyed the Russian collusion myth, this one delivered another headshot to this idea that Russia interfered with our election. There is still no evidence. Think of this report as the double-tap to that narrative.
Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel dissected the report and noted that it totally ripped Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) initial report that the DOJ and the FBI did not abuse the FISA process. Schiff is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee and leading quarterback in this impeachment effort. He started this whole circus by holding testimonial hearings in the bunker of Capitol Hill…because nothing says partisan witch-hunt than a secret impeachment proceeding.
The IG report noted that there were 17 instances where the bureau altered the FISA warrant application against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign official and the then-epicenter for the Russian intrigue. Information was omitted and exculpatory evidence was not included. The cause of this failure, according to the report, was systemic—from the supervisors on down.
1) Key findings of Horowitz report:
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
--Yup, IG said FBI hit threshold for opening an investigation. But also goes out of its way to note what a "low threshold" this is. Durham's statement made clear he will provide more info for Americans to make a judgment on reasonableness.
2) The report is triumph for former House Intel Chair Devin Nunes, who first blew the whistle on FISA abuse. The report confirms all the elements of the February 2018 Nunes memo, which said dossier was as an "essential" part of applications, and FBI withheld info from FISA court
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
3)Conversely, report is an excoriation of Adam Schiff and his "memo" of Feb 2018. That doc stated that "FBI and DOJ officials did NOT abuse the [FISA] process" or "omit material information." Also claimed FBI didn't much rely on dossier.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
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4)In fact, IG report says dossier played "central and essential role" in getting FISA warrants. Schiff had access to same documents as Nunes, yet chose to misinform the public. This is the guy who just ran impeachment proceedings.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
5) Report is a devastating indictment of Steele, Fusion GPS and the "dossier." Report finds that about the only thing FBI ever corroborated in that doc were publicly available times, places, title names. Ouch.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
6)IG finds 17 separate problems with FISA court submissions, including FBI's overstatement of Steele's credentials. Also the failure to provide court with exculpatory evidence and issues with Steele's sources and additional info it got about Steele's credibility.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
7) Every one of these "issues" is a story all on its own. Example: The FBI had tapes of Page and Papadopoulos making statements that were inconsistent with FBI's own collusion theories. They did not provide these to the FISA court.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
8) Another example: FBI later got info from professional contacts with Steele who said he suffered from "lack of self awareness, poor judgement" and "pursued people" with "no intelligence value." FBI also did not tell the court about these credibility concerns.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
9)And this: FBI failed to tell Court that Page was approved as an "operational contact" for another U.S. agency, and "candidly" reported his interactions with a Russian intel officer. FBI instead used that Russian interaction against Page, with no exculpatory detail.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
10)Overall, IG was so concerned by these "extensive compliance failures" that is has now initiated additional "oversight" to assess how FBI in general complies with "policies that seek to protect the civil liberties of U.S. persons."
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
11) Report also expressed concerns about FBI's failure to present any of these issues to DOJ higher ups; its ongoing contacts with Steele after he was fired for talking to media; and its use of spies against the campaign without any DOJ input.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
12) Remember Comey telling us it was no big deal who paid for dossier? Turns out it was a big deal in FBI/DOJ, where one lawyer (Stuart Evans) expressed "concerns" it had been funded by Clinton/DNC. Because of his "consistent inquiries" we go that convoluted footnote.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
13) IG also slaps FBI for using what was supposed to be a baseline briefing for the Trump campaign of foreign intelligence threats as a surreptitious opportunity to investigate Flynn.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
14) Finally, intriguing just how many people at the FBI don't remember anything about anything. Highly convenient.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
15)Last point. When IG says he found no "documentary" evidence of bias, he means just that: He didn't find smoking gun email that says "let's take out Trump." And it isn't his job to guess at the motivations of FBI employees. Instead...
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
16) He straightforwardly lays out facts. Those facts produce a pattern of FBI playing the FISA Court--overstating some info, omitting other info, cherrypicking details. Americans can look at totality and make their own judgment as to "why" FBI behaved in such a manner.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
“The report is triumph for former House Intel Chair Devin Nunes, who first blew the whistle on FISA abuse. The report confirms all the elements of the February 2018 Nunes memo, which said dossier was as an "essential" part of applications, and FBI withheld info from FISA court,” wrote Strassel in a lengthy Twitter thread. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is now the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Oh, and the claim that Schiff made in his memo about the dossier not playing a central part was also torched.
“IG report says dossier played ‘central and essential role’ in getting FISA warrants. Schiff had access to same documents as Nunes, yet chose to misinform the public. This is the guy who just ran impeachment proceedings,” Strassel added.
So, for all the left-wing clowns who wonder why we’re so held up on the dossier, this is why. Christopher Steele, a former MI6 operative, who was contracted by research firm Fusion GPS, to compile this dossier. And who hired Fusion? Well, that would be the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrats. This was a partisan piece of opposition research that was used to secure a spy warrant against the presidential campaign of a rival party of the sitting Democratic administration. And yes, there was spying. The liberal media will say the IG report noted that the conditions that launched an investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia were proper. Yeah, that’s based on what Horowitz could work with; he doesn’t have subpoena power. Also, Attorney General William Barr admitted in an interview with NBC News that there was spying. The dossier was unverified, inaccurate, and never vetted by the FBI. That is now crystal clear. The glaring errors in it prove that, especially since they could’ve been flagged by a simple Google search. Okay, the only thing they did "verify" was information that was already publicly available, as Strassel noted, which were just a bunch of names, dates, and times. That's not a verification process. Why?
It seems all of the oversight issues and its consequences were pointed in one direction: against Trump. But there’s no bias? Yeah, just like how there was no spying with Crossfire Hurricane, just FBI operatives who were trying to glean information from Trump officials under false pretenses and then relaying that information to superiors. This is why this nonsense of no bias, no spying is simply unbelievable.
Now, it wasn’t total silence at the FBI concerning the dossier. There were some who raised concerns about the dossier’s origins and funding. Yet, there appears to be a lot of amnesia going on at the bureau as well. Also, the IG report takes a ruler to the knuckles of the FBI for using a daily briefing with Trump to try and glean information with regards to their investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. But no bias and no spying, right?
On that note, Strassel parses through the liberal media analyses, which are garbage, and simply says, “When IG says he found no ‘documentary’ evidence of bias, he means just that: He didn't find smoking gun email that says, ‘let's take out Trump.’ And it isn't his job to guess at the motivations of FBI employees.” Again, none of this is relayed on the various networks that have become mouthpieces for the Democratic Party.
“Instead, he straightforwardly lays out facts. Those facts produce a pattern of FBI playing the FISA Court--overstating some info, omitting other info, cherry-picking details. Americans can look at totality and make their own judgment as to ‘why’ FBI behaved in such a manner,” Strassel concludes.
Yep and most Americans with cognitive function would see that as evidence of bias. This whole circus is biased. I mean, Schiff knows who the whistleblower is concerning this Trump-Ukraine quid pro quo theater we have right now. To make a long story short, Trump supposedly threatened to withhold aid unless Ukraine opened a corruption probe into Hunter Biden’s position at Burisma, a job he obtained when daddy Biden was VP. He was there to allegedly sell access to top Obama officials. Some CIA agent filed a complaint. This agent is a reported Democrat who had worked with a 2020 candidate. This person reached out to Schiff’s staff prior to filing; he knew the information before it was formally filed and weaponized it to launch this quasi-coup. There is a deep state. And it’s workings and machinations are out on full display with this impeachment circus.
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