Inspector General Report is Out – “No Political Bias” (Hah!)

Posted by Tina

The Justice Department’s Inspector General report on the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation has finally been released. Information from the report is trickling into the media.

The full report is here. Here we go…

Breitbart-Big Government, “Report: Peter Strzok Vowed ‘We’ Would ‘Stop’ Trump from Becoming President”

Bloombergs, Jennifer Jacobs:

“Several FBI employees Who played critical roles in the investigation sent political messages,” IG report says.

It cites Lisa Page text to Peter Strzok: “(Trump’s) not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”

Strzok: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”

Initial reporting to Congress on this exchange didn’t include (purposely?) Strzok’s response.

DOJ confirmed the authenticity of the email content.

Gateway Pundit, “BREAKING: IG Report to Weigh in on Hatch Act Violations at FBI ‘Officials Using Their Authority to Interfere With an Election”

Investigative reporter Paul Sperry says the IG report will weigh in on Hatch Act violations at the FBI.

(Paul) Sperry tweeted: BREAKING: Bombshell IG report to weigh in on Hatch Act violations at FBI — specifically, employees using their official authority or influence “to interfere with or affect the result of an election”

Sperry also cautioned: IG Horowitz and Comey go way back to the 90’s as US Attorneys in New York…and his wife gave money to Obama:

CAUTION: IG Michael Horowitz and James Comey worked together in 1990s in US Attorneys office in Manhattan. In addition, Horowitz married to former CNN and PBS producer, who gave money to Obama and who previously worked as a senior aide to Dukakis during presidential campaign

It’s hysterical of course but apparently they found “insubordination” on Comey’s part but no “political bias”… his actions “damaged bureau image”

Image! Who cares about image. What about the rule of law? What about evidence that Hillary Clinton and others broke laws and seem to be getting away with it while her lessers in government are given jail sentences for lesser crimes? don;t we deserve a court ruling on that rather than a government department opinion? Well…

Horowitz said that five FBI officials expressed hostility toward Trump before his election as president and disclosed in his report to Congress on Thursday that their actions have been referred to the bureau for possible disciplinary action.

One example cited in the new report is an exchange of texts between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page on Aug. 8, 2016. Page questioned whether Trump would become president. Strzok replied: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”

Under those circumstances, Horowitz said “we did not have confidence that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up” on new evidence in the Clinton case “was free from bias.” …

… the inspector general called it “extraordinary and insubordinate for Comey to conceal his intentions from his superiors, the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, for the admitted purpose of preventing them from telling him not to make the statement, and to instruct his subordinates in the FBI to do the same.”

He said that “we did not find that these decisions were the result of political bias on Comey’s part,” but “by departing so clearly and dramatically from FBI and department norms, the decisions negatively impacted the perception of the FBI and the department as fair administrators of justice.”

The report also noted that Comey used personal email at times to conduct official business.

Horowitz examined actions taken by top officials before the 2016 election, including the handling of the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. The inquiry expanded to touch on an array of politically sensitive decisions by officials including Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

We await the announcement, if any, of referrals to the AG for indictments. Not holding my breath. So far those in government seem ultimately to cover for each other.

Washington Times, “FBI orders bias training for employees after latest embarrassing emails”

The FBI will make its employees undergo bias training, Director Christopher Wray promised Thursday, in one of a number of steps he said they’ll take to try to prevent a repeat of problems that plagued the bureau during the 2016 election.

Mr. Wray made the promise in response to the new inspector general’s report detailing the stream of text messages from two top FBI employees during the campaign. …

… The new report said that while bias didn’t appear to affect the big decisions in the handling of the initial investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices, they couldn’t rule out a role for bias in pushing the FBI to focus on the Russia probe in October 2016, rather than go back to review a new set of emails found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, who was married to Mrs. Clinton’s top personal aide, Huma Abedin.

Mr. Wray said he’s ordered a review of FBI procedures and how agents mix their political duties with personal opinions.

More information will follow as journalists and Congress Critters consume the content of this very long report. FBI will hold news conference at 5:30 Eastern today.

Related: <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/14/foreign-actors-accessed-hillary-clinton-emails-documents-show.html, “‘Foreign actors’ accessed Hillary Clinton emails, documents show”

“Foreign actors” obtained access to some of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails — including at least one email classified as “secret” — according to a new memo from two GOP-led House committees and an internal FBI email.

Fox News obtained the memo prepared by the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, which lays out key interim findings ahead of next week’s hearing with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. …

… “Documents provided to the Committees show foreign actors obtained access to some of Mrs. Clinton’s emails — including at least one email classified ‘Secret,'” the memo says, adding that foreign actors also accessed the private accounts of some Clinton staffers.

The memo does not say who the foreign actors are, or what material was obtained, but it notes that secret information is defined as information that, if disclosed, could “reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the national security.”

The committees say that no one appears to have been held accountable either criminally or administratively. …

… Relatedly, Fox News has obtained a May 2016 email from FBI investigator Peter Strzok — who also is criticized in the House memo for his anti-Trump texts with colleague Lisa Page. The email says that “we know foreign actors obtained access” to some Clinton emails, including at least one “secret” message “via compromises of the private email accounts” of Clinton staffers.

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11 Responses to Inspector General Report is Out – “No Political Bias” (Hah!)

  1. Libby says:

    I knew you would be sad. But it is what it is.

    And as soon as the Trumpster can be persuaded to face Mueller, Mueller can write his report, and we can put this one to bed too.

  2. Pie Guevara says:

    Let’s see if this works in the comments section —

    My appearance on Hannity on Fox https://t.co/7tGuhmARdk— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) June 15, 2018

    • Pie Guevara says:

      The above is Levin’s take on this matter.

    • J. Soden says:

      Saw that, and Levin is absolutely right!
      There was all kinds of “bias” referred to in the IG’s report, but if there was no “bias” then why did the IG keep repeating it???????
      There needs to be some serious housecleaning on the 7th Floor. Rosenstein, Weissman and even Mueller need to hear those two magic words – You’re Fired!

  3. Peggy says:

    Keep in mind the Horowitz investigation was into the FBI’s investigation into the Hillary email investigation. It was not another investigation into Hillary’s emails. Looking at it through that lens explains why he didn’t come up with any recommendations against Hillary. Horowitz was charged to look at how the FBI handled her investigation only.

    Getting Hillary on her emails and putting our nation at risk because of her unsecured home server is gone. That ship has sailed, I’m afraid. The only hope we have of her ever being held accountable for her dirty deeds will be with he foundations. IMHO

    I agree Horowitz not finding any “political” bias is BS. His report is filled with smoking guns still in the hands of Strozk, Page and others. I want to see what the original report looked like before everyone involved had a chance to make changes. This report reminds me of Justice Roberts’ ObamaCare ruling when he voted in favor of it, but his statement his written opinion was filled with dissenting statements. Comey did the same thing at his July 5th press conference.

    Trump and his attorneys must be celebrating with the email from Strozk to Page that says, “You and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.” Happy birthday Mr. President.

  4. Peggy says:

    Andrew McCarthy does it again. Great read.

    The IG’s Report May Be Half-Baked:
    https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/ig-report-fbi-no-bias-conclusion-may-not-supported/

    • Tina says:

      Good Lord Peggy. McCarthy nailed liberalism too!

      Why say do I say the report “may be half-baked”? Why don’t I just come out and declare, “The report is half-baked”? Well, I figure if I write this column in the IG’s elusive style, we’ll have the Rosetta Stone we need to decipher the report.

      See, you probably sense that I believe the report is half-baked. But if I say it “may be” half-baked . . . well, technically that means it may not be, too. I mean, who really knows, right?

      If that annoys you, try wading through 568 pages of this stuff, particularly on the central issue of the investigators’ anti-Trump bias. The report acknowledges that contempt for Trump was pervasive among several of the top FBI and DOJ officials making decisions about the investigation. So this deep-seated bias must have affected the decision-making, right? Well, the report concludes, who really knows?

      Not in so many words, of course. The trick here is the premise the IG establishes from the start: It’s not my job to draw firm conclusions about why things happened the way they did. In fact, it’s not even my job to determine whether investigative decisions were right or wrong. The cop-out is that we are dealing here with “discretionary” calls; therefore, the IG rationalizes, the investigators must be given very broad latitude. Consequently, the IG says his job is not to determine whether any particular decision was correct; just whether, on some otherworldly scale of reasonableness, the decision was defensible. And he makes that determination by looking at every decision in isolation.

      All of this changes when they look at prosecuting a Scooter Libby.

    • Tina says:

      His conclusion says it all…brilliant!

      How do you best evaluate the FBI’s approach to the Clinton case? Well, if I may invoke that term again, common sense says you look at how the same agents handled another case which bore on the same event that informed their every decision, the 2016 election. The question is not whether every Clinton-case decision was defensible considered in isolation; it is whether the quality of justice afforded to two sides of the same continuum by the same agents at the same time was . . . the same.

      It wasn’t. One was kid gloves, the other was scorched earth. The candidate they hoped would win got the former; the candidate they needed to “stop” got the latter. The candidate they were almost certain would win got the case dropped; the candidate they needed an “insurance policy” against . . . well, whaddya know — the case against him is still going . . . and going . . . and going.

      Did bias have anything to do with that? In 568 pages that leave out the Trump half of the story, we’re told the answer is, “Who really knows?”

      I think we know.

      Yes we do. The amazing thing is they are so arrogant they don’t get that we know.

  5. Tina says:

    Don Suber minces no words in his reaction to the IG report:

    This calls for a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization prosecution because these boys and girls turned a federal agency into their private protection racket.

    We know this was going on for years because there is a casual, business-as-usual air to the way they conducted their crimes.

    The record shows this.

    They prosecuted Democratic Senator Robert Menendez — a rap he beat — because he publicly opposed the Iran deal.

    They prosecuted Republican Senator Ted Stevens in order to taint him and get a 60th senator so Obama could pass Obamacare without a filibuster. His conviction came only because the Department of Justice broke the law and withheld evidence that would have cleared Stevens. By the time his name was cleared, Democrats had their 60th senator.

    Abscam.

    Ray Donovan.

    The FBI is a rogue agency that has the power to thwart the democratic part of our republic.

    As nice as the report is, it is meaningless unless someone goes on trial and is convicted…

    The people will not regain confidence in the justice and legal systems until the silly games end and heads roll.

  6. J. Soden says:

    Andrew McCarthy is good at shining light on cockroaches . . . . .

    Sure would like to see the IG’s report BEFORE it was submitted hither and yon to the DOJ/FBI for any “corrections.” Judicial Watch has filed an FOIA request for that, so perhaps we’ll see it eventually – after all the stonewalling and obfuscation are done.

    Hope Horowitz does a better job with his next report on FISA court shenanigans by the
    DOJ/FBI.

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