Redolent Russiagate

It smells. First up, via Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 03.30.18", Don Surber has more on the DOJ IG investigation: Special counsel investigating the FBI

The headline and accompanying story in the Hill made it appear as if Attorney General Jeff Sessions is defying the Senate: "Sessions declines to appoint second special counsel."

The story said, "Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed in a letter to lawmakers Thursday that he had declined to name a second special counsel to investigate allegations of surveillance abuse within the Department of Justice, despite pressure from the Republican Party for him to do so."

I read the letter. Sessions, a veteran prosecutor, said a special prosecutor isn't necessary. Inspector General Michael Horowitz and his staff of 470 people are handling the investigation in the corruption of the FBI by Barack Obama and company.
. . .
Sessions is an experienced prosecutor who knows how investigations work. He also is a Trump loyalist, and former colleague of Senator Chuck Grassley, who was among the three congressmen he sent the letter to.

There is no rift between Congress and Sessions.

But the media wants to create one to divert attention from the fact that Obama was Nixon on steroids when it came to abusing his power.

Ace: Sara Carter Claims The Coming-Soon IG Reporter Contains Criminal Referrals

Against whom, we don't know. We do know that McCabe lied -- or, per his own admission, accidentally made false statements, and did so, per Representative Jordan, four times, each more accidentally than the last time -- and so it could be that McCabe is being criminally referred.

We don't know. We also can't know for sure that Carter's sources are 100% right about this. Reports do change.

We do know that McCabe is shaking the tin cup for his legal defense fund on Go Fund Me and has collected $440,000+ so far.

Please consider his victims fund raisers, Gen. Michael Flynn and former FBI Agent Robyn Lee Gritz, instead.

PLEASE RT: @vabelle2010 is Robyn Gritz.

A rockstar former FBI counter terror agent whose life and career was destroyed by #McCabe because she challenged his inner circle. @GenFlynn went to bat for her and they went after him.

Follow her, support her, spread her story. https://t.co/qYnArmVyu5

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 30, 2018

More from Ace, who really wants another Special Counsel: Rep. Jim Jordan: McCabe Didn't Just Lie Once About His Leaks. He Lied Four Times.

His "I was all confuzinated!" defense might work for one lie, but for four, all consistent with each other but inconsistent with the facts?

"He didn't lie just once, he lied four times," Rep. Jim Jordan said. He continued, "He lied to James Comey. He lied to the Office of Professional Responsibility and he lied twice under oath to the Inspector General."
Rep. Mark Meadows added, "Everybody is saying this is political in nature, but when you read the report you see that it's not political because under oath and certainly with the investigation, it was a real problem." Meadows went on to say that the Attorney General's decision not to appoint a second special prosecutor was 'extremely disappointing."

No "intent" to lie, I'm sure.

For a contrary opinion: Dershowitz On Special Counsel: The Investigation Should End - "That's What They Did In The Soviet Union, 'Show Me The Man, And I'll Find You The Crime'"

Dershowitz said that special counsels are not the right way to approach criminal justice. “When you appoint a special counsel you give them targets and you say, ‘You better get that guy or the people around him…and we’re going to give you tens of millions of dollars. And if you come up empty handed you’re a failure.'”

Dershowitz said that if an ordinary prosecutor goes months without finding a crime then “that’s great, no… there have been no crimes committed.” He says not so with a special counsel. “Special Counsel always has the goal of ‘getting the people.’ They’re going to find crimes, or they’re going to manufacture crimes or they’re going to stretch the criminal law to fit the ‘crimes’ because they’re not going to come away empty handed.”

Speaking of manufacturing crimes:  FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally

A controversial London-based academic with close ties to Nigel Farage has been detained by the FBI upon arrival in the US and issued a subpoena to testify before Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Ted Malloch, an American touted last year as a possible candidate to serve as US ambassador to the EU, said he was interrogated by the FBI at Boston’s Logan airport on Wednesday following a flight from London and questioned about his involvement in the Trump campaign.

In a statement sent to the Guardian, Malloch, who described himself as a policy wonk and defender of Trump, said the FBI also asked him about his relationship with Roger Stone, the Republican strategist, and whether he had ever visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has resided for nearly six years.

In a detailed statement about the experience, which he described as bewildering and intimidating at times, Malloch said the federal agents who stopped him and separated him from his wife “seemed to know everything about me” and warned him that lying to the FBI was a felony. In the statement Malloch denied having any Russia contacts.

Malloch said he had agreed with the special counsel’s office that he would appear before Mueller’s grand jury in Washington DC on 13 April.
. . .
He said the agents confiscated his mobile phone and told him it would be taken to Washington DC for a “full assessment”.

“I was unfazed and very dubious about why they thought I knew anything,” he said. He also suggested in the statement that prosecutors could have read a not yet published book that alleged a conspiracy was underway to undermine Trump’s presidency, a book he said clearly troubled the “deep state”.

“I did … find it objectionable to treat me the way they had, as I was entering my home country, where I am a citizen,” Malloch said. “They did not need to use such tactics or intimidation. I was a US patriot and would do anything and everything to assist the government and I had no information that I believed was relevant.”

So is the possible crime here being controversial, or supporting Trump?