Thursday, December 12, 2019

Russiagate: IG Horowitz Speaks

Yesterday, DOJ Inspector General Richard Horowitz testified to the Senate regarding his report on the investigation of the DOJ and FBI  on the origin of the Russiagate probe. You can watch the whole testimony here (video at CTH). At Town Hall, some live blogging of the more important testimony and questioning. Ace also has some live tweeting by Mollie Hemingway and others worth noting

Tyler O'Neil PJ Media, CNN, MSNBC Cut Away From Horowitz Hearing Into Obama FISA Abuses. Ace,Surprise! CNN and MSNBC, Which Have Covered Every Moment of the Fake Impeachment Hearings, Absolutely Refuse to Air the Horowitz Testimony
Incredible.

CNN and MSNBC stopped following the IG hearing after about 30 minutes, and both refused to cover the opening statements by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The decision does not align with the recent live hearing coverage standard both networks have held for the last few months, giving endless air time to the impeachment hearings lead by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, and Rep. Jerry Nadler.
Although his report did not accuse anyone of bias in their actions, he was clearly very skeptical of their motives.
Staphanie Hall at Da Caller, EXCLUSIVE: Comey Claims To Be Vindicated By The IG Report—Rand Paul Has Other Thoughts Althouse notes how the Comey vindication lap was refuted: "The activities we found here don’t vindicate anybody who touched this..."
Said Michael E. Horowitz, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, reported in the NYT.

Mr. Horowitz was responding to [Senator Lindsey] Graham’s mention of an Op-Ed by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey published in The Washington Post after Mr. Horowitz’s report became public.

While Mr. Comey acknowledged that the inspector general found “mistakes” in the administrative process associated with the wiretap applications targeting the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — the focus of the report — Mr. Comey wrote that Mr. Horowitz’s “most important” finding was his debunking of the insinuations by Mr. Trump and his allies that F.B.I. officials, driven by political bias, conspired to sabotage Mr. Trump.

Here's the op-ed in question: "James Comey: The truth is finally out. The FBI fulfilled its mission." (WaPo).
Capt Ed at Hot Air, Graham: Horowitz Report Shows Crossfire Hurricane Akin To Resurrecting J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI; Horowitz Rebukes Comey: What We Found Vindicates No One; Update: “Don’t Know” If Political Bias Played A Role. Jerry Dunleavy at WaEx, Lindsey Graham says FISA court existence at risk without 'fundamental reform'. As it should be. The Senators should drag the FISA court judges in behind closed doors and ask them what they think of all this. Maybe John Roberts, too. Sundance, Chairman Lindsey Graham Discusses His View of IG Horowitz Testimony…



BPR, ‘This was Beavis and Butt-Head!’ A passionate Ted Cruz livens up Senate hearings
“The men and women sitting at home need to know what’s happening: A lawyer at the FBI creates fraudulent evidence, alters an email. That is in turn used as the basis for a sworn to the court that the court relies on in issuing authority to wiretap Trump campaign officials. Am I stating that accurately?” Cruz asked.

“That’s correct,” Horowitz responded. “That is what occurred.”

“And by the way, what he inserted was not just slightly wrong, it was 180 degrees opposite of what the evidence said!” Cruz added.
Town Hall, Page 341 of FISA Report Made Mark Meadows Say 'Wow'
Wow... page 341. IG says FBI used an Aug. 2016 'defensive briefing' with the Trump campaign as an "opportunity to gather potentially relevant investigative information” about Michael Flynn.

They used defensive briefings for their investigation into the Trump campaign.

Wow
 Insty, but MAYBE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HAS ALWAYS SUCKED:
Which brings us to the media's role in all this. John Sexton at Hot Air, The Nunes Memo Was Mostly Right About The FBI’s FISA Application (And Comey Was Wrong) (Update)
Earlier today Ed mentioned Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi’s takedown of the Steele dossier based on information contained in the IG report. One part of Taibbi’s piece deals with the vilification and subsequent validation of the Nunes memo.
There was gnashing of teeth when Nunes first released his memo in January, 2018. The press universally crapped on his letter, with a Washington Post piece calling it a “joke” and a “sham.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Nunes for the release of a “bogus” document, while New York Senator Chuck Schumer said the memo was intended to “sow conspiracy theories and attack the integrity of federal law enforcement.” Many called for his removal as Committee chair.
The Horowitz report says all of that caterwauling was off-base. It also undercuts many of the assertions made in a ballyhooed response letter by Nunes counterpart Adam Schiff, who described the FBI’s “reasonable basis” for deeming Steele credible. The report is especially hostile to Schiff’s claim that the FBI “provided additional information obtained through multiple independent sources that corroborated Steele’s reporting.”
In fact, far from confirming the Steele material, the FBI over time seems mainly to have uncovered more and more reasons to run screaming from Steele…
What’s noteworthy about the Nunes memo in retrospect is that the real story of the FISA warrant is even worse than the memo claimed. As we now know, Carter Page was working as an “operational contact” for the CIA from 2008 to 2013. The FBI asked about this and the CIA confirmed it but an FBI agent deliberately altered an email so this was not reported to the FISA court. The FISA warrant application on Carter Page was so bad that even the ACLU now calls it, “alarming from a civil liberties perspective.”

Finally, it’s worth recalling that former FBI Director James Comey was one of the people who trashed the Nunes memo when it was released . . .
Michael van der Galien (PJ Media) is making a list and checking it twice, These Reporters All Lied About the Steele Dossier, Carter Page, and FISA Warrants. Ace, Reckoning: Techno_Fog Posts Thread Quoting the Tweets of Those In the Media (Including the Fake Conservative AEI Media) Who Perpetrated Comey's and Schiff's Lies on the Public For Three Grueling Years. Technofog. At RCP, Mollie Hemingway on IG Report: There Should Be Consequences For Media That Got It Wrong Video at link. A rare, sometimes honest liberal, Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone, ‘Corroboration Zero’: An Inspector General’s Report Reveals the Steele Dossier Was Always a Joke
The Guardian headline reads: “DOJ Internal watchdog report clears FBI of illegal surveillance of Trump adviser.”

If the report released Monday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz constitutes a “clearing” of the FBI, never clear me of anything. Holy God, what a clown show the Trump-Russia investigation was.
Chris White, Da Caller WaPo’s Media Critic Rails Against CNN For Issuing ‘Weak’ Editor’s Note On 2017 Piece About Paul Manafort
“Whichever CNN editor wrote this particular ‘editor’s note’ betrayed common editorial principles,” Wemple wrote.

He added: “To merely state that the original story was contradicted by the IG report is to abdicate the role of a news organization — to ferret out the truth — and drop this matter into the laps of readers.”
At Time, Never-Trumper David French writes, The Inspector General's FBI Report Should Disturb Republicans and Democrats Alike. Byron York at WaEx, Of course the FBI spied on the Trump campaign. No shit, Sherlock! Guy Benson at Town Hall, The Biggest News About the IG Report Came Minutes After It Was Released

Thank God for the adult in the room, Bill Barr Sundance has a couple of video interviews, but you really only need to see one; he is remarkably consistent in his message.Full Interview – AG Bill Barr Discusses IG Report and FBI Institutional Issues With Political Corruption… and  AG Bill Barr One-on-One With Wall Street Journal…



and sundance thanks him for making needed changes at DOJ, Message Received – Thank You Bill Barr…
AG Jeff Sessions was recused from anything to do with the ongoing DOJ activity into the 2016 election issues and the Russian-collusion/conspiracy investigation.

Therefore Robert Mueller, DAG Rod Rosenstein, DOJ liason Ed O’Callaghan and U.S. Attorney for DC Jessie Liu would have been the group of decision-makers. With Mueller and Rosenstein gone that left O’Callaghan and Liu still on staff at Main Justice. Today the last two were removed from positions of authority in the DOJ.
And a bit of real news, Horowitz Testimony: “The Only FISA We Found That Existed Was The One For Carter Page”…. Most of us had assumed Flynn, Popadop and Manafort had FISA warrants too. Apparently not. Sundance is also gratified that Horowitz lifted a bit of redaction in the report, IG Modifies FISA Report, Adds Declassification Aspect Per DOJ (Barr?)…, sort of inside baseball.

Fox News, Former DOJ official: Durham's reaction to IG report means 'he's got the goods on somebody'.  "“I think you’re going to see some indictments," Prior said on “Fox & Friends,” referring to Durham as “non-partisan" and a “serious prosecutor."" We can only hope.

At Mediaite, Josh Feldman whines that Trump Goes Off on IG Report at Rally: ‘Scum’ at the FBI ‘Destroyed the Lives of People!’, and speaking of scum, Lisa Page sues FBI and DOJ, citing 'cost of therapy' after Trump mocked her salacious text messages (Fox News), Allah Pundit (Hot Air) wonders Will Peter Strzok Sue Trump For Slander? and sundance notices that DOJ Official Bruce Ohr is Not Fired, and That’s Okay – For Now….

WaPoo is outraged that Giuliani says Trump asked him to brief Justice Dept. and GOP senators on his Ukraine findings

And more Impeachment bullshit than you can shake a stick at: Stacy McCain, Impeachment Circus Update
What I didn’t realize Monday morning, however, was that the Democrats had scheduled that hearing on short notice as a means to try to hijack the news cycle on the day that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his devastating report on the FBI’s malfeasance in its surveillance of the Trump 2016 campaign. So this impeachment business is actually a cover-up — Adam Schiff and his cronies are using this process to smear Trump and distract Americans from evidence of wrongdoing that occurred in Obama’s administration.
The so-called “mainstream” media is tangled up in all this, as Molly Hemingway explained Tuesday on Fox News Special Report:
I’m one of the few people who has actually read the 430-page report. It outlines such tremendous amounts of spying. Electronic surveillance, the use of confidential human informants that were replaced people on the campaign.
Two years ago you had competing memos come out. You had Devin Nunes say that there were problems with the FISA process, that that was abuse. You had the response memo from Adam Schiff who is now leading the impeachment effort. Never Trump media and liberal media completely disparage the Nunes memo and completely supported the Schiff memo and they were utterly humiliated by what come out in this report yesterday. Every single thing in the Nunes memo reported to be true. If anything, it underreported the problems with the FISA process.
Meanwhile, things that were claimed by Schiff that people took seriously, the people accepted uncritically, were shown to be false. They said there were no material omissions in the FISA warrants. . . .
There were so many errors. And, again, all in the same direction. The dossier was completely disputed. Remember that Adam Schiff read the dossier into the Congressional record. He hijacked a separate hearing in order to do so. There should be consequences for this. And there should be consequences for media that got it wrong as well.
Do you see why it seems to me futile to comment on every new development here? When all is said and done, the daily events of this circus will be just so many details that no one really cares about, because the Democrats (and the news media, but I repeat myself) as so obviously in the wrong that nothing I say about it could possibly matter.

Even 61% of Democrats don’t believe Trump will be removed

Rand Paul: More Democrats to oppose impeachment, rips Schiff on phone logs

Al Green, First Democrat To Call For Trump’s Impeachment, Vows To Keep Trying Until He’s Removed

Theo Spark: Cartoon Round Up....

Key swing-district Dem who led the charge on impeachment: I'm undecided

Five Times Obama Abused His Power and Democrats Didn’t Care | News and Politics

Pelosi, Nadler and Schiff Announce Two Articles of Impeachment – Abuse of Power, and Obstruction of Congress… | The Last Refuge


It's Absurd for Schiff to Say Impeachment Transcripts Are Classified

Battenfeld: Those impeachment articles will make great stump props for Trump – Boston HeraldWhistleblower's lawyers preparing him for possible Senate trial testimony as Manchin hints he'll let Trump call witnesses

Dem who voted against inquiry confirms: I'm voting against impeachment

Democrats miss an opportunity to impeach Trump for obstruction of justice.

How Democrats lost the Impeachment War — and probably 2020 | Spectator USA

The Horowitz Horror Show - WSJ

Mark Levin: "The next president who's a Democrat must be impeached"

Another pollster finds more opposed to impeaching and removing Trump than in favorAlthouse: Inevitable?


House Judiciary Committee Debates Articles of Impeachment – 7:00pm ET Livestream… | The Last Refuge

USMCA Gains Bipartisan Support in House – Senate Leader Mitch Jinping Says Not-so-Fast, Impeachment First… | The Last Refuge

Jim Jordan Delivers Remarks During House Impeachment Mark-up: “they don’t like us, that’s what this is all about”… | The Last Refuge

Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Rant

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)