Posted on 06/16/2018 1:11:05 AM PDT by John Semmens
The long awaited Department of Justice Inspector General's report was released this week. The content of the report revealed FBI actions that cast a dark stain on the Agency's reputation. The primary focus of the report was the original investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's unauthorized use of a non-secure personal email system to conduct official government business. While that investigation uncovered numerous violations of federal laws and regulations—including transmitting classified material, deleting government records, destroying subpoenaed evidence, and lying to the FBI—the then FBI Director, James Comey, declined to forward the case for possible prosecution because "tainting the reputation of the person who was going to be our next president would have done irreparable damage to the country."
The IG Report included a number of text messages from FBI agents to each other denigrating Trump and his supporters as "ignorant low-lifes" and vowing to prevent these people from "overthrowing our government." Not only did FBI agents voice political opinions opposed to the election of Trump, they were also engaged in a covert operation to sabotage his candidacy by infiltrating spies into his campaign and using a bogus "dossier" to dupe the FISA Court into okaying an unprecedented surveillance of a presidential candidate during an election. Nevertheless, the IG declared "there was no evidence that bias influenced the FBI's actions."
IG Michael Horowitz explained that "considering that the Agency could have simply assassinated Mr. Trump, yet neglected to take that option showed a degree of restraint that contradicted the verbal animosity displayed in the text messages. I think the ineffectiveness of the strategies they did take to try to prevent Trump's election pushes their meddling into the 'no harm, no foul' category. The real damage done to the FBI's reputation stems from the extensive trail of communications detailing the scheme. That's why we've recommended that all DOJ personnel go through more intensive training to learn how to better conceal their biases when writing texts and emails."
Current FBI Director Christopher Wray accepted the recommendation for bias training, but hastened to point out that "the FBI's unprofessional behavior over the past two years has come at a time of unusual stress. Yes, Comey and McCabe lied under oath. Yes, Rosenstein signed off on the surveillance initiated via the unverified dossier. Technically, what they did is not strictly legal and falls outside of normal Agency procedures. But as my guys told Congressman Gowdy last week, it was the proper thing to do, it was what the American people would've wanted the FBI to do if they had access to the same information we did. Not only do the American people owe these men a debt of gratitude, they also owe them the benefit of the doubt for any missteps they may have made along the way."
The IG Report also indicated that there were 300 documented instances of illegal leaks by FBI personnel. In a number of these instances the leakers received bribes from favored media outlets in exchange for the leaked information. Wray asserted that "the implication that vital confidential information was sold to the highest bidders wasn't always the case. Many of these leaks were aimed at inducing the media to report false or misleading stories. This is a standard FBI practice to help throw enemies off the trail of truly vital and confidential information. Accepting a bribe helps convince the leak recipients that the leaked material is genuine."
Meanwhile, Clinton denounced Comey's hypocrisy after learning from the IG Report that he also had an unauthorized private email system that he used for some FBI communications. "The double-standards of this man are truly disgusting," she fumed. "That he would publicly ding me as 'extraordinarily careless' for doing the same thing he was doing was so unfair. I suppose he will claim that he didn't intend to break the law. How credible is that? He's been a US Attorney for Christ's sake. Shouldn't he be held to a higher standard?"
In related news, it turns out that Clinton's destruction of documentary evidence may have been part of a wider pattern during the Obama Administration. National Archives librarian David Ferriero recently discovered that tens of thousands of government records are missing. Ferriero named former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Lynch and several EPA officials as the most frequent offenders.
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Opinion/242008-2018-06-16-semi-news-semi-satire-june-17-2018-edition.htm
ping
While done in humor....it presents the case of lost trust.
Perhaps the French version of the FBI is probably more trustworthy than our own FBI. I don’t see how the FBI can resolve this credibility problem.
Wow. You hit the nail on the head. I especially like this one:
“That’s why we’ve recommended that all DOJ personnel go through more intensive training to learn how to better conceal their biases when writing texts and emails.”
He may not have said that, but it’s surely what he meant.
Your post would be really funny parody, if it weren’t so close to the dismal truth.
I was a govt contractor for many decades with scores of ethical training.
My ass would of been fired and put in jail. Period.
Ouch!
Yeah, that's the ticket - learn to conceal crimes better. The mob and MS13 could take the FBI Training right along with the agents... learn how to better conceal...
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