It finally feels as though what we’ve been reading about all year is getting out to the liberal public as a warning
IG’s FISA Probe May Hamper Dems’ Impeachment Plans
By Susan Crabtree
FTA:
As Democrats mull how far to push the impeachment envelope against President Trump after Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion with Russia in the 2016 election but punted on obstruction of justice charges, another investigation could further blunt their attempts to oust the president from office or damage his re-election chances.
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Those interviewed by Horowitz and his team over the past year, according to Politico, say he seems intensely focused on undermining the dossier and credibility of Christopher Steele, the former British MI6 agent who produced the document. Steele had served as a confidential source for the FBI since 2010 until a falling out over his leaks to the media about the Trump-Russia probe.
While prominent Democrats have accused Mueller of failing to do his duty and Barr of prioritizing the interests of Trump over the American people, they’ll have a more difficult time assailing Horowitz, a Harvard-educated lawyer appointed by President Obama to the DoJ’s top watchdog post in 2012.
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Roughly a year ago, Horowitz also proved he’s willing to disappoint Trump and his supporters. He thoroughly investigated the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and charges that the probe was rigged to let Clinton off the hook.
Horowitz amassed a mountain of embarrassing emails and electronic messages between former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and his co-worker and lover, Lisa Page, about their hatred for Trump and an “insurance plan” to derail his presidency. However, Horowitz concluded that he could not link the “appearance” of personal bias against Trump to “evidence that any political bias or improper considerations actually” impacted the way the FBI pursued the Clinton email probe.
He also harshly criticized then-FBI Director James Comey for his July 2016 announcement that he would not recommend any charges against Clinton, and his subsequent October 2016 decision to tell Congress that the FBI had discovered new emails and had re-opened the case.
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The stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to Horowitz’ current probe. Steele was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS in 2016 to look into Trump’s Russia ties, and that work was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through a law firm.
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Last January, then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who now helms that panel, referred Steele to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution for lying about his contacts with several media organizations before the 2016 election.
Rep. Jim Jordan, who serves as the ranking Republican member on the House Oversight Committee, on Saturday pointed to the dossier as the rationale used to launch an investigation “on a false premise.”
“You can’t have the FBI using one party’s opposition research document to launch an investigation and spy on the other party’s campaign,” he said.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a conservative Republican from Florida, over the weekend said Horowitz has evidence that FBI officials received tickets to concerts and athletic events from members of the press as incentives to leak to them.
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As the probe is winding down, Steele himself appears less sanguine about Horowitz’ findings and conclusions. He has reportedly declined to be interviewed and plans to rebut the IG’s characterizations in a rare public statement.
The New York Times on Friday also reported that Steele never tried to portray the dossier as anything other than raw intelligence — jumping off points for the FBI to begin investigating.
How that assertion squares with Horowitz’s findings will be closely watched by those on both sides of the aisle. But for Democrats eager to herald the Mueller report’s details on possible obstruction, the IG’s work could be tough to portray as just another government investigation biased in Trump’s favor.
https://spectator.org/while-democrats-search-for-crumbs-this-too-will-pass-over/
While Democrats Search for Crumbs, This Too Will Pass Over
by Dov Fischer
FTA:
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It has been Mueller for two years, and it will be Mueller for another two years. It has been Democrats trying for two years to destroy the President, and it will be Democrats trying for another two years to destroy the President. Nothing new under the sun.
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1. The Democrats Never Will Be Able to Wrap Their Heads Around the Reality That Other People Live Outside Their Echo Chamber.
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Against that backdrop, Democrats cannot figure out how Trump got elected in 2016. Everyone they know voted for Hillary or Jill Stein. Everyone who knows anyone they know voted that way. How could Trump have won unless there was massive cheating?
Nothing ever will convince Democrats and their Left appendages that half the country thinks differently from them, thinks Trump has Made the White House Great Again, and voted for Trump because Trump was a good choice, and Hillary was a loathsome choice.
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2. The Democrats Will Not Stop Hounding, Harassing, and Persecuting Trump Until Election Day 2020.
...because Trump is made of the strongest mettle and toughest emotional exterior, it does not mean that he is not being persecuted.
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All that matters is whether Trump is a great President. Hillary’s decision to release her taxes in 2016 did not make her less a crook or any less pathological a liar who lied even about how her mother named her.
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3. There Was No Collusion.
There was no collusion.
4. There Was No Obstruction of Justice.
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Nor was it illegal for a novice in the law like Trump to ask Jeff Sessions to “un-recuse” himself. For lay people, all it takes is a few episodes of “Billions” to suggest that a United States Attorney can recuse himself from a case, then secretly un-recuse. Trump is not a legal expert; that is why he hires attorneys. He consistently deferred to them. Nothing he did obstructed justice.
5. This All Is a Good Thing.
In preparation for Passover, Orthodox Jews are bidden to remove all “chametz” from our homes, offices, and possessions. “Chametz” includes breadstuffs, pastas, and a wide variety of grain-based leavened products. Even non-grain products are forbidden if produced in contact with “chametz.” Through the entirety of Pesach, “chametz” may not be seen or found in our possession. So we “carb up” and consume the stuff in our pantries, we clean and vacuum our homes like OCD poster kids, and we sell whatever “chametz” remains to a non-Jewish friend.
Despite all that, we go on our hands and knees the night before Passover, assuring the place is pitch-dark, light a candle, and then crawl along all walls throughout our homes, looking into crevices — whatever — in one final search for any last crumbs we might have missed. If we find crumbs, we burn them the next morning. For that one moment each year, it is Atkins/Keto Diet Nirvana. And then we bring out the matzo.
For the past two years, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings, Robert Mueller, Jerrold Nadler, Maxine Waters, CNN and MSNBC and the New York Times and Washington Post and all the rest of those dregs have been searching for the chametz in Trump’s cabinet. They bounced Sessions, imported Mueller and Weissman, got Clapper and Communist Gus Hall’s John Brennan who was Obama’s CIA chief, brought in Avenatti and Cash Cab Cohen, Omarosa here, James Comey there, Strzok and Page and McCabe — dreck in and dreck out — and they have not found a morsel. They will not stop.
If President Trump, his family, and associates can hold the fort, this persecution will become a blessing.
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