IMO the takeaway from this is not who lied. Normally a reporter falls back on the 1st A. and refuses to name sources so bringing Ben Smith in for questioning would be a futile fishing expedition. He just solved that problem for the DoJ by publishing his sources.
Now they can question him without that issue in the way. It’s still a crime even if the FBI provided false notes to Smith but according to Smith they were real 302s which had their false impressions in them. That makes them real FBI notes as far as the law is concerned.
Which is why we need to see the real 302s as a result of another investigation just as has been posited here & elsewhere. Jim Jordan pointed out that very need as well.
I wonder how the IGs may be able to facilitate this absent a friendly Congress.
But the shoe is now on the other foot. I want to continue seeing the media squirm and throw all of this wholesale into the faces of those to whom they were lying (and who were swallowing it) for 2 years.
Well now...
“Gatez: They’re not off the hook. Another Little nugget the IG is looking at is the corruption between the FBI and the media. We will be seeing it before we see the IG Report on how this fraudulent investigation got started.”