In a letter from Michael Horowitz to Senator Chuck Grassley (full pdf below) the DOJ Inspector General informs congress of multiple investigations, and multiple releases. The primary OIG investigation into the FBI and DOJ politicization will be released in May:
In the ¹footnote Horowitz outlines the Andrew McCabe report was a secondary investigative outcome of the initial investigation, and the supplemental FISA investigation will result in an additional release unattached to the primary.
The OIG report on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is devastating to the “small group” and not just for what it outlines, but also for what it doesn’t provide.
There are bound to be multiple reports and discussions which will flow from an outcome of the content therein. However, here’s some of the ‘big picture’ takeaways for those who have followed the very granular details.
One of the more pertinent issues – it is now demonstrably proven that Andrew McCabe lied to FBI investigators, on several occasions, and also that he lied to the Inspector General. Note the criminally important factor here is: “lied to FBI investigators”.
On page #29, there’s some very specific and interesting details that deserve to be highlighted (emphasis mine).
We concluded that McCabe lacked candor during his OIG audio-recorded interview under oath on July 28, 2017, when he falsely stated that: (a) he was not aware of Special Counsel being authorized to speak to reporters around October 30 and (b) he did not know, because he was out of town, “where [Special Counsel] was or what she was doing” during the relevant time period. (pdf link)
It is not just the next few paragraphs that outline the scope of the attempted duplicity and fraud by McCabe, but also the footnotes.
Remember, we know specifically from congressional evidence, provided by the FBI investigative unit, the FBI took custody of the initial batch of text message between DOJ-FBI Special Counsel Lisa Page and Peter Strzok on July 22nd, 2017. It is clear those text messages were provided by Lisa Page to clear up the contradiction between her truthful statements and the lies told earlier by Andrew McCabe.
Earlier today I wrote on Twitter: “The raid on Michael Cohen’s home and office was gov. directed political opposition research. The FBI/DOJ officials who carried out the raid will leak the content to media to damage POTUS & engineer narratives for election(s). That was the intent of the raid.”
Allow me to provide the fact-based argument behind that statement. Beginning with a very basic baseline fact:
You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States.
It is an inarguable reality that ideologues within the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation used their positions to conduct a political operation against the candidacy of President Trump. There is currently an Office of Inspector General investigation by Michael Horowitz to discover the scale of that basic truth.
The ongoing OIG investigation has already released some of the investigative evidence proving the motives of the participants. Additionally, through records and releases stemming from outside the OIG investigation, it is a fact the intelligence apparatus within the national security divisions of the DOJ and FBI used their databases to conduct unlawful searches of political opposition; and allowed ‘contractors‘ to do the same.
These clear facts exist regardless of opinion or sentiment therein.
As you are probably aware President Trump cancelled his visit to the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru this week; preferring to send Vice President Mike Pence in his stead. U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donahue is in Peru and delivered the Wall Street positions on trade to the gathering. (More on that later).
It is critical to remember, at the epicenter of all political position is money. All support and opposition to POTUS Trump surrounds the money. Under the foundation of ideology are financial benefits and/or lack thereof. [Ex. Chuck Grassley’s presentation of a bill to support SC Robert Mueller is directly tied to his purchased Big AG lobby position on trade via UniLever, ConAgra, Monsanto, ADM etc.] The Wall Street coalition needs leverage against POTUS Trump to defend their financial positions. There are trillions at stake.
Directly related, today in the White House, President Trump -together with U.S.T.R Robert Lighthizer- met with an assembly of governors and congressional representatives to discuss trade and agriculture. Each of these state and federal officials is part of the Big AG corporate purchase of policy.
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When POTUS keeps the cameras rolling, it’s beneficial to pay attention. Notice how President Trump is leveraging an agricultural benefit of ethanol against the financial influence of Big AG lobbyists who control the assembled politicians.
It’s a modern fact, albeit sickening in the big picture, that President Trump has to fight for the best outcome of America’s economic policy against special interests of U.S. politicians – who are purchased by lobbyist money to act against America’s best interests.
[Transcript] 11:07 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: So this is a group I like very much. We’re here to discuss agriculture — very important. And these are great people, great Americans, great patriots. And they’ve been treated very badly for a long time. And if you look at the farmer, it’s been, unfortunately, over a 12-year period, trending downward. Very much trending downward. So we’re changing things with respect to trade and trade with other countries.
Giddy up… HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes says either FBI Director Chris Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein give him the “electronic communication” (EC) documents (initiated the counterintelligence operation against candidate Trump in July 2016) or congress will hold an impeachment vote.
FBI Director Wray and DOJ Deputy Rosenstein have until tomorrow night.
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*Important Note* The person would know everything there is about this July 2016 EC is FBI Director of Counterintelligence Bill Priestap.
Representative Matt Gaetz sent out a tweet today that is absolutely accurate. You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States…. and that’s what the DOJ is trying to hide.
If you peel the skin off the onion, and get down to the substantive core issue that represents the biggest risk to the entire collective group who worked to subvert the 2016 presidential election, you get to the FISA-702(16)(17) and Title-1 surveillance abuse that was carried out by the Obama Intelligence Community, DOJ-NSD and the FBI.
The actions taken by ‘inside’ government officials and ‘outside’ ideological cohorts is exactly what all of their collective “resistance” activity is about. Attacking the Office of the Presidency is a strategy to keep sunlight from their previous action.
When we absorb the full scope and scale of the political effort from inside and outside government, then we understand everything happening. Additionally, I would strongly suggest this is also where Attorney General Sessions is going wrong.
To understand the dynamic it becomes important to separate the FISA/FISC issues from the other issues within the IG Horowitz and Prosecutor Huber investigations.
According to updated information the Trump appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, was recused from any aspect surrounding the FBI raid of President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
One of the key points made by those who defended the highly charged political raid of Michael Cohen’s home, office and hotel suite was that a President Trump appointed U.S. Attorney signed off on the raid. That deflection point is now demonstrably removed.
(Via ABC) […] Berman was not involved in the decision to raid Cohen’s office because of the recusal, two sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
The recusal was approved by senior Justice Department officials who report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the sources said. Rosenstein himself was notified of the recusal after the decision was made.
You can call it a soft-coup, or you can call it politicization of the DOJ and FBI, but the end result is the same – the intentional effort to manipulate, influence, and ultimately subvert an election for the presidency of the United States. ~SD
Moments ago a righteously angered President Trump responded to the FBI raids on the office and home of his personal attorney Michael Cohen. In addition to expressing outrage at Robert Mueller and his team of “small group” political allies, President Trump expressed his disappointment in Attorney General Jeff Sessions for authorizing the ongoing action.
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[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys — a good man. And it’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time. I’ve wanted to keep it down. We’ve given, I believe, over a million pages’ worth of documents to the Special Counsel.
They continue to just go forward. And here we are talking about Syria and we’re talking about a lot of serious things. We’re the greatest fighting force ever. And I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now — and actually, much more than that. You could say it was right after I won the nomination, it started.
And it’s a disgrace. It’s, frankly, a real disgrace. It’s an attack on our country, in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for.
Tomorrow Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce the assignment of U.S. Attorney John Lausch to facilitate the production of documents from the DOJ (Horowitz/Huber) to the House Judiciary Committee, and Chairman Bob Goodlatte.
Mr. Lausch is a Trump appointed U.S. Attorney from outside Washington DC. John Lausch currently heads the Northern District of Illinois which includes Chicago, and this specific U.S. Attorney has extensive experience in complex cases of conspiracy and political corruption; a key skill-set given the issues within the Horowitz/Huber investigation of potential politicization of the FBI and DOJ offices.
Accepting the OIG report is almost certainly the most complex undertaking of IG Horowitz career; and accepting the multitude of possible angles within each section of the investigative inquiry are so consequential; there’s a strong likelihood the report could come out in stages.
A few hours ago President Trump tweeted a curiously specific pair of tweets targeting the FBI, DOJ and FISA investigations as it relates to the House Judiciary Committee and Chairman Bob Goodlatte. Something’s up:
Against the backdrop of the DOJ notifying the House Intelligence and House Senate committees last night of their ability to review the DOJ/FBI submission of the FISA Court application used to target U.S. person Carter Page, the specificity of POTUS Trump’s direction is curious.
As we previously discussed the DOJ allowing expanded congressional oversight over the FISA application, against the backdrop of a previously announced IG reviewof this specific FISA application, would indicate Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Federal Prosecutor John Huber signed-off on, or perhaps directed, last night’s approval.
