Everyone knows that internal investigations of wrongdoing are reviewed and filtered by the bosses and subject to the tendency to protect associates. But what if the bosses are the very people accused of being accomplices? Such was the dilemma of inspector General Horowitz in assembling his 568-page Department of Justice Inspector General's Report on the Department of Justice and its Federal Bureau of Investigation involvement in a presumed plot to alter the results of the 2016 presidential election (www.justice.gov/file/1071991/download).
Still, if one will but open the pages of this report and read with an open mind without regard for political party or philosophy, one cannot miss what it says. It reveals a near-successful plot to overturn a presidential election by the DOJ and the FBI because they did not like the results of the last presidential election, a plot so serious that it may have ended the republic -- a scandal many times more grave than Watergate and perhaps all the wrongdoings of previous administrations combined. And this was an internal review!
So what do we actually know about the Obama DOJ/FBI involvement in attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump? Their IG report released June 14, 2018, reveals:
1) That the long-standing and required political neutrality of the FBI and DOJ was politicized by the Obama administration. They were not willing to accept the results of an election. That, although there was Russian collusion as in previous elections, there existed no evidence that such changed a single vote or that the Trump Administration had any part in it.
2) That FBI agents of the previous administration produced an extensive line of anti-Trump hating emails before, during and after Trump's election. Five high-level agents, notably Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, were identified as political activists for Clinton and against Trump. Three others cited as Agents 1, 2 and 5 were also noted. Kevin Clinesmith is said to be Agent 2 and Sally Moyer Agent 5. Agent 1 remains redacted.
Agent 1 emailed, when asked by another FBI Agent if Trump's election caused him to rethink his commitment. "Hell no.... Viva le resistance." In an email exchange between Agent 2 and an unnamed employee, both deeply saddened by Hillary's rejection, the employee writing, "You promised me this wouldn't happen. YOU PROMISED.... I'm very upset;" the Agent also admitting his devastation. Agent 2 probably summed up the attitude of these and many more of his FBI colleagues with the following: "Trump's supporters are all poor to middle class, uneducated, lazy POS [pieces of shit]."
3) Evidence presented suggests that the Hillary Clinton 3,500 email scandal on an unapproved and unsecured server was washed over quickly by the FBI (no "real" investigation and no indictments) and in time for her election as president. Thus giving time for their active role in the Trump Russian Collusion story.
Writing for the National Review, Andrew C. McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, observed: All this "at the moment the FBI is moving aggressively to turn its counterintelligence powers against the Trump campaign: An informant has already been deployed, intelligence agents are mobilizing, foreign intelligence contacts have been tapped, and the bureau will soon submit to the FISA court an application to surveil Trump adviser Carter Page -- an application that breaks every rule in the book: anonymous foreign sources spouting multiple hearsay, no corroboration, no disclosure to the court that it comes from the opposition presidential campaign, no explanation that the foreigner who supplied the unverified allegations has been booted from the investigation for lying, etc." (The IG's Report May Be Half-Baked).
4) The Report revealed that Trump-hater Peter Strzok, FBI former No. 2 counterintelligence officer and top investigator in the Clinton investigation whitewash, was a signatory of the FISA court application initiating the Trump-Russia Collusion Investigation then, while FBI agent lover Lisa Page served on the Robert Mueller Team to investigate, then prosecute Trump for the crime Strzok helped create.
5) IG Horowitz confirmed a text message from Strzok reassuring Lisa Page that Trump "was not going to become president" because "We'll stop it." The numerous emails between them had referred to Trump as an "idiot," a "douche" and a "loathsome human." It also revealed the existence of an anti-Trump "secret society" within the agency and its plans for an "insurance policy," presumably the Mueller Team, to remove him from power should he be elected.
6) The IG Report revealed that Comey too, like Hillary, was using an unsecured personal email account for official classified FBI matters while investigating her for the same thing.
7) The Report revealed that Andrew McCabe, second in command of the FBI, lied under oath about leaking sensitive information to a Wall Street journalist.
8) FBI leaks to undermine the Trump candidacy, election and presidency were encouraged and "widely ignored ... at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media.... We identified instances where FBI employees received tickets to sporting events from journalists, went on golfing outings with media representatives, were treated to drinks and meals after work by reporters, and were the guests of journalists at nonpublic social events."
If this is what an internal review discloses, one must wonder what an external review might add. This is the job of Congress.
Harold W. Pease, Ph.D., is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for more than 30 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Editorial on 08/14/2018