Allow me a rant:
While reading the NY Times story about the Inspector General report into FBI handling of the Clinton and Trump investigations, when i got to the part about right-wing complaints that two FBI agents acted improperly, I was struck by how THE INSPECTOR GENERAL DID THE EXACT SAME GOD-DAMNED THING COMEY DID — bending over backwards to appease the right wing by injecting his opinion into legal matters, even while finding no evidence of wrong-doing.
If the Times report is accurate, the IG report criticizes Comey for “improperly injecting his opinion into legal decisions” when he held a press conference to announce that Hillary didn’t do anything illegal or prosecutable (while using that press conference to attack her anyway). That’s conclusion is correct and we all know it.
But look how the IG treated two FBI agents who have been attacked by the right without evidence
The Times writes (emphasis added):
The report criticizes the conduct of F.B.I. officials who exchanged textsdisparaging Mr. Trump during the campaign. The officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, were involved in both the Clinton and Russia investigations, leading Mr. Trump’s supporters to suspect a conspiracy against him. Many of those text messages have been released, but the inspector general cites a previously undisclosed message in which Mr. Strzok says the F.B.I. “will stop” Mr. Trump, according to two of the officials.
The inspector general said that, because of his views, Mr. Strzok MAY HAVE improperly prioritized the Russia investigation over the Clinton investigation during the final weeks of the campaign. The F.B.I. officials “brought discredit” to themselves and sowed public doubt about the investigation. But the report did not cite evidence that Mr. Strzok had acted improperly or influenced the outcome of the investigation, the officials said.
“Our review did not find documentary or testimonial evidence directly connecting the political views these employees expressed in their text messages and instant messages to the specific investigative decisions we reviewed,” the report said.
The IG is saying, we have no evidence they did anything improper or influenced the outcome of the investigation — but then it injects the IG’s opinion into legal matters by saying “they brought discredit to themselves.”
Here’s why this part pisses me off so much:
1) Like I said, this is EXACTLY what Comey did. The IG attacked Attack opponents of the right by inserting your opinion even while announcing you have no evidence of anything improper or illegal.
2) Since when does the Justice Department attack people for something they MAY HAVE done with no evidence that they actually did it. That’s an old right wing trick — and the IG inserting “may have” into a report (while admitting no evidence) feels an awful like it’s there to appease the right. The report should just say they found no evidence and of improper behavior and leave it at that.
It was wrong when Comey did that to Hillary, and it’s wrong when the IG does that to Strzok and Page.
3) The IG seems to be putting on equal footing the fake e-mail scandal (which uncovered no crimes and led to no indictments or prosecutions) with the very real Russia scandal (which has led to many guilty pleas and indictments so far).
As a reminder, a lengthy investigation has concluded there was nothing to the email ‘scandal.’ No crimes, nothing prosecutable, just politics.
The Russia investigation, by contrast, has already resulted in Trump’s campaign Manager being indicted on multiple counts, Trump’s National Security Advisor and National Security aide both pleading guilty to crimes, several other aides and people connected to the campaign have also been indicted or pled guilty to crimes. Within the last week, the Russia investigation has even led to Trump’s former Manager and a Russian operative being charged with a criminal conspiracy. And there’s more to come.
But the IG felt the need to question whether two FBI agents may have improperly prioritized the investigation into one investigation, that was already proven to have uncovered no crimes, with another investigation that has led to many convictions and indictments.
Hell, I would hope that any FBI agent would prioritize investigating real crimes with investigating non-crimes. In fact, the investigation into emails was only on their plate in the first place because of political pressure to use FBI resources to bring down opponents of the right wing.
That small part of the IG report, suggesting the bogus email investigation should be as hihgh a priority as the real Russia investigation accomplishes absolutely nothing except legitimizing the email investigation (just like Comey did when he announced there were no crimes, but attacked Hillary anyway) and it minimizes the Russia investigation by suggesting the two are the same (just like Trump wants, and despite the Trump investigation already leading to so many real crimes).
I am sure this report was written carefully so as not to offend the right wing or Donald Trump too much.
Like Comey, the IG did whatever he could in this report to throw the right-wing a bone (attacking Strzok and Page with opinions while simultaneously admitting there is no evidence for right wing conspiracies about them, and suggesting that the fake email scandal which uncovered no crimes should be on equal footing with the real Russia investigation which has uncovered MANY crimes).
And we all know how this report will play — the left will see this report as vindication because it criticizes Comey’s actions in the non-email scandal, while the Right-Wing Disinformation Machine will hype up the line about how FBI agents may have acted improperly and brought discredit to themselves.
I won’t watch Fox, but I’ll bet when (if) they cover this report, they cover it just like they covered Comey — focusing on the extra-legal opinion that was inserted to help them, while ignoring the fact that the report actually concluded there was no evidence of actual crimes.
Shame on the IG for not just sticking the facts, but for inserting his opinion instead.
It really sucks to live in a world where our elite institutions and law enforcement feel they have to appease the right-wing machine. I hope we can all work our butts off to end this nightmare.
