Re: Inspector general report says FBI had ‘authorized purpose’ to investigate Trump campaign’s Russi
The Inspector General’s ‘Witch Hunt’ Report: A Quick and Dirty Analysis - Lawfare
The Inspector General’s ‘Witch Hunt’ Report: A Quick and Dirty Analysis
When you see folks crowing about errors in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications and the misconduct described in the inspector general’s report released on Dec. 9, take a deep breath and try to remember the allegations that sparked this review of the Russia investigation. It wasn’t that long ago. You can do it if you try. The allegations weren’t about sloppy handling of a FISA application, serious though that issue undoubtedly is. They weren’t even about an FBI lawyer altering an email.
They were about whether the FBI’s Russia investigation was a malicious “WITCH HUNT!”:
- The president repeatedly accused FBI officials of “treason”—and of plotting a coup.
- Citing a text from Peter Strzok to Lisa Page, he declared that the Russia investigation was an “insurance policy” against his election—and that the texts between them revealed the deep political bias that drove the entire investigation.
- The attorney general warned darkly of FBI “spying” on the Trump campaign and publicly questioned whether the Russia investigation was properly predicated.
- A veritable industry arose suggesting that the investigation began earlier than the FBI acknowledged, an industry the attorney general personally helped cultivate.
- The president suggested that his wires had been tapped, even as Devin Nunes insisted that the FBI was engaged in illegal surveillance of Carter Page.
- We were assured of scandal related to the FBI’s use of confidential informants, just as we were assured that the entire investigation was predicated on the “dossier” of Christopher Steele.
Remember?
Hundreds and hundreds of television hours and countless articles, each more breathless than the next, were devoted to propagating these claims, which were repeated so often that they have become truths for millions of Americans. Even though they were never true.
On Dec. 9, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz declared in more than 450 pages that the “Witch Hunt” narrative was nonsense. Yes, the investigation had problems—some of them serious. But the problems were not political in character. There was no effort to “get” candidate Trump. There was no “insurance policy.” There was no coup. There was no treason.
There was, rather, a properly predicated investigation that began when the FBI has always said it began and because of the information the FBI has always said triggered it. The investigation used proper investigative techniques. And while there were errors along the way, a degree of sloppiness that warrants addressing seriously, the inspector general does not find that any authorized surveillance was illegal.
I have not read the report in detail yet. But here are some initial thoughts following an effort to digest its major findings quickly.
Perhaps the most important calumny thrown the FBI’s way over the past two years has been the idea that there was a “deep state” coup plotted there by treasonous bureaucrats out to sink the Trump campaign, and later the Trump presidency. As Trump likes to tell the story, Strzok and Page were at the center of the plot and the text between them about the “insurance policy” was a kind of lynchpin. The insurance policy in case Trump won the election was the Russia investigation.
Continued next post...
