President Trump just failed another test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday, I watched him explain how the Justice Department\u2019s Inspector General Report showed how unfairly he was treated in the Russia investigation.\u00a0\u00a0With high school students sitting around him in the White House, the President claimed that the IG report showed that the FBI had \u201cconcocted evidence and lied to the courts.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0He further claimed that \u201c\u2026it was an attempted overthrow, and a lot of people were in on it, and got caught.\u201d He then whined that no US President should ever have to go through this again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President then asked his new \u201ccommunications staff\u201d member, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, what she thought. \u201cThe American people should be terrified that this could happen to you,\u201d was her statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is all very serious. All these FBI officials caught, a biased \u201cwitch hunt\u201d performed, an attempted coup of the President: somebody ought to be going to jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is, it\u2019s all a lie. The Inspector General\u2019s report did come out. It stated that the investigation of the Trump Campaign was properly \u201cpredicated\u201d. That means it was started for good reason. The Report goes onto say that the FBI officials who ran the investigation, including FBI Director James Comey, FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, Counter Espionage Section Chief Peter Strzok, and even Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr, did NOT show political bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Inspector General did find concerns with the Carter Page FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrants, including finding that a lower level attorney falsified an email used as evidence.\u00a0He also noted that there was what he called \u201cissues with the reliability\u201d in the Steele Dossier, used as a supporting document for the FISA warrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no coup, no attempted overthrow. There weren\u2019t \u201c\u2026a lot of people\u201d who got caught. Americans don\u2019t need to be worried \u201c\u2026that this could happen to you,\u201d that is unless, you are dealing with Russian intelligence, like Page, Manafort, Flynn and Papadopoulos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Inspector General found concerns with the FISA Program, concerns that he will continue to investigate.\u00a0\u00a0Chris Wray, the current FBI Director, thanked the IG for his information, and promised to work to correct the issues he raised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For my “Trumpian” friends who counted on Horowitz revealing the “great plot” to overthrow Trump, the “insurance plan” of Peter Strzok, sorry. They were doing their job, investigating a campaign flirting with Russia while our elections were being attacked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As James Comey predicted a couple of months ago, the IG Report clears the old FBI leadership of wrongdoing.\u00a0\u00a0But that isn\u2019t stopping the President, or his \u201cmouthpiece\u201d Ms. Bondi, or Attorney General Bill Barr from claiming that Inspector General Horowitz\u2019s Report is wrong.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, US Attorney John Durham, tasked by Barr with investigating these same issues, even broke investigatory silence to state that he doesn\u2019t agree with Horowitz’s conclusions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why should they?\u00a0\u00a0Horowitz has done two investigations in this area, one looking at the Clinton email investigation and now this.\u00a0\u00a0he found mistakes were made in both, but still agreed that the investigations were legitimate and their conclusions reasonable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attorney General Bill Barr needed a backup plan.\u00a0\u00a0What if Horowitz does it again and misses out on the \u201cwitch hunt\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0So he brought in another \u201cresponsible and respected\u201d member of the Justice Department \u201cfamily,\u201d US Attorney for Connecticut John Durham, to find the \u201ctrue\u201d facts.\u00a0\u00a0This is the same John Durham who investigated the CIA torture program after 9-11, waterboarding and all, and found that no crimes were committed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the \u201cold timers\u201d from the Department talk about Durham as a \u201cstraight shooter\u201d and an \u201chonest investigator\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0These are the same \u201cold timers\u201d who talked lovingly about Bill Barr as an \u201cinstitutionalist\u201d who would bring respect back to the Department.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ve seen how that turned out.\u00a0\u00a0The Justice Department today is the Washington office of Mr. Trump\u2019s personal attorney:\u00a0\u00a0Bill Barr.\u00a0\u00a0The scales are weighted, and lady Justice\u2019s blindfold is completely off.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t hold your breath that Durham will be fair and balanced either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Trump has failed another \u201ctruth\u201d test.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s not much of a surprise; he fails that exam all the time.\u00a0\u00a0But Mr. Horowitz has failed a different kind of test, a loyalty test.\u00a0\u00a0The President and his cronies needed \u201cevidence\u201d to attack his rivals.\u00a0\u00a0Horowitz was supposed to find that. He didn\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe that\u2019s the unifying theme of the Trump Administration.\u00a0\u00a0Find your enemies; then find a way to smear them.\u00a0\u00a0That way, whatever your enemies say, it can be played back on Fox News to the “true believers” willing to accept any “news” that fits with their beliefs. \u00a0Barr and Durham are searching for some way to attack the FBI and the Obama Justice Department.\u00a0\u00a0Rudy Giuliani is in Ukraine trying to find a way to smear Joe Biden before the 2020 elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And you can count on the President to say whatever he has to say to make the mud stick.\u00a0\u00a0If there is a way to be \u201cthe best\u201d at failing the truth test, then the President must be an honor student.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the one place he excels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"