{"id":177152,"date":"2019-12-09T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T01:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/12\/09\/i-long-for-the-relative-legal-integrity-of-john-mitchell\/"},"modified":"2019-12-09T20:18:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T01:18:00","slug":"i-long-for-the-relative-legal-integrity-of-john-mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/12\/09\/i-long-for-the-relative-legal-integrity-of-john-mitchell\/","title":{"rendered":"I Long for the Relative Legal Integrity of John Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"
The DoJ Inspector General’s report on the FBI investigation has been released, and it unequivocally refuted any allegations of bias on the part of the FBI, so William Barr immediately responded by completely mischaracterizing the report’s contents<\/a>.<\/div>\n

At the end of all this, not only should Barr not be Attorney General, he should not have a license to practise law:
<\/span><\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s inspector general has released his long-awaited report<\/a> on the FBI investigation of Russia\u2019s 2016 effort to help elect Donald Trump president. Though it identifies serious errors and omissions in the FBI\u2019s work \u2014 many related to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to surveil Carter Page<\/a>, an informal Trump campaign adviser \u2014 the report torpedoes the endless claim by Trump and his propagandists that the entire Russia investigation was a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d and a \u201choax.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to reiterate right up front the actual argument that Trump World made for literally years. Not just that mistakes were made in the launching of the investigation. Not just that applications for this or that wiretapping warrant were mishandled.<\/p>\n

No, the Trump argument has been that the entire investigation was built on top of deeply nefarious motives \u2014 that is, that the \u201cdeep state” was corruptly conspiring to prevent Trump from being elected president \u2014 and that it all was illegitimate<\/i>. This was the argument of the president of the United States: that a law enforcement investigation into a foreign attack on our democracy was a \u201choax” and a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

The inspector general report just wrecked numerous claims that Trump and his propagandists have made to justify that narrative.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is why Attorney General William P. Barr, who has been himself working to invalidate that investigation, rushed to Trump\u2019s rescue. He released a statement that said this<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Inspector General\u2019s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken.<\/span>
<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But that\u2019s not at all what the IG\u2019s report makes clear.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin with the origin of the investigation, referred to as \u201cCrossfire Hurricane.\u201d It was triggered when the Australian government contacted U.S. government officials to alert them that a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, had bragged to an Australian official that the campaign was in contact with the Russian government, which had promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n

The report from the Australian government, the inspector general writes<\/a>, \u201cwas sufficient to predicate the investigation. This information provided the FBI with an articulable factual basis that, if true, reasonably indicated activity constituting either a federal crime or a threat to national security, or both, may have occurred or may be occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The inspector general also completely knocks down the constant claims from Republicans that the entire investigation, which was authorized by then-Counterintelligence Division Assistant Director Bill Priestap, was the product of an anti-Trump conspiracy:<\/span><\/p>\n

We concluded that Priestap\u2019s exercise of discretion in opening the investigation was in compliance with Department and FBI policies, and we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced his decision.<\/span>
<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How about the claim Barr has made that the bureau was \u201cspying\u201d on the Trump campaign? The inspector general writes:<\/span><\/p>\n

We found no evidence that the FBI placed any CHSs [confidential sources] or UCEs [undercover agents] within the Trump campaign or tasked any CHSs or UCEs to report on the Trump campaign. Finally, we also found no documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivations influenced the FBI\u2019s decision to use CHSs or UCEs to interact with Trump campaign officials in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.<\/span>
<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

Barr is in the process of completing his own \u201creview\u201d of the investigation, and it\u2019s plainly obvious that he is going to try to use it to cast doubt on these inspector general conclusions. Let\u2019s remember that Barr put out a profoundly dishonestly summary<\/a> of the special counsel\u2019s report, one clearly designed to game media coverage of it in advance.<\/p>\n

There is no need to grant Barr even the slightest presumption of good faith this time around. It isn\u2019t just that history on the special counsel\u2019s report; it\u2019s that he already told us what his intention is, by implying at the outset with his \u201cspying\u201d comment that there just might be something to that \u201cdeep state\u201d plot, and, now, by telling us exactly how he\u2019s going to try to dispute the inspector general\u2019s findings, as well.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barr has been mischaracterizing legal reports<\/strike> lying under the color of law for political advantage since Iran-Contra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why he has never been subject to discipline from the DC Bar is completely beyond me. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The DoJ Inspector General’s report on the FBI investigation has been released, and it unequivocally refuted any allegations of bias on the part of the FBI, so William Barr immediately responded by completely mischaracterizing the report’s contents. At the end of all this, not only should Barr not be Attorney General, he should not have …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[368,573,364,387,407,526,374],"class_list":["post-177152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-corruption","tag-donald-trump","tag-evil","tag-hypocrisy","tag-justice","tag-law-enforcement-misconduct","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}