IG Horowitz Senate Testimony on FBI FISA Abuse During Election –
Mollie Hemingway live-tweeted the day's events. I'll just quote some of it, but if you want more, click on the tweets below for the whole thread. Sample:
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Trump Rally in Hershey, Pa. Huge crowd braves a cold rain to support their president
Trump voters started lining up in Hershey before dawn. They came from all over the country .. As House Democrats on Tuesday morning charged President Donald Trump with two articles of impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, his supporters called the political moves “a sham,” “a joke” and “a disgrace to the nation.”
Elaine Hawkins and Wayne Holland traveled from Delaware to support the president. The impeachment has only increased their support, they said. ”It’s a farce,” Holland said. “There’s no foundation for the impeachment. They’ve been on his case since he was elected, and they never give up.”
Hawkins said she was a Democrat her entire life, but she voted Republican in 2016 because of Trump. “Democrats used to be for the small person and helping the poor, but they haven’t done a damn thing. I supported Trump because I thought he would actually do something and he has."
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"This was an overthrow of government. This was an attempted overthrow."
THE PRESIDENT: The IG report just came out, and I was just briefed on it, and it’s a disgrace what’s happened with respect to the things that were done to our country. It should never again happen to another President. It is incredible. Far worse than I would have ever thought possible. And it’s — it’s an embarrassment to our country. It’s dishonest. It’s everything that a lot of people thought it would be, except far worse.
THE PRESIDENT: What they were doing and what they would have done if I didn’t make a certain move — a certain move that was a very important move because it would have been even worse, if that’s possible. And they might have been able to succeed.
This was an overthrow of government. This was an attempted overthrow. And a lot of people who were in on it, and they got caught. They got caught red-handed. And I look forward to the Durham report, which is coming out in the not-too-distant future. It’s got its own information, which is this information plus, plus, plus.
And it’s an incredible thing that happened, and we’re lucky we caught them. I think I’m going to put this down as one of our great achievements. Because what we found and what we saw never, ever should this happen again in our country.
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"The Inspector General’s 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. It is also clear that, from its inception, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. Nevertheless, the investigation and surveillance was pushed forward for the duration of the campaign and deep into President Trump’s administration.
In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source.
The Inspector General found the explanations given for these actions unsatisfactory. While most of the misconduct identified by the Inspector General was committed in 2016 and 2017 by a small group of now-former FBI officials, the malfeasance and misfeasance detailed in the Inspector General’s report reflects a clear abuse of the FISA process"
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“I have the utmost respect for the mission of the Office of Inspector General and the comprehensive work that went into the report prepared by Mr. Horowitz and his staff. However, our investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department.
Our investigation has included developing information from other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Based on the evidence collected to date, and while our investigation is ongoing, last month we advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened." (link)
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Today the Dept. of Justice Office of Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, will release the much anticipated report covering a 21-month review of FBI and DOJ compliance with legal requirements surrounding FISA and the application against U.S. person Carter Page.
The report is rumored to be well over 600 pages. It will BE RELEASED HERE.
Things to keep in mind…
- First, with a volume of text over 600 pages, and potentially as high as 1,000 pages, there is no immediate analysis you will find in the media today based on a review of the report. The report is simply too long to read, review and outline today.
- Therefore all of the MSM journalists will likely be reporting from pre-written talking points distributed by officials with a vested interest in shaping opinion of the report immediately upon release.
- From my own experience, even after several days very few journalists will have actually even read the full report; they will instead be working from selected segments of the report as outlined by others.
- It is strongly suggested you read the report for yourself, draw your own conclusions, and don’t rely on what could be sections taken out of context. Obviously crowdsourcing the report is one of the fastest ways to absorb information in a discussion thread.
- Secondly, keep in mind while the IG review began in March 2018 the Mueller investigation almost certainly kept many aspects of the material shielded from IG inquiry until the special counsel investigation ended. Indeed as we have seen from other material delayed throughout 2018, up to March 2019 when the Mueller probe ended, many documents were hidden (likely intentionally) by the special counsel. So a full unimpeded IG review likely did not begin until after the Mueller investigation concluded. Hence, some delays.
For the very best analysis of this complex and historic report,
Mollie✔@MZHemingway
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