Agent Peter Strzok & FBI issues in investigations

[jimnyc]

The distrust and desire to investigate the investigators is what I wanted nearly a year ago.

They're centering in on this one guy for now, but I believe it's much larger than that of course, and some high officials likely involved.

---

Enough: FBI and Justice Department Corruption Needs to End

Last week nobody knew who Peter Strzok was. He’s certainly not anonymous anymore.

Very quietly this summer, Strzok was reassigned from Trump-Russia collusion probe special counsel Robert Mueller’s team after it was discovered that he’d sent anti-Trump text messages to a woman with whom he was having extramarital sexual congress (who also was a member of that team). That information didn’t reach the public eye until this weekend, and developments since offer a pretty damn good explanation why.

Peter Strzok is everything, as it turns out. Strzok looks like the man at the center of what can best be described as the complete collapse of the FBI and Justice Department’s trustworthiness and credibility, a collapse which is triggering a crisis in the public confidence in the federal government as an institution we consent to have power over us.

Strzok didn’t just serve as an investigator on the Trump-collusion probe, which has degenerated into, as Andrew McCarthy ably laid out at National Review on Monday, an “obstruction investigation” — for the unwashed among us that means it’s essentially a bug hunt for as many Scooter Libbys as Mueller and his team can smoke out. Oh, no. Strzok was involved in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Heavily involved, in fact — so much so that it’s said it was Strzok who changed the language in then-FBI director James Comey’s exoneration speech to reflect “extreme carelessness” rather than “gross negligence” to describe Clinton’s behavior in running her government emails through that illegal bathroom closet server.

That’s a distinction with a difference, by the way, because it fueled the narrative that Clinton’s patently illegal behavior wasn’t punishable under a statute she clearly violated because an element of “intent” not necessary in that statute wasn’t met.

We’re just finding out about Strzok. It’s a great bet we’ll uncover a whole lot more about him — including, there are rumors, that it may have been Strzok who weaponized the Fusion GPS Pee Pee Dossier into the “collusion” investigation in the first place. Someone at the FBI apparently did that, and someone took that dossier to a FISA court in pursuit of warrants to surveil the Trump campaign in an effort by the Obama administration to spy on the political opposition during a presidential election. It might well have been him.

We’re also finding out about another hopelessly compromised member of the Mueller investigative team — namely, Andrew Weissmann. And what we’re finding out isn’t all that good. It turns out that Weissmann is the federal prosecutor who took down Enron, Arthur Anderson, and Merrill Lynch in separate cases, all of which resulted in convictions which were overturned all or in part due to prosecutorial misconduct. Weissmann was reportedly the genius behind the government’s armed pre-dawn raid at the home of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, in order to push an investigation resulting in charges of — essentially — consulting for a foreign political party and “laundering” money which was not illegal.

There are other questionable characters in Mueller’s cabal of Democrat partisans out for blood; to describe each would involve making this column into a book.

To summarize, the Mueller probe is rotten to the core. It’s been nearly a full year in existence and is no closer to finding evidence that Trump colluded with the Russians than he was when he started, and to date all he’s managed is a pair of guilty pleas based purely out of conduct during the investigation, with Flynn’s the most significant.

Understand that there was absolutely no underlying wrongdoing associated with Flynn’s guilty plea. As a member of the Trump transition team it was right and proper for him to communicate with his counterparts in foreign countries — whether Russian or otherwise. He was being spied upon by the intelligence community thanks to a FISA warrant issued, we assume, thanks to that Fusion GPS dossier being weaponized against Trump, and he was asked about things he said the FBI already had transcripts of. A perjury trap was set for Flynn and he fell into it. Just as Libby did when a different partisan Democrat prosecutor went fishing for process crimes after finding no underlying illegality.

This isn’t a banana republic, at least not yet. But it’ll become one on Trump’s watch if the president doesn’t act to put a stop to the runaway corruption in the Justice Department.

Rest - https://spectator.org/enough-of-the-...ts-corruption/

[jimnyc]

A special counsel needs to investigate the FBI and Justice Department. Now.

The Post reported that a former top FBI official, Peter Strzok, who had been assigned to and then removed from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, had “exchanged politically charged texts disparaging [President] Trump and supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton” and that Strzok was “also a key player in the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server.”

This is a blockbuster revelation, carrying the possibility of shattering public confidence in a number of long-held assumptions about the criminal-justice system generally and the FBI and the Justice Department specifically. The Justice Department should appoint a special counsel to investigate Strzok’s actions as soon as possible.

The Strzok report comes on heels of the widely derided Justice Department investigation into IRS discrimination against conservative groups, including the disposition of allegations against IRS senior official Lois Lerner, and after the wildly erratic behavior of then-FBI Director James B. Comey during 2016. It also follows the vote to hold then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress — the first ever against a sitting member of the Cabinet — with 17 Democrats voting in support. Mix into this battering of the Justice Department’s and FBI’s reputations the still-murky charges and counter-charges of abuse of “unmasking” powers during the waning days of the Obama era.

As a result, a large swath of responsible center-right observers are now demanding a full review of the investigation and prosecution powers wielded by the Obama-era Justice Department and FBI. Former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy wrote in the National Review on Saturday that President Trump should call for a second independent counsel to investigate abuse of the counterintelligence authorities under President Barack Obama, abuses he suggests were undertaken to protect the controversial Iran deal on nuclear weapons.

This is an excellent idea. The new special counsel could also review Strzok’s texts and, more crucially, his conduct throughout 2015 and 2016. Strzok may be completely innocent of anything except an off-handed joke that the straight-laced Mueller deemed necessary to punish in a display of a “Caesar’s wife” sort of purity of purpose. But if his texts to FBI lawyer Lisa Page reveal a partisan animus towards Trump or admiration for Clinton, then the bureau and the department have a huge problem on their hands and not just with Strzok and Page.

Rest - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.f93b0ceb77ff

[Kathianne]

It seems to me that the FBI, DOJ, and IRS have all been found to be extremely biased and guilty of using their powers to harm some and protect others.

I guess the question then becomes, should the tables be turned for x number of years to 'even the score?'

Conyers resigned effective today. If Franken does the same, does that make Moore Senate material still? None have had trials, but without a doubt if not for Moore, pretty sure Conyers would still be there, no? The whole 'bad boys are unacceptable' seems aimed more at Trump than Moore, but it's perplexing on what they hope to do about it.

[jimnyc]

It seems to me that the FBI, DOJ, and IRS have all been found to be extremely biased and guilty of using their powers to harm some and protect others.

I guess the question then becomes, should the tables be turned for x number of years to 'even the score?'

Conyers resigned effective today. If Franken does the same, does that make Moore Senate material still? None have had trials, but without a doubt if not for Moore, pretty sure Conyers would still be there, no? The whole 'bad boys are unacceptable' seems aimed more at Trump than Moore, but it's perplexing on what they hope to do about it.

Unfortunately, it looks like a lot is being decided by what folks find believable and what they don't, without any type of trials or any type of due process, even within the government somehow. Franken is holding tight, but was harmed deeply with that picture. And then further so with his hugging comments. Without the picture and had he shut up, he could have remained out of sight to an extent. Hell, even I defended him in the beginning with just the picture.

Conyers is another that did himself in with the payouts, kind of hard to deny after that. And then a 'recent' staffer making one of the accusations makes it a little more believable.

Moore is another tough one. But his accusations don't seem to contain any factual proof at all, and are outdated. I can't say he's innocent, but the timing and lack of facts surely do make the whole thing suspect. And his lawyer outright refusing for a month now to have what they do call a "fact" shared and investigated makes it that much more suspect.

Back to the intel agencies. You know how I feel about that and how long I have had my suspicions. I think the IRS isn't much new, but of course confirms. But the FBI and DOJ issues seem to grow more and more. Of course the major things we think of are Hillary and Trump, and then of course targeting by the IRS. But my God, what else could they have been doing and/or controlling over the years? I had never had reason before to suspect or think about it. But with things coming out about them this year (all intel), and how things went with the Dems, and of course the Republicans were VERY far from being much different. I lost a lot of faith this year in a lot of things that I was unaware about.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

It seems to me that the FBI, DOJ, and IRS have all been found to be extremely biased and guilty of using their powers to harm some and protect others.

I guess the question then becomes, should the tables be turned for x number of years to 'even the score?'

No... I'd say more like time to DRAIN THE SWAMP, and DRAIN THE DEEP STATE.

"Justice" isn't about evening any score, it's about upholding the law and prosecuting those who break it.

[Kathianne]

Unfortunately, it looks like a lot is being decided by what folks find believable and what they don't, without any type of trials or any type of due process, even within the government somehow. Franken is holding tight, but was harmed deeply with that picture. And then further so with his hugging comments. Without the picture and had he shut up, he could have remained out of sight to an extent. Hell, even I defended him in the beginning with just the picture.

Conyers is another that did himself in with the payouts, kind of hard to deny after that. And then a 'recent' staffer making one of the accusations makes it a little more believable.

Moore is another tough one. But his accusations don't seem to contain any factual proof at all, and are outdated. I can't say he's innocent, but the timing and lack of facts surely do make the whole thing suspect. And his lawyer outright refusing for a month now to have what they do call a "fact" shared and investigated makes it that much more suspect.

Back to the intel agencies. You know how I feel about that and how long I have had my suspicions. I think the IRS isn't much new, but of course confirms. But the FBI and DOJ issues seem to grow more and more. Of course the major things we think of are Hillary and Trump, and then of course targeting by the IRS. But my God, what else could they have been doing and/or controlling over the years? I had never had reason before to suspect or think about it. But with things coming out about them this year (all intel), and how things went with the Dems, and of course the Republicans were VERY far from being much different. I lost a lot of faith this year in a lot of things that I was unaware about.

I lost 'faith' in the IRS many years ago. The FBI and DOJ for at least the past 8 years. I still wonder though, should there be some sort of 'leveling' of the field though? Say, a sort of 'hands off Conservative's possible wrongdoing' as there has been for all the Democrats for many years? No one is going to believe any of these agencies have the possibility of reform.

[Kathianne]

No... I'd say more like time to DRAIN THE SWAMP, and DRAIN THE DEEP STATE.

"Justice" isn't about evening any score, it's about upholding the law and prosecuting those who break it.

Won't and can't be done, so how about Conservative amnesty of wrongdoing. Mueller gone and any possibility of investigation. They've had their time, it's the other guys now.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

A special counsel needs to investigate the FBI and Justice Department. Now.

Rest - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.f93b0ceb77ff

You know that when the WASHPO starts running stories like this, the DEMOCRAT PROPAGANDA WING OUTLET the WASHPO? The shit is getting bad.

I think they see the writing on the wall. They see that this ENTIRE CHARADE, this FARCE of a COLLUSION investigation STARTED because of a FAKE DOSSIER, which in itself is ILLEGAL to do with a S.C., this whole leftist TAKE DOWN PRESIDENT TRUMP party is IMPLODING as we speak, and it won't be president Trump going anywhere, quite to the contrary, the light is now shining on the GLARING CORRUPTION in the FBI and the DOJ, and it ain't lookin' good. If Mueller was a smart man, he'd say "we're done here" and shut this thing down, but the longer he drags this thing out with the CLEAR LEFTIST TAKE DOWN PRESIDENT TRUMP MOTIVE on FULL DISPLAY for all to see, the harder he's going to fall. This is turning the hunter into the hunted, and ALL these PARTISAN DEEP STATE LEFTIST ASS WIPES better be thinking about the END GAME here, and COVERING THEIR ASS before it's too late.

That's my take.

[jimnyc]

I lost 'faith' in the IRS many years ago. The FBI and DOJ for at least the past 8 years. I still wonder though, should there be some sort of 'leveling' of the field though? Say, a sort of 'hands off Conservative's possible wrongdoing' as there has been for all the Democrats for many years? No one is going to believe any of these agencies have the possibility of reform.

Well thanks for warning me than woman!!! LOL I had complete faith in at least our intel agencies and their skills going into the election last year. And what's the odds that the guy I like winning AND I lose faith?

It's going to be very difficult for these agencies to gain respect and trust back, and rightfully so. But it's just a matter of doing what I thought they were doing up until this point - do their jobs and be the best. But it's going to take years, at least for me.

I know there needs to be reform. And I also agree with Pete, that you can't very well drop each and every person with each election, so it's definitely needs to be something else. Starting with the bosses, IMO, which I think is where things started getting lost currently - both with the FBI & DOJ - and easily from both sides, certainly not a partisan issue that I can see.

I honestly don't understand, with these agencies, how it ever worked up to the point that the Democrats got more protection from these agencies, or what some of us see as unfair or whatever wrongdoings.

[jimnyc]

You know that when the WASHPO starts running stories like this, the DEMOCRAT PROPAGANDA WING OUTLET the WASHPO? The shit is getting bad.

I think they see the writing on the wall. They see that this ENTIRE CHARADE, this FARCE of a COLLUSION investigation STARTED because of a FAKE DOSSIER, which in itself is ILLEGAL to do with a S.C., this whole leftist TAKE DOWN PRESIDENT TRUMP party is IMPLODING as we speak, and it won't be president Trump going anywhere, quite to the contrary, the light is now shining on the GLARING CORRUPTION in the FBI and the DOJ, and it ain't lookin' good. If Mueller was a smart man, he'd say "we done here" and shut this thing down, but the longer he drags this thing out with CLEAR LEFTIST TAKE DOWN PRESIDENT TRUMP MOTIVE on FULL DISPLAY for all to see, the harder he's going to fall. This is turning the hunter being the hunted, and ALL these PARTISAN DEEP STATE LEFTIST ASS WIPES better be thinking about the END GAME here, and COVERING THEIR ASS before it's too late.

That's my take.

I thought the same thing, this article was linked to from elsewhere. Not used to seeing this kind of stuff coming from them. Keep in mind though, this was some sort of op-ed, so don't think it came from their typical writers.

[Kathianne]

Well thanks for warning me than woman!!! LOL I had complete faith in at least our intel agencies and their skills going into the election last year. And what's the odds that the guy I like winning AND I lose faith?

It's going to be very difficult for these agencies to gain respect and trust back, and rightfully so. But it's just a matter of doing what I thought they were doing up until this point - do their jobs and be the best. But it's going to take years, at least for me.

I know there needs to be reform. And I also agree with Pete, that you can't very well drop each and every person with each election, so it's definitely needs to be something else. Starting with the bosses, IMO, which I think is where things started getting lost currently - both with the FBI & DOJ - and easily from both sides, certainly not a partisan issue that I can see.

I honestly don't understand, with these agencies, how it ever worked up to the point that the Democrats got more protection from these agencies, or what some of us see as unfair or whatever wrongdoings.

Holder comes to mind. The IRS has been corrupt for decades, they just got fully exposed with the 'tea party' stuff. There is no reform possible, I truly believe that. There's no 'draining the swamp' nor any serious attempts to do so, from either party. Banks, financial services, and corporations were well represented in the last administration and still are so.

Seems like there needs to be some leveling, then we go for what system of government and economics we're going to go with. This system stopped working.

[Kathianne]

Guys it's Hugh Hewitt, an opinion piece.

[High_Plains_Drifter]

Won't and can't be done,

IDK... it might be doable if conservatives are in charge long enough, like two republican presidents, two terms back to back might do it.

... so how about Conservative amnesty of wrongdoing. Mueller gone and any possibility of investigation. They've had their time, it's the other guys now.

That'll never happen either, Kath.

[jimnyc]

Holder comes to mind. The IRS has been corrupt for decades, they just got fully exposed with the 'tea party' stuff. There is no reform possible, I truly believe that. There's no 'draining the swamp' nor any serious attempts to do so, from either party. Banks, financial services, and corporations were well represented in the last administration and still are so.

Seems like there needs to be some leveling, then we go for what system of government and economics we're going to go with. This system stopped working.

Holder, Lynch, Yates - all sucked, IMO. Janet Reno? Oh jeez. And now we have Sessions. While nothing 'wrong' that I can see to date - he's dang AWOL!!

[jimnyc]

Guys it's Hugh Hewitt, an opinion piece.

That's what I was saying, it's ain't your normal WaPo.