December 10, 2019

"This is akin to reviewing the Titanic and saying that the captain was not unreasonable in starting the voyage. The question is..."

"... what occurred when icebergs began appearing. Horowitz says that investigative icebergs appeared very early on, and the Justice Department not only failed to report that to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court but also removed evidence that its investigation was on a collision course.... Like the crew of the Titanic, the FBI knew investigative icebergs floated around its Russia investigation, but not only did it not reduce speed, it actively suppressed the countervailing reports. Despite the many conflicts to its FISA application and renewals, the FBI leadership, including McCabe, plowed ahead into the darkness."

From "Horowitz report is damning for the FBI and unsettling for the rest of us" by Jonathan Turley (The Hill)(with lots of good detail to support his analogy).

87 comments:

gilbar said...

can't we just ALL AGREE, that it Violates the US Constitution for a Republican... from Queens,
to Attempt to become President? Wasn't This, THE REAL CRIME?

Mr. Forward said...

Icebergs in Washington would never stand a chance.

tim in vermont said...

The report is what CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post say it is. I don’t know why you would read anything else about it. Next thing you know, you might start reading the report yourself, and that can only lead to incorrect opinions.

tim in vermont said...

Besides, The Hill is that rag that went and did actual reporting out of Ukraine instead of just working off of the DNC blast faxes like everybody else. They will have a long time living that down, let me tell you.

exhelodrvr1 said...

THis twitter thread by Kim Strassel (the excellent WSJ columnist) is also very good:

https://twitter.com/KimStrassel/status/1204127351933521920

As is anything Mollie Hemingway says or writes on this subject

exhelodrvr1 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
exhelodrvr1 said...

There are no more icebergs, thanks to global warming!

tim in vermont said...

2) The report is triumph for former House Intel Chair Devin Nunes, who first blew the whistle on FISA abuse. The report confirms all the elements of the February 2018 Nunes memo, which said dossier was as an "essential" part of applications, and FBI withheld info from FISA court

3)Conversely, report is an excoriation of Adam Schiff and his "memo" of Feb 2018. That doc stated that "FBI and DOJ officials did NOT abuse the [FISA] process" or "omit material information." Also claimed FBI didn't much rely on dossier.


Thread by Kim Stassel, WSJ

BUMBLE BEE said...

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. hardest hit.

tim in vermont said...

The new report from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz confirmed former CIA Director John Brennan lied to Congress about whether the dossier authored by Christopher Steele was used in the Obama administration’s Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA).. The Federalist

Oh my.

Danno said...

The report only confirms the fact that Horowitz is on the deep state team. Nothing more.

David Begley said...

Brennan needs to be indicted for perjury. Treat him like Roger Stone. Surround his house at dawn and with guns drawn.

“”FBI. We have a warrant for your arrest. Come out with your hands up.”

tim in vermont said...

"The report only confirms the fact that Horowitz is on the deep state team. Nothing more.”

I don’t think so. It’s full of good stuff.

Rick said...

More good commentary by Turley.

Surprisingly little effort was made to fully investigate the dossier when McCabe directed investigators to it, yet investigators soon learned that critical facts reported to the FISA court was false.

Or not so surprising.

Comparing Turley with the Dem witnesses from the hearings is revealing. Turley is dealing with facts while the Dem witnesses we parroting the political talking points. Naturally the left media parrots the left wing talking points. The entire system is a left wing propaganda machine.

Leland said...

The problem with the Titanic analogy is they are still trying to float this ship to impeachment. And while any other ship should be sunk by now; that it is still sailing is a testament to their heroic acts. A better analogy is the FBI working with the White House to cover up the use of government intelligence gathering systems to spy on an opposition campaign.

AllenS said...

Only in Washington, DC would you have ice bergs floating around in a swamp.

gilbar said...

take away:
(at least) The FBI and the CIA (if not ALL of Government) are working against democracy

IF the "antifa" were REALLY anti fascists, they'd be protesting/fighting these groups.
Instead, the Progressives now say that the FBI and the CIA are the "Legitimate Government", and that the Elected Government is The Enemy
At the risk of using a Stupid phrase.... Wake UP Sheepeople!

gilbar said...

Curious to hear what Dr K's FBI daughter thinks about this report?

Michael K said...

Curious to hear what Dr K's FBI daughter thinks about this report?

She was visiting over Veterans Day and has a bad case of TDS. I avoid politics with her. Too bad. I think the agents at her level are fine but the DC people are 100% political.

brylun said...

Let's not forget the FISA judge was a Democrat. Democrat judges don't believe in the Rule of Law. They believe in BAMN.

Tank said...

This Turley guy is not going to be going to the parties with the popular kids.

Kevin said...

And why did they continue to plow into the darkness?

Answer unclear, ask again.

rehajm said...

WSJ reporting they are going for process crimes. Gave up on any actual crimes...

Chuck said...

Michael K said...
Curious to hear what Dr K's FBI daughter thinks about this report?

She was visiting over Veterans Day and has a bad case of TDS. I avoid politics with her. Too bad. I think the agents at her level are fine but the DC people are 100% political.


When you get around to reading the entire report, I expect that you are going to find that the report includes quoted at least some text messages between agents in D.C. who were devoutly pro-Trump, and who were privately trash-talking other people in the Bureau, suggesting in the hours after Trump's 2016 electoral victgory that, "Shit just got real..."

tim in vermont said...

Meanwhile Romney is going to do everything he can to keep Burisma out of any impeachment trial.

Romney’s top aide in the 2012 presidential campaign, J. Cofer Black, has served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings since 2017.

tim in vermont said...

The supervising agent explained to Horowitz that he expected Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to win, “but as the returns [came] in … it was just energizing to me to see ... [because] I didn't want a criminal to be in the White House."

Yes, Chuck is angry at FBI agents who were pissed off that Hillary was given a pass on her obvious crimes.

3MartiniLunch said...

So right now, Jerry Nadler is reading out two articles of impeachment - Abuse of Power & Obstruction of Congress. No Bribery, no quid pro quo, nothing.

Schiff is on now, literally saying that they need to move quickly because Trump keeps using the courts to protect his rights - and that just takes too long - "We'll never get rid of him at this rate!"

This whole farce has boiled down to "Trump beat Hillary and fought us when we tried to remove him. He must be impeached!!! And quickly, before the primaries!"

Wince said...

"We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions to open the four individual investigations," the report states.

It's clear elements of the Deep State DOJ/FBU sought insertion of this disclaimer before the report was released as their media hook.

But is it really surprising that "no documentary or testimonial evidence" was discovered dating back prior to the investigations given Horowitz's limited DOJ purview and discovery tools?

Wouldn't one suspect that the political bias and improper motivation prior to the opening of the investigation would have been sussed-out outside the DOJ? In the DNC/Clinton camp? In the CIA with Brennan? In the White House with Obama?

Only after those marching orders were received by the underlings who knew which way the wind was blowing that "political bias and improper motivation" was documented for Horowtiz to see.

tim in vermont said...

I am sure that “Trump demanded his day in court” is really going to fly in flyover country as an article of impeachment.

Maybe Chuck will sign on to that, but I kind of doubt even he will.

MayBee said...

Does anybody look at all of this and think: Perhaps Donald Trump had good reason not to trust the people telling him he had to trust the IC telling him all the "meddling" came from Russia?

tim in vermont said...

Impeachment seems to be about prior restraint. They want to prevent Trump from committing the crime of getting re-elected.

MayBee said...

How dare he ask for an investigation into Joe Biden going around bragging he got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired by threatening financial aid and while his son was making millions in that country? He should have let his FBI accidentally stumble onto that investigation themselves!

We can't investigate our political opponents! Well-- not if it looks like we are doing it for political reasons! You first have to make up another reason!!!

Howard said...

So you're man's in the clear. Impeachment is sure to be a democrat debacle

Drago said...

Skylark: "Maybe Chuck will sign on to that, but I kind of doubt even he will."

LLR-lefty Chuck is always to the left of the democrats in general so I have no doubt that he will.

tim in vermont said...

Look at the polls, Howard. Michigan, PA, Wisconsin. I think the Democrats certainly are.

Anonymous said...

suggesting in the hours after Trump's 2016 electoral victgory that, "Shit just got real..."

Did you put on blackface before you wrote that, Cuck?

JAORE said...

when Trump is accused, mind reading is sufficient.

When a Democrat is accused you need a smoking gun, being held over a dead body by a person with gun shot residue on his hand and matching bullets.

Other than that the spin on the IG report is spot on.

Birkel said...

A racist fopdoodle typed words, above.
I have no idea how those words are relevant.
Or meaningful.

Racist fopdoodles are a curious, and angry, lot.

chickelit said...

I hope Hillary goes down with the Schiff. She is J. Bruce Ismay in Turley's analogy. But don't worry -- she's got layers and layers of facts to keep her warm and afloat for a while yet.

Drago said...

Howard: "So you're man's in the clear. Impeachment is sure to be a democrat debacle"

Are you quite sure you really want this to remain posted on the very morning that the entire charade of quidproquo/bribery/extortion just went........POOF!!

As if it had never been alleged at all.....

The Soviets could only DREAM of such effective scrubbing of history overnight.

narayanan said...

Howard said...So you're man's in the clear. Impeachment is sure to be a democrat debacle

Skylark said...Look at the polls, Howard. Michigan, PA, Wisconsin. I think the Democrats certainly are.
_______&&&&&&&--------

Let us start pool - Over/Under on flipping CA

Drago said...

Continuing

Howard: "So you're man's in the clear. Impeachment is sure to be a democrat debacle"

We are already deep deep deep into debacle status for the dems.

Deep.

Nancy is telling the dems to get this dead raccoon of a sham impeachment out of the House as fast as possible because its smelling up the joint and to get onto SOME bills enacted with Trump before its too late.

I suspect USMCA and Opiod addiction bills will pass along with prescription drug price reforms of some sort.

What Nancy's actions and the public polls (such as they are) along with democrat tenor/focus tells us is that at the very least there is concern amongst LLR-lefty Chuck's beloved democrat "elites" that at this point the House could be very much in play in 2020, despite the massive vote harvesting/illegals/dead people voting programs the dems have in place in key areas.

That's how we know its a dem debacle.

Up until recently I was not convinced the dems and the LLR-lefty allies would allow anything to move forward so avoid giving Trump any kind of a major policy win.

But there is a massive massive problem for the dems/LLR-lefties: even without those bills the economy is rocketing forward and Trump is already winning, so the only thing the dems/LLR-lefties are doing is hurting the nation as a whole and worse, themselves.

Hence Bye-Bye(!) Bribery!!

LOL

Couldn't happen to a better bunch of economic ignoramuses and LLR-lefty hacks.

Drago said...

narayanan: "Let us start pool - Over/Under on flipping CA"

According to Hank Johnson D-Outer Space, that can be accomplished by simply moving about 10,000 more troops to CA and having them stand on the edge!!

LOL

Of course, I shouldn't joke too harshly about democrats as it always greatly upsets LLR-lefty Chuck who usually lashes out in anger in response.

Birkel said...

My word for Trump: indefatigable.

I will use it in a sentence:
The indefatigability of Trump dragged Nancy Pelosi across the finish line on USMCA.
The decoupling from China nears completion.

The optics of impeachment, soon stomped by USMCA passage, means Democratics think they have to HIDE their own impeachment process.

Birkel said...

I think Speaker Jim Jordan has a nice ring to it.
Shall the Whip be Mark Meadows.

It's not time to start measuring the drapes but I would bet on a 45 seat pick-up for Republicans.

Howard said...

So when Nancy Pelosi went off on the Fox news reporter arguing that she did not hate Trump, that was a prologue to becoming compromise bills that are allegedly on the table

Howard said...

With all this good news I hope to see more positivity from you people. The last year has been quite depressing. Maybe the sky isn't falling

Birkel said...

I very much wish Trump utters the following sentences, on camera, when Trump meets Lavrov today in the White House:

"I am completely inflexible. I will remain inflexible after my re-election. I am going to sell weapons systems to the Ukrainians and the Poles.
And I am going to allow energy exploration to ensure a future of independence and export for US producers.

Birches said...

So Nunes was right and Schiff was wrong and all of this was known as early as 2017. The question now is why did the Mueller investigation even happen?

I think we all know the answer to that.

Birkel said...

Now that the coup has failed, Howard sues for peace.

Art of the Steal.

Drago said...

Birkel: "The decoupling from China nears completion."

This will be spoken about and written about for a hundred years. I still cannot bring myself to believe Trump and his economic/Trade team have pulled this off. Its simply too astonishing.

When it is fully complete (in terms of govt policy in place), the business world will simply adjust to the new reality as so many of them already are. Helpfully, I have a conference call this week with a COO of a large international manufacturing company and we always chat a bit about the political/economic landscape. I kind of use this company as a bellweather for this sort of topic because they are scattered across the globe with major supply chain nodes in China.

Should be interesting.

Many reports (who knows how true they are) that Xi is under tremendous pressure now that its clear Trump will likely withstand the China/EU/DeepState/Dems/LLR-lefties coordinated attack again him, offering 4 more years of pounding China into economic submission.

As the NYT and CNBC have already admitted, Trump has already won the Trade War, with no inflation, increasing US jobs, supply chains in China moving elsewhere, etc etc etc.

Now take a moment and ponder what that kind of economic displacement will do to China's military buildup! They ain't gonna have quite so many shekels to toss about, are they?

This is Trump's strategic brilliance: he has coupled economic with military and political strategy and the results are clear.

Will it be enough for the US over the long term? Not if he doesn't get that wall built!

Birkel said...

Birches,
Schiff was not wrong. Schiff was lying.

The distinction is important.

Birches said...

Even David French sees this IG report as very bad for the FBI and their FISA warrants and conduct.

Will reflexive Never Trumpers start to trust Nunes?

Drago said...

Birkel: "Now that the coup has failed, Howard sues for peace."

Let's not quibble about who killed who. It's supposed to be an economic boom party!! Can't we all just get along now that the dem/LLR-lefty political assassination attempt has failed? Can't we just put all this "unpleasantness" behind us?

Drago said...

Of course, another "sleeping giant" move is awaiting the outcome of the UK election on Thursday.

The EU thinks it can shove Britain into a very bad economic place if the vote goes like it might and a strong Brexit occurs.

However, there are rumblings coming from different quarters (Conservative Treehouse is one of them) that Trump intends to force the EU to deal through London for any EU imports coming to the US!

LOL

If this Thursday's vote hands Boris a majority win, followed by a strong Brexit, and the rumored Trump deal becomes reality, we will literally have to declare Trump the greatest strategic economic genius since Mayer Amschel Rothschild, for in just 4 years Trump will have completely reordered the global economic chessboard in America's favor.

Birkel said...

Drago: a correction, if you please...

All Trump will have done is to remove the barriers that kept free people operating in free markets from dominating - as is inevitable - their planned economy peers.

Anybody who wasn't on the take could have done so.

Drago said...

BTW, it's also clear now that Mueller and his team of LLR-lefty Chuck beloved dem hacks specifically targeted Manafort, Page, Flynn and Pappadopolous BECAUSE those were the 4 individuals improperly targeted for spying by the obama/dems/LLR-lefties deep state.

Mueller investigating them allowed the deep staters the opportunity to try and bury what the dems did on such a broad scale.

In that sense the deep state/dem coup attempt was successful because it kept the truth from coming out, allowed the dems/LLR-lefties to keep leaking and lying to the press to advance their narratives, and helped give the dems the House in 2018.

Let's hope this is when the corner is turned for good.

Plus, Wray has to be fired.

Ken B said...

A superb article by Turley.

Kirk Parker said...

David Begley,


FBI. We have a warrant for your arrest. Come out with your hands up.

Oh come on--don't you think our wonderful FBI boys and girls should get the fun of breaching the door?

Drago said...

Birkel: "All Trump will have done is to remove the barriers that kept free people operating in free markets from dominating - as is inevitable - their planned economy peers."

That's domestically, and no argument. I'm speaking more about Trade/military policies and how Trump has taken on the uniparty DC swamp which makes money by transferring US jobs/assets/cash to those outside our nation with a considerable amount being laundered back into our country to those who sold us out.

Bob Boyd said...

This is akin to reviewing the Titanic and saying that the sailors who stole the ship and sailed out amongst the icebergs were not unreasonable in starting the voyage.

Birkel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

Back on topic: Turley is, as always, brilliantly concise and on point.

I don't suspect we will see much pushback from our lefty moron posters like Inga and LLR-lefty Chuck against the case Turley lays out.

Birkel said...

Drago,
The trade deals the "establishment" had enacted were designed to thwart American creativity and therefore, dominance. Domestically and internationally the rules were created for the same reasons.

Free people are impossible to control.
Free markets are impossible to control.

Drago said...

Birkel I see your point.

It never hurts to revisit first principles.

Birkel said...

Thank you.

Kirk Parker said...

Birkel, Drago, Howard:

Howard is not going to get any happiness from me; all I am good for at the moment is a small sigh of relief.

It looks like the coup is failing (saying failed is really jumping the gun) but until we see lots of perp walks, lots of prison time, and the ringleaders blown from guns it's too soon to rejoice.

Actually, until we see some worthy successor to Trump, and a revitalized/redirected Republican Party or an energetic anti-socialist replacement for it, who will continue to steer us away from driving off the cliff, its too soon for celebration. I for one want more than just a brief respite from Insanity.

Birkel said...

Kirk Parker,
A valid point well-stated.

Drago said...

Kirk, you are correct on all counts.

I am tempering any expectation of real justice being delivered against those who perpetrated this East German Stasi-like coup attempt. I have no doubt that some bodies will be thrown to the wolves as they always are. Clinesmith is likely one.

Meanwhile, Wray has clearly exposed himself as a member of the deep state team so I have zero confidence in him.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Barr/Durham.

As for long term republican party prospects, I think we already see the break up of the glaciated party base voter blocks however, Trump is absolutely a one off here and will not be replicated.

Its a real mystery where the republicans go after Trump gets reelected in 2020. There can be no question that fake Conservative Inc will attempt a comeback but its hard to see that happening now as the republican base knows full well who they are. Romney will be primaried and never reelected and good riddance.

In any event, Trump has flipped the script across the board and there is a whole new world coming into view. Amazing.

But he better build that wall.

Drago said...

I suspect Wray will remain where he is until after Trump is reelected. No way Trump allows him to stay in that role for a second term.

Dude1394 said...

The Obama administration definitely accomplished it's goals of ‘fundamentally change America,’.

It has weaponized the DOJ, FBI, CIA, IRA and the democrat propaganda arms. He will go down as the worst, most destructive POTUS in history.

Dude1394 said...

The FBI and the CIA will NEVER recover confidence by the american people. They should both be blown up and started over.

Martin said...

Couple all that with Brennan using the CIA to plant the stuff that he then dangled in front of the FBI (e.g., having a CIA asset tell Papadopolous (sp?) that the Russians were involved and then tempting him to repeat that to someone) and the plot becomes clear--Brennan used a more-than-willing FBI to subvert the 2016 election.

Maybe teh bigger scandal, though, is how utterly incompetent the FBI was/is... they fell for teh most juvenile stuff imaginable.

W.C. Fields famously said, "You can't cheat an honest man." Well, in the FBI's case, they fell for it because they wanted it to be true. The fact that the same incompetent people ran/run US counterintelligence is scary.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"It looks like the coup is failing (saying failed is really jumping the gun) but until we see lots of perp walks, lots of prison time, and the ringleaders blown from guns it's too soon to rejoice."

Realistically, no way for that to happen. It would take too long, be to easy for them to get off completely in our legal system, and suck away too many resources from other things that need to be done. I would be happy if investigations were conducted, with the results made public, and then have President Trump pardon/decline to prosecute the individuals "in the interests of bringing the nation back together."
That would have the effect of letting everyone know how corrupt the system was while putting a permanent stain on the individuals who were involved, and still have a reasonable chance of being accomplished.

wildswan said...

The IG was more like a X-Ray technician outlining the progress and status of tumor than a doctor proposing a cure (as Bill Barr will be). The IG said that the FBI violated all its procedures many times, including in relation to FISA, in several of the most sensitive investigations which the FBI has ever made; and that these investigations and these violations were known about at the highest levels. The IG found no documents explaining why this happened and no high FBI official explained the lapses and their own toleration of the lapses. Most of these high officials have forgotten all about whatever it was that happened because one's actions in presiding over secret investigations of the sitting President of the USA by means of FISA court abuses and abuse of FBI procedures is the kind of thing that can easily be forgotten by a busy person just as one can forget to buy salted butter and 3 Meyer lemons while grocery shopping because one is thinking about getting one's wife a Pelloton bike.

In fact isn't the whole impeachment thing a Pelloton bike Our Betters are giving us for Happy Holiday (Winter)?

Drago said...

Kevin McCarthy is having his own Lindsay Graham/Kavanaugh moment as we speak.

Original Mike said...

"Oh come on--don't you think our wonderful FBI boys and girls should get the fun of breaching the door?"

Maybe we'll get lucky and Brennan will come out shooting.

tim in vermont said...

"The question now is why did the Mueller investigation even happen? “

Gave them control of the House, didn’t it?

Howard said...

Agreed Kirk. You may win this battle, but will lose the war all in good time.

Nichevo said...


Howard said...
Agreed Kirk. You may win this battle, but will lose the war all in good time.


You seem chipper enough about it. Is that just because you figure to be dead by then, or will you make a hecatomb of your family as well, to spare them the glorious future you seek?

Rusty said...

Blogger Howard said...
"So you're man's in the clear. Impeachment is sure to be a democrat debacle"
He's your president too, Howard. Sure to be? It's been a debacle for three years. Some of us have been paying attention.

Birkel said...

Oddly, socialists winning keep being predicted for America but keep happening in Europe.

Howard should be hit hardest.

Birches said...

No JAORE, a Dem can only be convicted if they confess, no amount of evidence can convince the media of their guilt.

Seeing Red said...

Howard said...So you're man's in the clear. Impeachment is sure to be a democrat debacle

He always was. Why did the flyover rube-deplorables know this from the beginning?

And those that keep telling us they’re the smart ones and we need to listen to them and let them tell us how to live didn’t?

Howard said...

I'm a half full goofball.

Original Mike said...

Wow. The clips Limbaugh just played of an NBC interview of Barr are amazing. This guy knows what the hell happened and how important it is for there to be consequences.

Sebastian said...

"the captain was not unreasonable in starting the voyage."

Huh? The point of this particular voyage was to drown the chief passenger.