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Report: FBI showed ‘willingness to take official action’ to hurt Trump'

This is disappointing. I used to hold the FBI in high regard, but I guess no agency is really immune to corruption. Comey has turned into a bit of a joke, and it's worrying how much his own personal narcissism/political feelings for example appears to have affected his decision-making.. this was the issue with Hillary as well, as the rules didn't really apply to her in her eyes and she tried to bend them however she could.

Trump is also prone to corruption, as he obviously is financially motivated, not having put ample distance between him and his family's money for example despite having won the presidency. However, he at least doesn't have the FBI at his back. All this does is help to spin narratives in his favor that it's the establishment that is trying to paint him in a particular light.. I think that is at least partially true, as he has pulled some authoritative moves and hasn't distanced himself from his business enough, Mar-a-Lago for example. I don't think he'd hesitate for a moment either to go much further with executive orders if we didn't have a system in place to keep those powers in check...

Anyway, here's the article about the report...

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.1f4c39d4c29a

Quote:

Report: FBI showed ‘willingness to take official action’ to hurt Trump'

https://i.imgur.com/pnyQvWa.jpg

The Justice Department inspector general on Thursday castigated former FBI director James B. Comey for his actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation and found that other senior bureau officials showed a “willingness to take official action” to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.

The 500-page report, documenting major missteps in one of the most politically charged cases in the FBI’s history, provides the most exhaustive account to date of bureau and Justice Department decision-making throughout the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, particularly in the months just before she would lose the presidential election to Trump.

[Read the full report: Justice Dept. watchdog rebukes Comey, cites major missteps by FBI]

The inspector general did not find evidence supporting assertions made by the president and his allies that political bias inside the FBI had rigged the case to clear Clinton, but the report cited numerous instances of unprofessionalism, bias and misjudgment that hurt the bureau’s credibility. In particular, the report singled out lead agent Peter Strzok as showing anti-Trump bias that could have affected his thinking on the case during the immediate run-up to the 2016 election.

The report is a blistering rebuke of Comey, who has spent recent months on a book tour promoting his brand of ethical leadership. Inspector General Michael Horowitz accused Comey of insubordination, saying he flouted Justice Department practices when he decided that only he had the authority and credibility to make key decisions and speak for the Justice Department.

Comey made a “serious error of judgment” in sending a letter to Congress on Oct. 28, 2016, announcing he was reopening the investigation of Clinton’s use of the server while secretary of state, the report found, and called it “extraordinary that Comey assessed that it was best” for him not to speak directly with either the attorney general or the deputy attorney general about his decision beforehand.

Some senior bureau officials, the report found, exhibited a disturbing “willingness to take official action” to hurt Trump’s chances to become president.

Perhaps the most damaging revelation in the report is a previously unreported text message in which Strzok, a key investigator on both the Clinton email case and the investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign, assured an FBI lawyer in August 2016 that “we’ll stop” Trump from making it to the White House.

“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” the lawyer, Lisa Page, wrote to Strzok.

“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded. Page and Strzok were romantically involved and used their work phones to engage in long-running text discussions of various work and personal topics, according to people familiar with the case.

In a message posted to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, Comey wrote: “I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review. The conclusions are reasonable, even though I disagree with some. People of good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently. I pray no Director faces it again. Thanks to IG’s people for hard work.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the report “reaffirmed the president’s suspicions about Comey’s conduct and the political bias among some of the members of the FBI.”

In a statement, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the “significant errors” cited in the report had taken place during the Obama administration.

“Accordingly, this report must be seen as an opportunity for the FBI — long considered the world’s premier investigative agency — and all of us at the Department to learn from past mistakes,” Sessions said.

Sessions said that a new leadership team brought in by Comey’s replacement, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, was “one in which the American people can have confidence.”

The attorney general suggested that others could be ousted in the wake of the report. Several officials said Strzok, in particular, could be fired or forced to resign in coming days.

Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, called the report “critically flawed” for suggesting his client’s political views might have influenced the FBI’s weeks-long delay in reopening the Clinton case in October 2016.

“Special Agent Strzok in particular was consistently thorough and aggressive, sometimes to the point that put him at odds with senior officials at the Department of Justice,” Goelman said.

The inspector general found that other FBI personnel also exchanged unprofessional and politically biased messages, singling out two unidentified agents and one lawyer for review and possible punishment by FBI administrators.

At a news conference, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said he was “disappointed” by the conduct described in the report, and said some employees would be subject to a disciplinary review. He pledged the bureau would learn from the findings, by training all of their executives and employees “so those mistakes will never be repeated.”

The FBI will also review how it handles recusals, and conduct an internal review “so that every sensitive investigation is conducted to the FBI’s highest standards.”

The report aimed to define once and for all what the FBI and Justice Department did correctly and what was wrong in the Clinton probe, but partisans are likely to seize on different findings to buttress their long-held views about that investigation.

For Trump, the report provides chapter upon chapter of fresh ammunition for his attacks on the FBI, which he has accused of political bias in investigating whether any of his campaign associates may have conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

To Clinton and her supporters, who have long argued that Comey’s decisions robbed her of an election victory, the report is likely to be received as bitter vindication of her claims that the FBI director veered far beyond official policy in speaking publicly about her case, and reopening it in the final days before the election.

[As Justice Dept. inspector general moves from Clinton email to Russia and Trump, he risks becoming a political weapon]

Partisans on both sides sought to cast the report to their advantage even before it was formally released.

“The stark conclusion we draw after reviewing this report is that the FBI’s actions helped Donald Trump become President,” Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) said in a joint statement. “As we warned before the election, Director Comey had a double-standard: he spoke publicly about the Clinton investigation while keeping secret from the American people the investigation of Donald Trump and Russia.”

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a key Trump ally on Capitol Hill, said, “It appears at least five individuals that were involved in the Hillary Clinton investigation went on to investigate aspects of Russia, and when you have bias associated with that, it’s deeply troubling.”

Trump offered no immediate reaction after being briefed on the report before its formal release, but he fired off a pair of tweets renewing his attack on the Russia investigation, which he called a “pile of garbage.”

In a speech on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) sought to preempt any claims by Trump that the report would show that bias against him by FBI officials has affected the Russia probe.

“There is no reason — no reason — to believe that it will provide any basis to call the special counsel’s work into question,” Schumer said. “The IG report concerns an entirely separate investigation from the Russia probe that special counsel Mueller is conducting.”

The inspector general concluded that Strzok’s text, along with others disparaging Trump, “is not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.”

The messages “potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations,” the inspector general wrote.

Strzok told investigators he believed the message “was intended to reassure Page that Trump would not be elected, not to suggest that he would do something to impact the investigation,” according to the report. Both he and Page generally defended their messages as instances of sharing personal opinions that did not affect their work.

“I’m an American. We have the First Amendment. I’m entitled to an opinion,” Page told investigators.

Even that defense, however, undercuts Comey, who had long proclaimed that his investigators “don’t give a rip about politics.”

Horowitz has been working for nearly a year and a half to assess the bureau’s handling of the Clinton email investigation and the bureau’s actions in the months leading up to the election, and all of Washington has eagerly been awaiting his findings. The president, who was briefed on the report before it was released publicly, has vigorously criticized Comey and the FBI.

Trump is all but certain to use the findings to renew those assaults, and potentially take aim at special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Strzok served as Mueller’s lead agent on the Russia probe until last July, when he was removed after the discovery of the text messages.

[Trump to receive briefing on inspector general’s Clinton email report before it goes public]

Horowitz also concluded that there was no evidence that political bias infected Comey’s thinking, even as he criticized individual steps Comey took. The report, for example, called Comey’s July 2016 public recommendation that Clinton not be charged an “extraordinary and insubordinate” move, because Comey did not even tell then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch what he was about to do. But it added, “We found no evidence that Comey’s statement was the result of bias or an effort to influence the election.”

Comey was not the only official to face criticism. The report chided Lynch for indecision after meeting with former president Bill Clinton on the tarmac of the Phoenix airport in the late stages of the campaign. She neither recused herself from the case to avoid the appearance of impropriety nor asserted herself more vigorously as Comey seized command.

Page and Strzok are not the only FBI officials assigned to the Clinton email probe who were found to have exchanged personal messages indicating either an animus against Trump or frustration with the fact that the FBI was investigating Clinton. The report identified five officials with some connection to the email probe who were expressing political views, faulting them for having brought “discredit to themselves, sowed doubt about the FBI’s handling of the midyear investigation, and impacted the reputation of the FBI.” The midyear investigation refers to the Clinton email probe.

“The messages cast a cloud over the FBI investigations to which these employees were assigned,” Horowitz alleged. “Ultimately the consequences of these actions impact not only the senders of these messages but also other who worked on these investigation and, indeed, the entire FBI.”

The inspector general wrote that he had referred the information regarding the five individuals who exchanged politically charged messages “to the FBI for its handling and consideration of whether the messages . . . violates the FBI’s Offense Code of Conduct.”

The report took particular aim at FBI officials investigating Clinton’s email server for moving slowly after agents in the New York field office discovered messages on the laptop of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner that might be relevant to their case.

By no later than Sept. 29, 2016, the inspector general alleged, the bureau had learned “virtually every fact” it would cite as justification late the next month to search Weiner’s laptop for messages of Clinton and top aide Huma Abedin.

The inspector general derided the bureau’s reasons for not moving more quickly — that agents were waiting for additional information from New York, that they could not move without a warrant and that investigators were more focused on the Russia case — as “unpersuasive,” “illogical” and inconsistent with their assertion that they would leave no stone unturned in investigating Clinton.

The report also faulted the bureau for assigning essentially the same personnel to the Russia and Clinton teams, and singled out Strzok, suggesting his anti-Trump views might have played a role in his not acting more expeditiously on the new lead.

“Under these circumstances, we did not have confidence that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on the midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias,” the report said.

The report determined that several FBI investigators — including Comey — also broke bureau protocol by using “personal email accounts for official government business.”

The inspector found five instances in which Comey either drafted official messages on or forwarded emails to his personal account, and at least two instances in which Strzok used his personal email for official business — including one “most troubling” instance on Oct. 29, 2016, when he forwarded “an email about the proposed search warrant the midyear team was seeking on the Weiner laptop” from his FBI account to his personal email.

The discovery is ironic, given that the FBI was exploring Clinton’s own use of a personal email server for work-related business and whether classified information traversed her server.

Another great post, but I have read this three times, Maru, and still have trouble deciphering what it is exactly that the author of the article is REALLY saying. If it is that the FBI had it in for Trump, then it is confirmation of what a lot of us already knew.

I honestly don't believe that even if FBI had anything on Trump that it would do damage, the Russia thing was highly speculated at that point but MAGAers secretly loved Putin anyway. I don't think the "But her emails" did any damage either. It was just an excuse for MAGAers to not seem racist.

The only thing that probably did do any damage was Wikileaks putting out the DNC emails showing that they were willing to throw Bernie Sanders under the bus to make sure the Donors choice in Hillary would win.

Yes The Report is good
showing the real deal
that went on.

FoxNewsHD is very busy.

And yet, every action the FBI took during the election season actually helped Trump.

The FBI didn't have it in for trump at all. Maybe a couple of the agents might have, but they didn't do anything about it other than pillow talk text each other. Meanwhile they were leaking information to the trump campaign, and protecting his own investigation being made public.

Comey dragging HC over the coals for email servers was using his own too. Trump to this day doesn't use the phone he's supposed to and instead uses one without government encryption. They attacked the clinton foundation for bogus reasons, and yet it's trump that's been using his foundation for illegal means.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper (Post 10040874)

Yup, this article is nothing but spun trash to protect Trump tbh.

Trump has the FBI to thank for getting him into the White House, he's only speaking out about them now because his own corruption is being brought to light

Trump is Live on all media
Worldwide.

He gave FoxNewsHD a exclusive on their own
now he has 25 or more Reporters screaming.
Trump Shouting Wait - One Question at a time.

He is blaming the Top of the FBI
and saying the rest of the FBI are doing a great job.

He has Hi Jacked my CNN Money HD hour

He has just said
he will talk to his people now in North Korea.

He can talk for hours
Off The Cuff,
no one can match Trump.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dezzy (Post 10040946)

Yup, this article is nothing but spun trash to protect Trump tbh.

Trump has the FBI to thank for getting him into the White House, he's only speaking out about them now because his own corruption is being brought to light

Live on all Media
he respects the FBI
but not the top in charge at the FBI.

He is blaming the former
President Obama for Crimea Mess.
The red line of Nothing etc

He had his hour or so
now gone back inside the White House

Quote:

Originally Posted by arista (Post 10041110)

Trump is Live on all media
Worldwide.

He gave FoxNewsHD a exclusive on their own
now he has 25 or more Reporters screaming.
Shouting Wait - One Question at a time.

He is blaming the Top of the FBI
and saying the rest of the FBI are doing a great job.

He has Hi Jacked my CNN Money HD hour

He has just said
he will talk to his people now in North Korea.

He can talk for hours
Off The Cuff,
no one can match Trump.

Anyone can talk off the cuff for hours, if you can just ramble and make **** up. There's a reason why most people don't do that, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper (Post 10041126)

Anyone can talk off the cuff for hours, if you can just ramble and make **** up. There's a reason why most people don't do that, though.

Of Course
but every news station is using bits
from what he just said.
Ramble as well.

Reporters kept shouting North Korea
Trump said you people said I was going to War
"look at us now"

Quote:

Originally Posted by arista (Post 10041130)

Of Course
but every news station is using bits
from what he just said.
Ramble as well.

Reporters kept shouting North Korea
Trump said you people said I was going to War
"look at us now"

He hasn't done anything with DPRK though. He's given concessions but got nothing concrete in return. NK have been playing this game for decades.

They seem to have a bit of a disastrous impact on both campaigns. The problem is: Trump's was so anti-establishment that whatever government or independent bodies were issuing criticism of him, was further fueling his "they don't want us to win!" rhetoric.

The whole organisation investing Hillary for the emails thing 2/3 weeks before the election day was far more damaging and intrusive than a couple of guys saying "let's stop him" via text, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper (Post 10041136)

He hasn't done anything with DPRK though. He's given concessions but got nothing concrete in return. NK have been playing this game for decades.

Sure they have
but no Air missiles fired for 7 months now.

Trump has set in place a Deal
and his Secretary Of State
is following it up.

That's a Fact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arista (Post 10041119)

Live on all Media
he respects the FBI
but not the top in charge at the FBI.

He is blaming the former
President Obama for Crimea Mess.
The red line of Nothing etc

his press conference was complete bat poo though. It didn't contain an ounce of truth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitontheslide (Post 10041215)

his press conference was complete bat poo though. It didn't contain an ounce of truth.

It did
as the 1st post of this thread tells you.

He is the Business Man President
bat poo or not

https://i.imgur.com/pnyQvWa.jpg
Back in the Day : "stink"

Investigators openly suggesting that they are acting to stop any candidate is terrible, whoever it helps. If it was some random employee, then I think very easy to discount.. but this is someone theoretically who gets to decide whether a case is opened or closed... hopefully they at least canned him.

Quote:

The report also faulted the bureau for assigning essentially the same personnel to the Russia and Clinton teams, and singled out Strzok, suggesting his anti-Trump views might have played a role in his not acting more expeditiously on the new lead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maru (Post 10041260)

For some more context on Strouk, he was pretty much anti all of the candidates. He ridiculed both Bernie and Hilary at different times. The investigation had already been opened on Trump, so no, Strouck had zero say in anything trump related and had no ability to unilaterally do anything to adversely affect Trump.

He was writing private text messages, not the FBI manifesto. I'm sure we've all written things such as "I'll kill him" or "I hate her", and this is the exact same thing.

I'm hearing reports that Manafort has been jailed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alf (Post 10041444)

I'm hearing reports that Manafort has been jailed.

He has, he was interfering with witnesses while he was on bail.

Considering it's just a big witch hunt, there sure are a lot of indictments, admissions of guilt, and defendants working with prosecutors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Slim Reaper (Post 10041289)

Re-read my post. I don't think his behavior is correct for any investigation, regardless of what case(s) he managed.

If someone responsible for an investigation that goes into the investigator against one of my own family members maybe.. and they are caught saying in private, they want to fry 'em, etc.. I'd want them canned, as that's not the right temperament for an investigator.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alf (Post 10041444)

I'm hearing reports that Manafort has been jailed.

Yeah I saw that on CNN's site earlier. I read his charging document and he has some fairly serious against him, so I guess he is a bit desperate

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maru (Post 10042183)

Ah come on Maru...I know you are better than this....the dog's on the street know that those txt where between two adults who were both cheating on their spoues...hecne why they used their work phones....what thy msm eachother was something that many globally would have said about Clinton or Trump.......

Forgive me for my Englush Maru but I find it very interesting that when Trump and his clan are called out for the corrupt bully /conmen/woman that they are you say like a sheak little lamb....I seen it on CNN...I maybe wrong but I do get a feeling you are going to find everyhing he and his clan iss found guilty of is fake news..

The indoctratoin is bizzare to watch

Quote:

Originally Posted by lime (Post 10042297)

I really don't think people are reading my posts. :laugh: I kind of posted the OP as an experiment, admittedly. I had that super gut feeling that as soon as I posted a favorable to Trump WP-sourced article, I would get this kind of reaction. I'm like, this is going to probably be annoying for me later on to have to reply to... but man, did I win that bet.

Tbf, it's not really anyone's business who someone does or doesn't support as a candidate (imo). All our opinions are qualified, regardless of which position we take politically. I'm not suggesting the FBI is solely pro-(?)Trump. I think they are incompetent and easily corruptable. I would be just as concerned if Trump replaced the top folk there with his folk and we ended up on the other side of the pendulum...

Anyway, I'm not going to go into my political affiliations or who exactly I voted for, honestly, as it's pretty obvious what certain posts will generate as a reaction... so I'll just leave those concerned with the challenge of searching my post history, as I've already covered all that in my prior postings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lime (Post 10042297)

You are certainly interpreting Maru's posts in a completely different way to me.

I do not believe that posters come any fairer or with more objectivity and integrity.

The mere sight of the word; 'Trump' seems to cause some people to lose all objectivity and rationality - in my opinion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kirklancaster (Post 10042349)

Sadly, I withhold posting threads all the time when I suspect it will generate ad hominems (and I'm usually right)... not just Trump posts, but just about any topic I suspect will create some kind of stink. People will skim or read the topic(s) without graspfing fully (edit) or reviewing people's positions, but mention the poster instead, so then it's clear after several responses that they haven't even done the reading. I really don't have the time to sit and invest in replying to each post in that category... so I just don't post those articles.

A lot of people call me "fair", but I think it's more I "curate" my threads and keep my posts fairly concise and know when I need to flesh my thoughts out... and so it's harder for anyone to pigeon hole me into one particular box.

This is also why I really am opposed to people using political affiliations to throw conversations off track... like yes, duh we're all biased :laugh: There's nothing new there... we're all swayed by emotion and particular topics, that's why we have to jury selection...