Swept up in the coronavirus AKA CoV-2 or Covid-19 infectious disease crisis, the press hasn’t paid attention to more bombshells exposed by 57-year-old Department of Justice [DOJ] Inspector General [IG] Michael Horowitz. Investigating FBI behavior over its counterintelligence investigation of 73-year-old President Donald Trump, Horowitz found numerous errors by the FBI in seeking warrants to wiretap Trump’s campaign by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] Court, where the FBI presented fraudulent “probable cause” to dupe the court into issuing warrants. Former FBI Director 59-year-old James Comey affixed his signature on at least one application using former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA “The Steele Dossier,” claiming Trump was an agent of the Russian government, something so preposterous it’s laughable.
There was nothing laughable about Comey admitting he conducted a counterintelligence investigation against Trump and his campaign based on pure garbage from the Steele Dossier. Comey claimed he has other probable cause but never produced any proof of anything other than Hillary opposition research. When Trump fired Comey June 9, 2027, the anti-Trump media establishment and Democrat Party went wild, claiming Trump was obstructing justice. But with Horowitz finding numerous errors in the FISA application process, it’s looking like the FBI used the power of its department to undermine the GOP Presidential candidate. Comey has never admitted to anything, other than blaming Trump for unfairly firing him. Anti-Trump news outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, ABC, NBC, etc., supported the FBI case against Trump never questioning anything.
Questioning the DOJ or FBI was considered “obstruction of justice,” just like the press blamed Trump at the time for firing Comey. Trump called Comey a “dirty cop,” someone breaching his authority to get into the political fray, trying to use the FBI investigative clout to undermine Trump’s campaign. Horowitz found 25 FISA applications with “apparent errors or inadequately supported facts,” referring to the FBI’s exclusive use of the fake “Steele dossier” to justify seeking warrants for electronic surveillance from the FISA Court. FISA Court’s former Chief Judge Rosemary Collyer slammed the FBI for duping her court in the FISA Court application for former Trump foreign policy aid Carter Page. Yet the anti-Trump press continued to defend the FBI no matter how egregious the abuses on its FISA court policies-and-procedures AKA the Woods Procedures, specific rules governing the FISA process.
Horowitz’s job as IG isn’t to impute motives but to uncover irregularities without passing judgment. Yet if you look at the big picture, the FBI breached Woods Procedures for the purpose of seeking warrants from the FISA court to wiretap Trump’s campaign officials. Nothing ever happened to Carter Page because he never did anything wrong. Yet if you read all the stories from the liberal press or listened to all the commentary from the anti-Trump news networks, Trump was guilty of collusion with Russian. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was the House lead prosecutor in Trump’s impeachment trial, insisted he had proof of Trump’s Russian collusion, even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered his Final Report March 23, 2019, saying he found no Trump campaign involvement with Moscow. Schiff never provided proof of anything.
. Spending three years of his presidency defending unfounded allegations of Russian involvement, Trump called the Mueller investigation a Russian hoax, something fabricated to remove him from office. Horowitz findings, while narrowly interpreted, offer the best proof yet that the FBI engaged in rogue operation to undermine Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Horowitz found that former Deputy Atty. Gen. Sally Yates and former Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein both signed off on separate FBI FISA applications. Rosenstein appointed Mueller Special Counsel June 17, 2917, only eight days after Trump fired Comey. Yet Rosenstein was part of the problem, like former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI Atty. Lisa Page. Horowitz confirmed that FBI agents made “material misstatements” in Carter Page’s case.
While Horowitz reports to the Senate Homeland Security and Oversight Committee, U.S. Atty. John Durham at the request of Atty. Gen. William Barr, meets with a grand jury to decide whether or not former FBI Directors or agents get charged with felonies. “We do not have confidence that the FBI has executed its Woods Procedures in compliance with FBI policy, or that the process is working as it was intended to help achieve ‘scrupulously accurate’ standard for FISA applications,” Horowitz told the Committee. FBI Associate deputy director Paul Abbate said the FBI “full accepts” Horowitz’s recommendations. FBI Director Christopher Wray said he accepted all 40 of Horowitz’s suggestions, not knowing whether Durham will indict his former boss and associates. “Below the standard that I expect of our employees,” Wray admitted about his department.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OonlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
