Another Horowitz hearing, overshadowed by impeachment theater
Yesterday Horowitz testified again, and said much the same thing as before:
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was blunt in trying to get to the bottom of what happened during Wednesday’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.
“Were they [the FBI] just all incompetent?” he asked. Hawley then noted that due to the complexities involved, “it doesn’t sound like they’re very stupid to me.”
Hawley ultimately asked why the members of the FBI would commit such failures to mislead a court multiple times.
“That was precisely the concern we had,” Horowitz said. The inspector general made clear that he did not reach any conclusions regarding intent, but he did not necessarily accept the reasons people gave him during his investigation.
“There are so many errors, we couldn’t reach a conclusion or make a determination on what motivated those failures other than we did not credit what we lay out here were the explanations we got,” Horowitz said.
This echoed what Horowitz said in his opening statement, where he made clear that “although we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct, we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or the missing information and the failures that occurred.”…
“We could not prove [FBI bias]. We lay out here what we can,” Horowitz [said].
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz clarified Wednesday that his investigation into the FBI’s FISA abuses “did not reach” the conclusion that the bureau was unaffected by political bias during its 2016 Russia investigation.
Following the release of the report, Democrats and former FBI officials were quick to point to Horowitz’s statement that he “did not find documentary or testimonial evidence” of political bias in the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, arguing that the statement proved President Trump’s claims of a politically-motivated “witch hunt” were false.
The Democrats know better, especially the lawyers among them. They know exactly what Horowitz was saying, and they know that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. They just hope you don’t know better, and that you will swallow the swill they dish out.
The inspector general also said during testimony that his team was looking further into whether the FBI’s “basic errors” in the case were potentially systemic.
When the errors all go in one direction, how could they not be?
Perhaps “systemic” means “present in investigations that don’t concern Donald Trump and his aides and advisors.” I suppose it’s possible that the FBI is riddled with such “errors,” and that the incompetence level there is so very high that they really are errors. I also think it’s possible these “errors” only affected Crossfire Hurricane. But there’s still a third possibility, which is that there are many cases with such “errors,” and that they all represent purposeful actions on the part of agents with the intent of framing targets, some for political reasons and some for other reasons.
But there’s still a third possibility, which is that there are many cases with such “errors,” and that they all represent purposeful actions on the part of agents with the intent of framing targets, some for political reasons and some for other reasons. [Neo]
Ugh, you’re right, that is a possibility. Call it the Julian Assange Loves Edward Snowden prospect. But I don’t believe it. I wish I could say I don’t believe it for one second, but that wouldn’t be the case, alas. Do you believe it?
I’m 100% positive Richard Jewel would say the FBI “errors” were purposed with the intent to frame him as a target.
Similarly the guy who Mueller wrongly targeted as the Anthrax bomber.
Plus the actions to protect mobsters who were ratting out other mobsters, in Boston, I think.
10%? 50%? There should be a non-FBI investigation into prior cases to find out, but it’s far too high.
Chris Wray at the FBI should be fired, and somebody who’s dedicated to cleaning up the FBI should be hired. But maybe none “qualified” are really ready to do that.
At least dozens of FBI / DOJ Deep State folk are guilty, maybe it’s hundreds; perhaps it’s thousands? The top guys are all expert boot-lickers and accountability avoiders, as well as dedicated, like Comey, to proclaiming the “good reputation” of the FBI, and claiming it’s earned.
Maybe transfer most of the FBI work, and low level agents, to Homeland Security – and then shut down the FBI and fire all the top thru middle (top 5 Federal pay levels?). Just another dream.
Tom Grey:
There’s another way, as the BLM is finding out: transfer the agency to the heart of the country — i.e., Des Moines or Topeka. In the case of BLM, they’re moving to Grand Junction, CO. Not a bad city at all — unless you like living inside the Beltway, in which case it’s a terrible place. Or if you don’t like dry air. The FBI should just announce they’re moving to Topeka. Half the miscreants would resign. That’s a start.
It is important to note that both hearings on this momentous report have been held in the Senate, not one in the committees of jurisdiction in the House.
NOT ONE.
The greatest political scandal in the history of our republic and the people’s House wants no part of it. What worse indictment of our politics could be made?
The Democrats know better, especially the lawyers among them. They know exactly what Horowitz was saying [about not finding “documentary or testimonial evidence” of political bias], and they know that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
It’s even worse than that. They’re trying to trick the public into believing that absence of a very specific kind of evidence is evidence of absence. And this very specific kind of evidence — explicitly admitting to bias in writing or testimony — is precisely what any wrongdoer with half a brain would know not to provide.
“But there’s still a third possibility, which is that there are many cases with such “errors,” and that they all represent purposeful actions on the part of agents with the intent of framing targets, some for political reasons and some for other reasons.” — Neo
I’ll take door number three.
There is so much evidence, famiiar to all political junkies, that the agencies in DC (not solely the FBI, and not solely LEOs) persecute, frame, harass, and investigate individuals and groups for personal and political reasons.
And those stories are just the known knowns.
The only way to clarify this indictments. Absent those, no fact finding will ever be done, all the miscreants and felons will retire to their tax funded pensions and their bullshit memoirs.