MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
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, particularly in the months just before she would lose the presidency 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.
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Devlin Barrett, Karoun Demirjian, John Wagner and Matt Zapotosky, WaPo today
Comments
your post didn't take but I found the link by googling, it's the WaPo version of the story and the link is here:
Inspector general blasts Comey and also says others at FBI showed ‘willingness to take official action’ to hurt Trump
BUT I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE that "barefooted" posted the NYTimes version only two items down on "In The News" with the headline "A Very Comey Response...." and theirs curiously appears to put a TOTALLY DIFFERENT SPIN ON IT:
Comey Cited as ‘Insubordinate,’ but Report Finds No Bias in F.B.I. Decision to Clear Clinton
By Matt Apuzzo, June 14
by artappraiser on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 12:35am
Thanks for the fix. And thanks for referencing the NYT account. I haven't had a chance to look into whether the report addresses the existence and role of pro-Trump internal advocacy within DOJ HQ and NYC FBI, and whether there was evidence of influence of such advocacy on decisions made concerning the handling of the Clinton emails investigation, particularly the fateful decision to re-open.
Likewise I have not dug in to try to find out if Comey has responded to speculation by some that pro-Trump actions by NYC FBI in particular may have impacted his decision to announce "re-opening" of the investigation, apparently against Department policy, precedent and the strenuous urging of his superiors. It would be good to see Comey equally welcoming or insistent upon independent scrutiny into these questions as well.
by AmericanDreamer on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 6:42am
I didn't have to dig into it, I just ran across this now, the current headline story at TheAtlantic.com is a sort of "Chicken Little" defense of Comey:
Officials Say Comey Feared Retribution Without Clinton Disclosure
Officials told investigators that the former FBI director worried failing to tell Congress the Clinton email inquiry had been reopened would not be “survivable.”
by artappraiser on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 6:46am
Carrie Johnson for "All Things Considered" @ NPR.org is even stronger than the Times that there's no claims of political bias:
Report Condemns FBI Violations In 2016 Clinton Probe But Finds No Political Bias
June 14, 2018
by artappraiser on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 7:32am
The point I was trying to make was that, if anything, Comey's decision to announce the re-opening reflected a strong anti-Clinton impact of the handling of the entire matter, the opposite of how the pro-Trump crowd is preposterously trying to spin this. As I've written earlier. Perhaps we are not misunderstanding one another on this matter.
by AmericanDreamer on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 8:27am
Trump was under investigation at the same time, yet there is no bias?
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 9:02am
All I'm trying to get at is: who is offering the most accurate portrayal of what the report itself says and implies.
by artappraiser on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 9:20am
P.S. Checking just now, I note that Carrie Johnson of NPR has a pretty ideal resume for doing just that.
by artappraiser on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 9:23am
edits to add: Corrected inadvertent insertion of one of my paragraphs at the end of the second quote from the OIG Executive Summary below, and adding the link to the OIG report itself, which is https://www.justice.gov/file/1071991/download
The main findings of the report were critical of a number of Comey's decisions on the HRC email investigation, and of pro-Clinton actions of some FBI employees.
On the former, from page x of the Executive Summary of the OIG report itself:
It's easy to get lost in the blizzard of information and developments that have been in the media.
The main outlines of this story seem to me to remain.
The conduct of the FBI as a whole overwhelmingly favored Trump during this past election:
*The HRC email investigation was in the media constantly, doing immense damage to Clinton
*The FBI knew about disconcerting and potentially nefarious contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians. This was not, ahem, in the media constantly in the run to election day 2016.
*Comey's announcement to re-open days before the election was highly unusual and was criticized heavily in the OIG report.
The fact that this report's finding that there were FBI employees who were pro-Clinton and acted inappropriately is being spun by pro-Trump forces as supporting the claims of a corrupt FBI engaged in a witch hunt against Trump is truly absurd. It holds no water whatsoever.
Page iii of the Executive Summary:
Anyone who keeps foremost in mind what actually happened and did not happen, who it helped and who it damaged severely, could not make such a claim with a straight face.
So the Trump camp spin is just another example of part of its MO: Offer competing narratives and interpretations, however unjustified and absurd, to further confuse matters. Turn it into a she said/he said conflict where enough ordinary citizens conclude it is either far too confusing or unimportant or whatever to pay more attention to, or that both sides have their version and who is to say who is right, they're all acting in their self interest anyway, right?, and the Trump crowd gets the draw, or near draw, in public opinion, that they are seeking, to win or survive.
by AmericanDreamer on Fri, 06/15/2018 - 10:18am
Especially given that I'm pretty sure he didn't read it, strikes me as quite interesting that he hates it:
Trump: IG report wrong, 'scum on top' at FBI
By Max Greenwood @ TheHill com, June 15
by artappraiser on Sat, 06/16/2018 - 3:11am
by artappraiser on Sat, 06/16/2018 - 4:19am
by artappraiser on Sat, 06/16/2018 - 4:45am
Oh, and I await, with bated breath, an OIG or comparably vigorous, independent investigation into the efforts of individuals in NYC FBI to blackmail FBI Director Comey into re-opening the HRC email investigation days before the election.
Unlike the actions of the pro-Clinton DC FBI individuals examined in this OIG report which the Trump camp is using to lie about the investigation's findings-- where no evidence was found of these influencing the investigation-- the actions of the Giuliani NYC FBI wing are already acknowledged to have had impact on Comey's late October 2016 announcement.
Yet has anyone in NYC FBI been fired for any if those actions? In an impartially functioning law enforcement culture heads there surely would have rolled.
by AmericanDreamer on Sat, 06/16/2018 - 10:53am
Paul Waldman at WaPo today, keeping his eye on the ball:
"There may have been an FBI conspiracy involving the 2016 election. But not the one you think." https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/06/18/there-may-h...
by AmericanDreamer on Mon, 06/18/2018 - 4:04pm
Thanks. This is very important.
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 06/18/2018 - 4:09pm
The 500-Page Inspector General’s Report In 900 Words
@ FiveThirtyEight.com, June 15
by artappraiser on Wed, 06/20/2018 - 2:00pm
Giuliani Promised a Surprise Before the Election. Comey Delivered One.
By Jim Dwyer @ NYTimes.com, June 19
by artappraiser on Wed, 06/20/2018 - 2:21pm