Posted on 06/15/2018 5:12:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
We’ve got some work to do.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray was precisely correct in his comments following the release of the scathing Inspector General’s report with an official title of “A Review of Various Actions By the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election.”
It runs 500 pages, but the bottom line can be described in less than thirty words: An honorable FBI has been tainted by the mishandling of the Clinton investigation by former Director James Comey, and corrupted by the blatant political bias of officials working beneath him.
The report effectively destroys the image of Comey that he sought to paint in his sanctimonious, condescending book. It bolsters the various criticisms of him for taking actions based on his own whims rather than facts and the law. It finds no discernible political motive for the bizarre July 2016 news conference in which he described a long list of Hillary Clinton misdeeds, only to conclude that charges were not appropriate.
That was not his call to make, and it was just one example the IG report cites of Comey venturing outside standard procedures. He concealed the content of his observations from the Department of Justice and instructed his staff to do the same, which the report calls “extraordinary and insubordinate.”
Comey would do well to invest the proceeds wisely from the now ironically titled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership.” His loyalty was clearly not placed at the lofty levels he advertised. But if he was not in the tank for Hillary, what was his motivation? CARTOONS | Henry Payne View Cartoon
Partisans have instantly doubted the report’s rejection of a political purpose, but it is not hard to imagine Comey faced with strong evidence of crimes by Hillary Clinton, yet blanching at the prospect of sparking a prosecution that would have destroyed her presidential campaign. He would go down in history as the FBI director who changed an election.
Comey did not do that. Heaven knows Attorney General Loretta Lynch was not likely to do that. But even if they had aspired to their job descriptions, the Department of Justice’s own analysis might have impeded progress.
Much was made in the Summer of 2016 that Mrs. Clinton’s long list of misconduct appeared to feature negligence rather than specific intent. But can’t we find prison cells filled with people whose crimes were not intentional, but sufficiently, stunningly heedless that the law was broken?
The IG report cites prosecutor logic that absurdly blurs the line between neglect and intent, requiring “a state of mind so gross as to almost suggest deliberate intention…something that falls just short of being willful.”
In the dictionary and the real world, intent means intent and neglect means neglect. The conflation of these concepts spurred Comey to his fatuous assertion that “no reasonable prosecutor” would pursue the case, even though Clinton’s actions had been “grossly negligent.”
While Comey’s flaw may have been an insufficient spine to do what the evidence called for, no such excuse exists for the growing den of snakes among FBI officials whose distaste for Trump now stands as sad evidence of the politicization of the investigative process.
Nonetheless, Director Wray was also correct when he said Thursday that “nothing in this report impugns the integrity of our workforce as a whole or the FBI as an institution.” In fact, no one has made such a broad criticism. Despite ridiculous claims that his Twitter rants constitute “an attack on the rule of law,” even President Trump has never suggested that the FBI is rotten to the core or that its political hostilities are pervasive.
But they are enough to tarnish a once-gleaming image. They are enough to create doubt as to the FBI’s reliability in past probes of Hillary Clinton and the current probe of Trump/Russia collusion. The good news is that with Comey gone, Wray has a chance to make clear that partisan aggressions will no longer be tolerated at his FBI. Uncorrupted FBI agents and staff, who comprise a vast majority, should be able to usher the Bureau into a new season of redeemed standing.
But Comey is done. He may rake in a ton of cash from that silly book, or score a weekend cable show on MSNBC. But we won’t hear much more of the treacly praise of him as a gleaming example of judgment and leadership. The FBI deserves every opportunity to purge itself of its malcontents and return to its prior stature. James Comey deserves to slink away to obscurity, where he can find peace and a productive life. But his days of snowing us as a self-proclaimed pillar of law enforcement virtue are over.
Hell, it needs ground up restoration. Remove ALL too echelon players. Keep the officers. Why do LAWYERS have to run these organizations?
So much bull$h!t.
Bull. The FBI, just like every other government institution, is full of lefties. It will only get worse.
I watched Wray babbling yesterday. What a clown. He said they will have training and it will fix everything. CROCK!!!.. These agents knew they cannot accept gifts from reporters. They don’t need training, they need to be immediately fired.
IMO the Federal Government needs to get out of the law enforcement business altogether. Defund the FBI and block grant the money originally budgeted for the FBI back to the states. Let the states form their own interstate task force for crime investigation. Like interpol. Give the counter espionage mission to DOD, like MI5 in the UK.
This is flat out wrong.
As far as I'm concerned, NAMBLA and ISIS are more respectable organizations than the FBI right now.
I wonder what this is going to do to the sales of Comey’s “book” about “loyalty: truth, lies, and leadership” now that the DOJ IG’s office says that it’s a crock of sh*t. I guess the snowflakes will keep buying or stealing it. They’re idiots. They would buy a dog turd if you wrote “Dump Trump” on it.
Mr. Davis is incorrect.
L
No...the FBI can not be redeemed unless there is massive house cleaning. Even then most americans will never trust them again.
Nothing and I mean nothing can mediate my very negative view of the FBI. It’s roots go back to before 9/11.
Explain how it can be downsized please.
Only the military can get to these MF’S
The entire Federal APPARATCHIK is infested with communists and homosexuals.
Mass arrests, executions, and a PURGE of the press, Congress, the Courts, and 85% of Federal “employees”.
These bastards are laughing at Trump right now.
We demand JUSTICE
TRUMP IS NOT DELIVERING.
Really…just go away. What are you trying to do, install a dictator??
Wray could have helped save the FBI in that press conference but he blew it, BIGLY.
It would have been appropriate to name agents and fire them at the conference.
It would have helped to acknowledge bias and seething hatred for Trump and his voters by the agents.
It was horrible that he asserted no bias. Making it worse, he is sending agents to an anti-bias workshop (like Starbucks)..even though there was no bias. Or something.
With such myopia is it any wonder that they missed San Bernadino, pulse nightclub, Las Vegas, parkland (among others?) Just like in this...all the signs are there, the FBI is told of problems, but... nothing happens. Yes, I’m claiming a two hour training is “nothing “
Wray is weak. He is being manipulated. He is assisting in making FBI cases harder to convict. Would _you_ convict on FBI 302s or FBI testimony?
Sad.
Trump stands a nearly alone. I pray his majorities grow in November.
Ah, "training," Balm of Gilead for all official malfeasance. When a soldier deserts his comrades in battle, you don't respond by "training" the people he deserted. You respond by shooting the deserter. It's easier, and more to the point.
“The Reputation of the FBI Can Be Rescued”
Not in our lifetimes. Obama and his hoods pretty much ruined it and made it the butt of nervous,cynical jokes.
> Explain how it can be downsized please. <
As others have noted, the FBI is now permanently tainted. I’m just thinking out loud here, but perhaps many of the FBI’s functions can be transferred to the US Marshal’s Service.
If nothing else, that would send a message.
The verb decimate originally alluded to the Roman punishment of executing one man in ten of a mutinous legion.
If the FBI cannot stop rampant criminality inside it’s own wall what use is it against street crime? Let’s stop pretending it is anything but a corrupt leftist institution and replace it outright.
I find it rather interesting that Mueller hand-picked Comey as his successor.
Really? Comey has proven to be an incompetent coward, liar, etc.
I think this actually reflects extremely negatively on Mueller’s judgment and politics.
Mueller, a Republican? My ass.....
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