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What Barr Should Declassify: Release the secret inspector-general report
Wall Street Journal ^ | July 2, 2019 | Holman W. Jenkins

Posted on 07/03/2019 6:44:46 AM PDT by reaganaut1

Finally America has its George Smiley, the fictional master spy from the John le Carré novels. Smiley knew the importance of a spy agency being willing to get to the bottom of its own major cock-ups.

Attorney General William Barr has been given power by Donald Trump to declassify classified material. He told CBS that stories offered by the FBI about its investigation of the Trump campaign don’t “hang together.” The same could be said for a more consequential enigma of the 2016 election, concerning the alleged Russian intelligence that lay behind the FBI’s intervention in the Hillary Clinton email case.

Remind yourself what happened: James Comey, on his sole initiative, held a press conference to announce that, though Mrs. Clinton had behaved improperly, she did not merit prosecution. Except it wasn’t his decision to make: It was the Justice Department’s.

We know that Mr. Comey secretly explained his action by invoking still-classified Russian intelligence. In his memoir, he refers to a development “unknown to the American public to this day.” In fact, we know from news leaks that a Russian intercept of some kind cited a Democratic Party email that referred to an alleged conversation in which Attorney General Loretta Lynch promised to bury the Hillary Clinton investigation.

On the surface, the Russian intelligence indicated political corruption at the Justice Department and yet Mr. Comey rejected this self-advertised significance. He didn’t investigate. He didn’t tell the Justice Department. He used his possession of the classified intercept as his classified justification for intervening to free Mrs. Clinton from the email matter in time for the Democratic Convention.

The questions about this episode are many. Mr. Barr could start by releasing the classified appendix of the Justice Department’s own inspector general’s review (whose existence the media uniformly ignores).

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barr; comey; williambarr
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To: allendale

Bump!


41 posted on 07/03/2019 8:24:03 AM PDT by upchuck (No muzzy is fit to hold public office - their cult (religion) is incompatible with the Constitution.)
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To: glennaro

Not only is it sad, it’s also pathetic and it pisses me off. Republicans have no balls.

The RATS are escalating everything, leaving the ‘pubs in the dust.


42 posted on 07/03/2019 8:28:36 AM PDT by upchuck (No muzzy is fit to hold public office - their cult (religion) is incompatible with the Constitution.)
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To: Trump.Deplorable
we are awaiting justice here.

Don't hold your breath. No one is going to jail, you can rest assured of that.

43 posted on 07/03/2019 8:31:44 AM PDT by dware (Americans prefer peaceful slavery over dangerous freedom)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Telling truth will erode public confidence, lying will erode public confidence. They are choosing the path of least erosion, which implies just how bad their conduct really is.

The insitutional, rank and file feds are totally insulated from public outrage anyway, so they are free to do as what pleases themselves.

-- Which is a terrible reason to hide what they've got. --

Might be the best reason. What if the public was given evidence that in no uncertain terms, JFK was assassinated by the CIA. Tell the truth, or lie to the public and try to clean house in the shadows?

44 posted on 07/03/2019 8:38:03 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Cboldt

Well, yes. My belief is that the government has done a lot of bad stuff. JFK being an example. I think the current “unhappy path” might lead us to Civil War due to divisive politics. But maybe if we knew the truth, we’d be heading for something more like an actual Revolution.


45 posted on 07/03/2019 8:44:57 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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WSJ = Deep state enabler.

Whatever they say is what the Deep state wants you to think

46 posted on 07/03/2019 9:09:43 AM PDT by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric Cartman voice* 'I love you, guys')
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To: reaganaut1
To make things somewhat orderly, IMHO, the first redactions that should be released are ALL versions and ALL updates of the Scope Memo given to Mule Head by Rosenweasel.

ANY COMMENTARY on the balance of the Mueller Dossier (aka Mueller Report and Birdcage Liner) is useless without seeing the entirety of the scoping documents.

Think about the grading of a high school research paper without ever knowing what the teacher assigned! What is the purpose of the research paper? What is the thesis to be proved (or disproved)? How does the kid get a grade on a paper where we never saw the teacher's assignment?!?!?!!? It's an "A" if all components were completed, and an "F" if the report is full of uncited, false, or otherwise bogus items in the bibliography.

Any further discussion or scrutiny of the Mule Head Report, without the scope documents, is basically an exercise in political and intellectual masturbation.

47 posted on 07/03/2019 11:17:20 AM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: Yo-Yo

That’s right. The investigation is over there is no justification to keep those scope memos classified. Never really was. A secret investigation of a non-existent plot invented by a cabal of professional liars. What a joke.


48 posted on 07/03/2019 11:34:14 AM PDT by monkeyshine
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To: Steve Van Doorn
Whatever they say is what the Deep state wants you to think

It's far worse than that and obviously not just the WSJ. Whenever I see a story that references "anonymous sources" not only do I wonder what the source's agenda must really be, but that it is also very convenient for the reporter/journalist to simply invent a story - or tell a knowingly false story - and hide the deception under the guise of trying to protect a source. The journalists now go "source shopping" to find one who says what the journo wants to print and then hides everything about the source and everyone's motives.

It's not just what they want you think, its what they want you not to think, too.

49 posted on 07/03/2019 11:39:13 AM PDT by monkeyshine
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To: reaganaut1

I think Barr thinks his mission is to protect the DOJ’s image. He’s mad at them for what they did, but still doesn’t want to hurt them for it.


50 posted on 07/03/2019 11:40:54 AM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: monkeyshine

yeap you got it


51 posted on 07/03/2019 12:10:52 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric Cartman voice* 'I love you, guys')
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