Donald Trump was proven right, this was a witch hunt: Today's talker
Barr believes that Trump was right to think that the Russia probe was a witch hunt. Also OK with Mueller testifying. This country is so divided.
Well, it's divided between those that support the Witch Hunt and those that support our Fellow Americans right not to be subjected to Witch Hunts.
USA TODAY: Russia collusion investigation did become a witch hunt, the inspector general report shows.
The investigation quickly got off track and ran into dead ends. It should have never led to a special counsel investigation that convulsed the country for two years.
The report documents FBI behavior that chills the blood of civil libertarians of every political stripe.
Investigation began with a vague claim
The claimed predicate for launching the investigation was a report from a foreign official about a conversation with George Papadopoulos. According to the official, Papadopoulos “suggested that the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion” that Russia could help with the anonymous release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama.
So, the investigation began with a suggestion of a suggestion.
The WikiLeaks dump of Democratic emails had just occurred, so the FBI decided to look into it.
Soon, things go off track
The investigation got ahead of the facts.
The FBI decided to open investigations into four Trump campaign officials: Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Carter Page. Manafort and Flynn were key figures in the Trump campaign. Page was another letterhead expert.
How were these four chosen? Except for Papadopoulos, there was nothing that connected them with the suggestion of a suggestion. They were chosen because they had relationships in Russia and had traveled there.
Secretly taped conversations
That hardly warrants what happened next. The FBI used sources to interact with Papadopoulos and Page and tape their conversations. A source similarly interacted with a senor Trump campaign official who was not a target of the probe.
Yes. The FBI taped a conversation with a senior campaign official whom the FBI didn’t suspect of wrongdoing.
These secretly taped conversations revealed nothing supporting a collusion theory. In fact, just the opposite. What was revealed undermined the notion, establishing that Papadopoulos and Page were hangers-on, peripheral players with no first-hand knowledge.
Nevertheless, the FBI investigators wanted a wiretap on Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which required probable cause that Page was, in fact, a Russian agent. Originally the lawyers in the department pushed back. But relented once the Steele dossier came across the transom.
Subjected To 3 and half year witch hunt by a bitterly partisan FBI that grossly abused it's authority.
The Steele dossier was put together by a former British spook on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. It consisted of a collection of salacious gossip about Trump and Russia.
Misrepresentations to justify surveillance
The FBI never verified the Steele dossier claims before using them to justify a wiretap on Page. In fact, it quickly had reason to doubt them, since a source for Steele told it that Steele had embellished his work.
Nevertheless, the FBI continued to use the Steele dossier to justify wiretapping Page for nearly a year.
The IG report finds 17 material misrepresentations or omissions in the Page FISA application and renewals.
Dead ends should have halted probe
After nearly a year of FISA surveillance, Page has never been charged with anything.
Only the suggestion of a suggestion.
Even if the FBI should have looked into the suggestion of a suggestion, the serial dead ends should have occasioned an early end to the investigation. Or at least less intrusive investigative techniques.
The Russian collusion investigation was a witch hunt, an overzealous search for something that didn’t exist.
