IG Report Released

It's here.

It's 500 pages so... I don't know, I guess I'll rely on Twitter and your posts in the comments for a roadmap.

It seems like a whitewash.

Comey claims that he was not alert to the importance of the emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop because he "doesn't know that he knew" that Anthony Weiner was married to Hillary Clinton's Gal Friday Through Thursday Huma Abedin:

Comey said that he recalled first learning about the additional emails on the Weiner laptop at some point in early October 2016, although he said it was possible this could have occurred in late September 2016. Comey told the OIG that this information "didn't index" with him, which he attributed to the way the information was presented to him and the fact that, "I don’t know that I knew that [Weiner] was married to Huma Abedin at the time."

That. Is. A. Lie.

On the Delay In Getting a Warrant to Bring the Weiner Emails to the DC Office:

As we describe in Chapter Nine of our report, the explanations we were given for the FBI’s failure to take immediate action on the Weiner laptop fell into four general categories:

* The FBI Midyear team was waiting for additional
information about the contents of the laptop
from NYO, which was not provided until late
October;

* The FBI Midyear team could not review the
emails without additional legal authority, such
as consent or a new search warrant;

* The FBI Midyear team and senior FBI officials
did not believe that the information on the
laptop was likely to be significant; and

* Key members of the FBI Midyear team had been
reassigned to the investigation of Russian
interference in the U.S. election, which was a
higher priority.

We found these explanations to be unpersuasive
justifications for not acting sooner, given the FBI
leadership's conclusion about the importance of the
information and that the FBI Midyear team had
sufficient information to take action in early October
and knew at that time that it would need a new search
warrant to review any Clinton-Abedin emails.

Moreover, given the FBI’s extensive resources, the fact
that Strzok and several other FBI members of the
Midyear team had been assigned to the Russia
investigation, which was extremely active during this
September and October time period, was not an excuse
for failing to take any action during this time period on
the Weiner laptop.

The FBI's failure to act in late September or early
October is even less justifiable when contrasted with
the attention and resources that FBI management and
some members of the Midyear team dedicated to other
activities in connection with the Midyear investigation
during the same period....

In assessing the decision to prioritize the Russia
investigation over following up on the Midyear-related
investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop, we
were particularly concerned about text messages sent
by Strzok and Page that potentially indicated or created
the appearance that investigative decisions they made
were impacted by bias or improper considerations.
Most of the text messages raising such questions
pertained to the Russia investigation, and the
implication in some of these text messages, particularly
Strzok's August 8 text message ("we'll stop" candidate
Trump from being elected), was that Strzok might be
willing to take official action to impact a presidential
candidate's electoral prospects. Under these
circumstances, we did not have confidence that Strzok's
decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over
following up on the Midyear-related investigative lead
discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias.

We searched for evidence that the Weiner laptop was
deliberately placed on the back-burner by others in the
FBI to protect Clinton, but found no evidence in emails,
text messages, instant messages, or documents that
suggested an improper purpose. We also took note of
the fact that numerous other FBI executives--including
the approximately 39 who participated in the
September 28 SVTC--were briefed on the potential
existence of Midyear-related emails on the Weiner
laptop. We also noted that the Russia investigation was
under the supervision of Priestap--for whom we found
no evidence of bias and who himself was aware of the
Weiner laptop issue by September 29. However, we
also did not identify a consistent or persuasive
explanation for the FBI's failure to act for almost a
month after learning of potential Midyear-related emails
on the Weiner laptop.

A New Investigation Into FBI Leaks And Even Taking Benefits from Reporters?

Improper Disclosure of Non-Public Information

As we also describe in Chapter Twelve, among the
issues we reviewed were allegations that Department
and FBI employees improperly disclosed non-public
information regarding the Midyear investigation.
Although FBI policy strictly limits the employees who
are authorized to speak to the media, we found that
this policy appeared to be widely ignored during the
period we reviewed.

We identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of
the organization and with no official reason to be in
contact with the media, who were nevertheless in
frequent contact with reporters. Attached to this report
as Attachments E and F are two link charts that reflect
the volume of communications that we identified
between FBI employees and media representatives in
April/May and October 2016. We have profound
concerns about the volume and extent of unauthorized
media contacts by FBI personnel that we have
uncovered during our review.

In addition, we identified instances where FBI
employees improperly received benefits from reporters,
including tickets to sporting events, golfing outings,
drinks and meals, and admittance to nonpublic social
events. We will separately report on those
investigations as they are concluded, consistent with
the Inspector General Act, other applicable federal
statutes, and OIG policy.

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:22 PM

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