OIG Report, Thread Two
Plus: Another Mueller Prosecutor Finally Removed Over Anti-Trump, "Viva La Resistance!" Texts

See below for the earlier stuff we've collectively found.

Here's some new stuff, starting with faulting McCabe and Peter Kadzik for not recusing themselves from these matters.

With respect to these investigations, we agreed with the FBI's chief ethics official that McCabe was not at any time required to recuse under the relevant authorities. However, voluntary recusal is always permissible with the approval of a supervisor or ethics official, which is what McCabe did on November 1. Had the FBI put in place a system for reviewing campaign donations to Dr. McCabe, which were public under Virginia law, the sizable donations from McAuliffe's PAC and the Virginia Democratic Party may have triggered prior consideration of the very appearance concerns raised in the October 23 WSJ article.

Finally, we also found that
McCabe did not fully comply with this recusal in a few
instances related to the Clinton Foundation
investigation.

Former Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik:

In Chapter Fourteen, we found that Kadzik
demonstrated poor judgment by failing to recuse
himself from Clinton-related matters under federal
ethics regulations prior to November 2, 2016. Kadzik
did not recognize the appearance of a conflict that he
created when he initiated an effort to obtain
employment for his son with the Clinton campaign while
participating in Department discussions and
communications about Clinton-related matters.

He didn't recognize this, or he recognized it and decided to help Clinton anyway?

Kadzik also created an appearance of a conflict when he sent the Chairman of the Clinton Campaign and a longtime friend, John Podesta, the "Heads up" email that included the schedule for the release of former Secretary Clinton’s emails proposed to the court in a FOIA litigation without knowing whether the information had yet been filed and made public. His willingness to do so raised a reasonable question about his ability to act impartially on Clinton-related matters in connection with his official duties.

Additionally, although Department leadership
determined that Kadzik should be recused from Clintonrelated
matters upon learning of his "Heads up" email
to Podesta, we found that Kadzik failed to strictly
adhere to this recusal. Lastly, because the government
information in the "Heads up" email had in fact been
released publically, we did not find that Kadzik released
non-public information or misused his official position.

From the Daily Caller: Viva La Resistance, writes one of Mueller's Murderers Row of partisan I'm With Her Democrats:

An FBI attorney who worked on the special counsel’s Russia investigation until earlier this year sent anti-Trump text messages to a colleague, including one exclaiming: "Viva le Resistance."

The attorney's comments are revealed in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released on Thursday.

The lawyer is not identified, but he worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation and was the FBI’s lead attorney on the investigation into Russian election interference. He was assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation soon after it began in May 2017 and left in late February of this year after some of his private messages were shared with the special counsel.

"I am numb," the attorney wrote on Nov. 9, 2016, the day after President Trump's election.

"I am so stressed about what I could have done differently," the lawyer continued, apparently referring to the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe.

The attorney's messages show that the was distressed at the FBI's decision in October 2016 to re-open the investigation into Clinton’s emails. Democrats have claimed that decision hurt Clinton at the polls.

The FBI lawyer also suggested that he would work to resist the Trump administration.

"Is it making you rethink your commitment to the Trump administration"” one FBI lawyer wrote on Nov. 22, 2016.

"Hell no. Viva le resistance," the future Mueller attorney responded.

posted by Ace of Spades at 03:21 PM

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