FBI STONEWALLS CORRUPTION PROBE
John Hinderaker, Powerline
The Obama administration corrupted everything it touched, including the FBI. A scandal is brewing, and the FBI, predictably, is responding with the Obama playbook: it is stonewalling. Byron York has the story:
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has issued an angry demand to the FBI and Department of Justice to explain why they kept the committee in the dark over the reason Special Counsel Robert Mueller kicked a key supervising FBI agent off the Trump-Russia investigation.
Stories in both the Washington Post and New York Times on Saturday reported that Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the original FBI investigation into the Trump-Russia matter, and then a key role in Mueller’s investigation, and who earlier had played an equally critical role in the FBI’s Hillary Clinton email investigation, was reassigned out of the Mueller office because of anti-Trump texts he exchanged with a top FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an extramarital affair.
I think everyone understands that Mueller’s investigation is a politically-motivated farce, but confirmation of the fact would no doubt embarrass the Democrats. Hence the FBI’s effort to hush up the Strzok scandal.
The Post reported that Strzok and Page exchanged text messages that “expressed anti-Trump sentiments and other comments that appeared to favor Clinton.”
Word of the messages and the affair were news to Nunes, even though the committee had issued a subpoena that covered information about Strzok’s demotion more than three months ago.
Anyone who expects the FBI to respond honestly to Congressional subpoenas hasn’t been paying attention.
“By hiding from Congress, and from the American people, documented political bias by a key FBI head investigator for both the Russia collusion probe and the Clinton email investigation, the FBI and DOJ engaged in a willful attempt to thwart Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibility,” Nunes said in a statement Saturday afternoon. “This is part of a months-long pattern by the DOJ and FBI of stonewalling and obstructing this committee’s oversight work, particularly oversight of their use of the Steele dossier. At this point, these agencies should be investigating themselves.”
The FBI, thoroughly politicized under the leadership of Robert Mueller and James Comey, has lost the confidence of the American people. I have recommended that President Trump appoint a special prosecutor to look into the conduct of Mueller and Comey, among others, in the Uranium One matter. The Strzok scandal suggests that the inquiry should be framed more broadly.
One thing I don’t understand, however. Why doesn’t President Trump simply appoint a strong conservative with an undoubted commitment to the rule of law–like, say, Jeff Sessions–Attorney General? If we had someone like Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, he could simply order the FBI to respond completely and promptly to Congressional subpoenas, and fire anyone who fails to follow that directive.
