In the Russia Probe, It’s ‘Qui S’excuse S’accuse’
Excerpt: I guess I owe Jamie Gorelick an apology. The then–deputy attorney general and other Clinton DOJ officials were worried about FISA. What if you had a rogue agent who was predisposed to believe a suspect was guilty, but couldn’t prove it? The rogue agent did not have enough evidence to seek a regular wiretap or search warrant. Mightn’t the rogue be tempted to use FISA? He’d just need to claim that there was some vague national-security aspect to the case; to pretend that his investigation was connected to a broader counterintelligence investigation of a foreign power. The rogue agent could then seek a FISA warrant to surveil the suspect. He would call it “counterintelligence,” but in reality he’d be conducting a criminal investigation — eavesdropping and searching suspects — even though he did not have probable cause to believe a crime had been committed. Based on this fear that FISA could be used pretextually to conduct criminal investigations, the Clinton Justice Department imposed “The Wall.” To prevent investigators from exploiting FISA to steer criminal investigations, a barrier was imposed between the FBI’s counterintelligence agents, on one side, and criminal investigators and prosecutors, on the other. It became practically impossible for the two sides to cooperate and share information. One result was the desired clamping down on potential FISA abuse. But the cure proved worse than the disease. (...) But in the Trump investigation, headquarters became the investigator. And just as an investigator is tempted to keep his supervisors in the dark when he is doing something he shouldn’t do, the Obama Justice Department and FBI withheld information about the Trump investigation from Congress — even though the “Gang of Eight” was supposed to receive quarterly briefings on sensitive matters. They withheld essential information from the FISA court about the source of their information (the Clinton campaign), and about the apparent dishonesty and deep bias of their main witness (Christopher Steele), even as they presented unverified allegations to the FISA court, flouting FBI guidelines. Headquarters exists to prevent investigators, who sometimes get too invested in their cases, from cutting such corners. But here, headquarters was its own supervisor. [This article was published 2 years and 10 days ago, but this is the first time I’ve seen it. It’s long, but worth reading every word. It was difficult to pick an excerpt because so much of it is important to understanding what really happened in the Mueller and impeachment processes. McCarthy is always worth reading, but this article dramatically demonstrates why. With this information, many things now make sense that previously didn’t. Clarity can be hard to find in the darkness of secrecy. Sometimes, we need a flashlight to shine in the corners and shadowed places because that’s where the skullduggery happens. No wonder Comey and his people felt safe while doing wrong. Now, we know the how and why. Ron P.]
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