I am one disappointed granny right now. At one point in my working career I held a security clearance. I am married to someone who at various points in his career held a security clearance. The rules were explained to us. We were expected to follow them. Excuses for not following the rules were not acceptable. So why isn’t Hillary Clinton at least charged with one of the crimes she is guilty of? Could anyone else destroy subpoenaed evidence and still be walking around? Did anyone in the Obama administration have any respect for classified documents and government archives?<\/p>\n
Here is one excerpt from the Inspector General’s (IG) Report (from page xii):<\/p>\n
As we also describe in Chapter Twelve, we learned <\/span>during the course of our review that Comey, Strzok, <\/span>and Page used their personal email accounts to conduct <\/span>FBI business. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We identified numerous instances in which Comey used <\/span>a personal email account to conduct unclassified FBI <\/span>business. <\/span>We found that, given the absence of exigent <\/span><\/span>circumstances and the frequency with which the use of <\/span>personal email occurred, Comey\u2019s use of a personal <\/span>email account for unclassified FBI business to be <\/span>inconsistent with Department policy. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We found that Strzok used his personal email accounts <\/span>for official government business on several occasions, <\/span>including forwarding an email from his FBI account to <\/span>his personal email account about the proposed search <\/span>warrant the Midyear team was seeking on the Weiner <\/span>laptop. This email included a draft of the search <\/span><\/span><\/span>warrant affidavit, which contained information from the <\/span>Weiner investigation that appears to have been under <\/span>seal at the time in the Southern District of New York <\/span>and information obtained pursuant to a grand jury <\/span>subpoena issued in the Eastern District of Virginia in the <\/span>Midyear investigation. We refer to the FBI the issue of <\/span><\/span>whether Strzok\u2019s use of personal email accounts <\/span>violated FBI and Department policies.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The law requires the use of government email accounts in order for records to be archived. It seems as if a number of people in the Obama administration chose not to comply with that law.<\/p>\n The IG Report also sheds some light on the leaking from the FBI:<\/p>\n We identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of <\/span>the organization and with no official reason to be in <\/span>contact with the media, who were nevertheless in <\/span>frequent contact with reporters. Attached to this report <\/span><\/span><\/span>as Attachments E and F are two link charts that reflect <\/span>the volume of communications that we identified <\/span>between FBI employees and media representatives in <\/span>April\/May and October 2016. We have profound <\/span><\/span><\/span>concerns about the volume and extent of unauthorized <\/span>media contacts by FBI personnel that we have <\/span>uncovered during our review. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In addition, we identified instances where FBI <\/span>employees improperly received benefits from reporters, <\/span>including tickets to sporting events, golfing outings, <\/span>drinks and meals, and admittance to nonpublic social <\/span>events. We will separately report on those <\/span><\/span>investigations as they are concluded, consistent with <\/span>the Inspector General Act, other applicable federal <\/span>statutes, and OIG policy. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The harm caused by leaks, fear of potential leaks, and a <\/span>culture of unauthorized media contacts is illustrated in <\/span>Chapters Ten and Eleven of our report, where we detail <\/span>the fact that these issues influenced FBI officials who <\/span>were advising Comey on consequential investigative <\/span>decisions in October 2016. The FBI updated its media <\/span><\/span>policy in November 2017, restating its strict guidelines <\/span>concerning media contacts, and identifying who is <\/span>required to obtain authority before engaging members <\/span>of the media, and when and where to report media <\/span>contact. We do not believe the problem is with the <\/span><\/span><\/span>FBI\u2019s policy, which we found to be clear and <\/span>unambiguous. Rather, we concluded that these leaks <\/span><\/span><\/span>highlight the need to change what appears to be a <\/span>cultural attitude among many in the organizatio<\/span>n.<\/strong><\/p>\n It is obvious from the text messages in the IG Report that the political culture of the FBI was very biased toward Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump. Does anyone believe that anything was leaked to the press that would have hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign and helped the Trump campaign?<\/p>\n The disclosures in the IG Report are a disgrace, and yet the report does not really go far enough.<\/p>\n On Page xi, the IG Report states:<\/p>\n We were deeply troubled by text messages exchanged <\/span>between Strzok and Page that potentially indicated or <\/span>created the appearance that investigative decisions <\/span>were impacted by bias or improper considerations. <\/span>Most of the text messages raising such questions <\/span>pertained to the Russia investigation, which was not a <\/span>part of this review. Nonetheless, when one senior FBI <\/span><\/span>official, Strzok, who was helping to lead the Ru<\/span>ssia investigation at the time, conveys in a text message to <\/span>another senior FBI official, Page, \u201cNo. No he won\u2019t. <\/span><\/span><\/span>We\u2019ll stop it\u201d in response to her question \u201c[Trump\u2019s] not <\/span>ever going to become president, right? Right?!\u201d, it is <\/span><\/span><\/span>not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even <\/span>more seriously, implies a willingness to take official <\/span>action to impact the presidential candidate\u2019s electoral <\/span>prospects. This is antithetical to the core values of the <\/span><\/span><\/span>FBI and the Department of Jus<\/span>tice.<\/strong><\/p>\n So what are you going to do about it? In an interview last night Devin Nunes pointed out that the IG Report was the first time he had seen the above text message. Why was this message not included with documents requested by the House Committee?<\/p>\n As I said, I am one discouraged granny. I want to believe that all Americans receive equal justice under the law, but looking at the IG Report and the people who are not currently facing jail time, I really wonder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am one disappointed granny right now. At one point in my working career I held a security clearance. I am married to someone who at various points in his career held a security clearance. The rules were explained to … Continue reading