Evidence suggests a massive scandal brewing at the FBI

[Joe in PB]

....Something similar is happening now at the FBI, with the Washington wagons circling the agency to protect it from charges of corruption. This time, the appropriate tag line is “too big to believe.”

Yet each day brings credible reports suggesting there is a massive scandal involving the top ranks of America’s premier law-enforcement agency. The reports, which feature talk among agents of a “secret society” and suddenly missing text messages, point to the existence both of a cabal dedicated to defeating Donald Trump in 2016 and of a plan to let Hillary Clinton skate free in the classified e-mail probe.

If either one is true — and I believe both probably are — it would mean FBI leaders betrayed the nation by abusing their powers in a bid to pick the president. More support for this view involves the FBI’s use of the Russian dossier on Trump that was paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. It is almost certain that the FBI used the dossier to get FISA court warrants to spy on Trump associates, meaning it used the opposition research of the party in power to convince a court to let it spy on the candidate of the other party — likely without telling the court of the dossier’s political link.

Even worse, there is growing reason to believe someone in President Barack Obama’s administration turned over classified information about Trump to the Clinton campaign.

As one former federal prosecutor put it, “It doesn’t get worse than that.” That prosecutor, Joseph ­diGenova, believes Trump was correct when he claimed Obama aides wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower.

These and other elements combine to make a toxic brew that smells to high heaven, but most Americans don’t know much about it. Mainstream media coverage has been sparse and dismissive and there’s a blackout from the same Democrats obsessed with Russia, Russia, Russia....continued

http://nypost-24.com/polit-2250

[Softball Bat]

scandal

[BSmack]

Evidence is mounting that the next trick in the GOP playbook is to smear the agency tasked with investigating Trump.

[Joe in PB]

Politics is a dirty business and I think both parties are soiling themselves.

I remember Trump after the election stating Hillary should be arrested. At the time I thought he was a poor winner, now I think he had information on this very issue. It certainly is something that should not be ignored. It's either true or its is not, and should be followed up on by mainline media one way or the other.

[Joe in PB]

https://pjmedia.com/trending/sen-ron-jo ... -off-site/

http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... at-the-fbi

http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... y-fbi-text

[Mikey]

A Fresno man with a daily sushi habit had a 5.5-foot tapeworm lodged in his intestines. He pulled it out himself, wrapped it around a cardboard toilet paper tube and carried the creature into Fresno's Community Regional Medical Center.

Kenny Banh was the lucky doc on shift at the time. He recounted his experience on a recent episode of the podcast "This Won't Hurt A Bit."

Banh said the patient complained of "bloody diarrhea" and expressed a desire to get treated for tapeworms.

"I get asked this a lot," the doctor said. "Truthfully, a lot of times I don't think they have it."

This man had it, which he proved to Banh by opening a plastic grocery bag and pulling out the worm-wrapped toilet paper tube.

Banh then asked some questions, starting with: "That came out of your bottom?"

"Yes."

According to the doctor's retelling, the patient was using the restroom when he noticed what looked like a piece of intestine hanging out of his body.

"He grabs it, and he pulls on it, and it keeps coming out," Banh recounted. He then picks the thing up, "looks at it, and what does it do? It starts moving." (Note: At this point in the podcast, the hosts audibly gasp.)

That's when the man realized he had a tapeworm stuck in his insides. He headed to the emergency room shortly thereafter, where Banh treated him with an anthelmintic, a single-treatment deworming medication used on humans and dogs alike.

Banh also took it upon himself to measure the specimen on the floor of the hospital. It stretched a whopping 5 feet, 6 inches — "my height," noted the doctor.

[Joe in PB]

Agreed, I'm not giving free passes to anyone and I'm looking where the evidence leads in all the investigations. I'm certainly not giving a free pass to any party like most if not all the liberals on this board.

We just saw the Democrats choosing what is best for their party over what is best for the country with DACA. Not good.

As is I believe the country is better off without a border wall, and no DACA deal.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[Goober McTuber]

Agreed, I'm not giving free passes to anyone and I'm looking where the evidence leads in all the investigations. I'm certainly not giving a free pass to any party like most if not all the liberals on this board.

We just saw the Democrats choosing what is best for their party over what is best for the country with DACA. Not good.

I said that DACA did not belong in a budget deal. Shove your big wide paintbrush up your ass. Sideways.

[Joe in PB]

Yes you did, after the Democratic party caved. If it was included in the budget, I doubt we would have heard anything out of you.

But better late than never, so you props to you.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[Goober McTuber]

You're full of shit. I have never believed that policy issues belong in a budget. They need to stand on their own merits. It's been an ongoing problem in Wisconsin. Go fuck yourself, tard.

[Joe in PB]

All I know is what you post.

From the Gov shutdown thread:
When it's now the only home they know? That's being compassionate? You aren't this stupid.

After DACA was dropped:

And BTW, just to be clear, I thought the Senate Democrats made a huge mistake. I'm sick of seeing political bullshit crammed into spending bills because their supporters fear that their positions can't stand up to scrutiny on their own. Same thing as earmarks.

Like I said, props to you for coming around, but you weren't contrary to the Democratic stance in the government shutdown thread until after a continuing resolution was approved without DACA.

[Goober McTuber]

No, the first comment was strictly in response to Seater's comment about being compassionate. He explained his reasoning and I was good with that. We do have different viewpoints about DACA, but probably not how it should be debated and dealt with.

[Rooster]

This topic touches on your previous thread about Trump and the media, Joe. All the major networks have scrupulously avoided giving any airtime to this story, thus confirming the public’s suspicions about the lack of objectivity in the news media. A story of this magnitude certainly deserves journalistic investigation, if not federal inquiries due to the far reaching ramifications of our national police force being bent to the political will of those it is responsible for unbiased and even handed dispensing of justice.

The weaponization of our nation’s bureaucracies in the service of the executive branch is a travesty of the highest order.

[BSmack]

The weaponization of our nation’s bureaucracies in the service of the executive branch is a travesty of the highest order.

Thanks a lot. You just broke everyone's irony meter.

[Rooster]

Care to list a particular bureaucracy that (if I am reading you correctly) you believe has been bent to serve the President? I’m all ears.

[Diego in Seattle]

....Something similar is happening now at the FBI, with the Washington wagons circling the agency to protect it from charges of corruption. This time, the appropriate tag line is “too big to believe.”

Yet each day brings credible reports suggesting there is a massive scandal involving the top ranks of America’s premier law-enforcement agency. The reports, which feature talk among agents of a “secret society” and suddenly missing text messages, point to the existence both of a cabal dedicated to defeating Donald Trump in 2016 and of a plan to let Hillary Clinton skate free in the classified e-mail probe.

If either one is true — and I believe both probably are — it would mean FBI leaders betrayed the nation by abusing their powers in a bid to pick the president. More support for this view involves the FBI’s use of the Russian dossier on Trump that was paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. It is almost certain that the FBI used the dossier to get FISA court warrants to spy on Trump associates, meaning it used the opposition research of the party in power to convince a court to let it spy on the candidate of the other party — likely without telling the court of the dossier’s political link.

Even worse, there is growing reason to believe someone in President Barack Obama’s administration turned over classified information about Trump to the Clinton campaign.

As one former federal prosecutor put it, “It doesn’t get worse than that.” That prosecutor, Joseph ­diGenova, believes Trump was correct when he claimed Obama aides wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower.

These and other elements combine to make a toxic brew that smells to high heaven, but most Americans don’t know much about it. Mainstream media coverage has been sparse and dismissive and there’s a blackout from the same Democrats obsessed with Russia, Russia, Russia....continued

http://nypost-24.com/polit-2250

[Goober McTuber]

In the conservative world, outrage over “the missing texts” is everywhere.

The allegation, which you’re hearing from President Trump, Fox News, and Republicans in Congress alike, is that the FBI intentionally deleted an unknown number of texts between two FBI employees. The messages of special agent Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page supposedly contain proof of an FBI plot to undermine the Trump presidency.

Strzok and Page have been in the crosshairs of the White House and its defenders since the mid-December release of texts in which they discussed an “insurance policy” against Trump in the runup to the November election. Special counsel Robert Mueller removed Strzok from his team when he became aware of the texts, but that hasn’t stopped some conservatives from alleging that they prove the Mueller probe is a partisan witch hunt.

“Are we really supposed to believe that the FBI simply lost text messages from that important time frame? This is like Watergate but far worse,” Sean Hannity said on his Monday night show. “This reeks of law-breaking, it reeks of conspiracy, and it reeks of obstruction of justice.”

There is very little evidence to support this allegation, but it shows every sign of snowballing into a big deal. President Trump called the missing messages “one of the biggest stories in a long time” in a Tuesday morning tweet; Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said an investigation into how they disappeared is already underway.

The “missing texts” conspiracy has legs because for months, Republicans have been arguing that the FBI in general, and Mueller’s probe specifically, is irreparably biased against Trump. Some Republicans, like Florida Rep. Francis Rooney, have called for a ”purge” of purportedly disloyal bureau personnel.

This rhetoric points to the real scandal here: Republicans are trying to impose a partisan, Trump-loyalist litmus test on America’s top law enforcement agency. Moreover, they’re working to derail a probe into the growing evidence that Russia meddled in an American election on a massive scale.

Why the texts have fueled a conspiracy theory

To understand why the “texts” have become such a big deal, we need to go back to the 2016 campaign.

During that time, Strzok had been assigned to the investigation into the Trump campaign’s links with Russia — while also conducting an extramarital affair with Page. Strzok and Page discussed work and national politics quite frequently over text message, neither of them making any secret about their views of Trump. Strzok referred to Trump as a “douche” and an “utter idiot,” and told Page that Hillary Clinton “just had to win” the race.

Most damningly from the Republican point of view, Strzok once referred to an “insurance policy” against Trump winning.

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” he told Page. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”

It’s a really confusing message. It could easily be read, as former Bush administration attorney Stewart Baker argues, as Strzok simply explaining why he’s spending time worrying about the prospects of a Trump victory.

But when the messages were released to the public in December 2017, after news broke that Mueller had dismissed Strzok from his role in the Russia investigation, the pro-Trump press seized on it as proof of an anti-Trump conspiracy theory in the FBI — especially since the “Andy” referred to in the message could be Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI.

The issue had receded from the headlines in 2018 until last Friday, when the Justice Department announced that it did not have records of Strzok-Page texts between December 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017. This is a crucial time in the Russia investigation, encompassing Michael Flynn’s resignation due to lies about Russia ties and FBI Director James Comey’s firing — so this naturally raised some eyebrows.

The official explanation from the Justice Department is that there was a problem with Strzok and Page’s bureau-issued Samsung Galaxies — that “firmware upgrades” and other technical issues deleted records of texts sent from many phones across the bureau. But Trump and his allies didn’t buy it and have waged a furious campaign in the media to declare the missing texts as proof of an FBI conspiracy.

There is no evidence to support such a wild claim. Whether there actually was a software glitch is easily verifiable; according to a Monday statement from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Inspector General’s office is already investigating the issue.

“We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced,” Sessions wrote. “If any wrongdoing were to be found to have caused this gap, appropriate disciplinary action measures will be taken.”

So it’s possible that Strzok and Page were part of a widespread FBI conspiracy to undermine Trump, one that reaches so far into the bureau that they had a mole in the IT department who was willing to delete their most damning messages. It’s also possible — and much more likely — that the US government ran into technology glitches, which is not exactly unheard of.

The party of law and order is waging war on the FBI

The “texts” have struck a chord because they play directly into the growing Republican strategy to counter the Mueller probe.

As members of Trump’s campaign and inner circle continue to be indicted and investigated, making it harder and harder to dismiss the Mueller investigation as a nothingburger, the most hardcore Trump supporters in Congress and the media have begun arguing instead that the FBI cannot be trusted. The Mueller probe is indeed a “witch hunt,” as the president tweeted, proof that the bureau is a corrupt institution that needs to be purged.

Conservative media now regularly refers to a “deep state” of FBI and Justice Department officials working to undermine Trump. Increasingly, this kind of conspiratorial language has bled over into the actions of elected officials. In November, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) gave a speech on the House floor arguing that the Mueller probe was part of a quiet coup against America’s elected officials.

“We are at risk of a coup d’état in this country if we allow an unaccountable person with no oversight to undermine the duly elected president of the United States,” Gaetz said.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has put together a secret memo — one that he won’t even share with the Justice Department — that allegedly shows proof of institutional anti-Trump bias at the FBI and DOJ. The memo, like the texts, has become a kind of cause célèbre in the conservative movement. #ReleaseTheMemo is a popular hashtag in right-wing social media circles.

On Monday, Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and John Ratcliffe (R-TX) went on Fox News to allege there were secret Strzok-Page texts — ones that they alone had picked up on — showing evidence of a “secret society” of anti-Trump Justice Department officials.

“It makes it harder and harder for us to explain away one strange coincidence after another,” Ratcliffe said.

The “texts,” in this narrative, are the new version of Hillary Clinton’s private server emails — a kind of totem that conservatives can point to in order to prove that their enemies really are nefarious and that proof of their wildest theories is there if only someone could find it. This is typical in conspiracy theories; strange coincidences are strung together in a narrative that looks scary if you squint at it right. The absence of proof is taken as its own kind of proof.

What’s atypical about this conspiracy is that it’s being embraced by much of the conservative movement — up to and including the president of the United States.

[Rooster]

A significant part of the problem lies with the FBI itself. As an agency which has as one of its’ primary responsibilities, the collection and retention of information, it would stand to reason that two FBI agents who were assigned to investigating Trump and were involved in the gentle treatment of Mills, Abedin, and Samuelson would have their texts locked down in light of their shenanigans. However, whenever it comes to retaining damning evidence, all these government agencies (FBI, DoS, and the IRS) descend into Three Stooges-like pratfalls when asked to produce the evidence.

As a result only 48% of Americans think that the FBI is on the level any longer.

[Left Seater]

Banh also took it upon himself to measure the specimen on the floor of the hospital. It stretched a whopping 5 feet, 6 inches — "my height," noted the doctor.

I am calling bullshit. A 5’6” doctor? He must get laughed at every time he walks into meet a patient.

[Mikey]

Banh also took it upon himself to measure the specimen on the floor of the hospital. It stretched a whopping 5 feet, 6 inches — "my height," noted the doctor.

I am calling bullshit. A 5’6” doctor? He must get laughed at every time he walks into meet a patient.

I don't want to appear racist or anything, but

Banh also took it upon himself...