'Viva le resistance': How political bias infected FBI Trump, Clinton probe
It didn't take long for defenders of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation to claim that the Justice Department inspector general's report found no bias in the bureau's conduct of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, nor in the early days of the Trump-Russia probe. "There was no bias in the FBI," Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said on MSNBC. "No bias at the FBI," Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News. "No evidence … [that the FBI] acted on the basis of political bias," Rep. Adam Schiff of California, top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. The comments had an otherworldly feel to them, because the IG report not only found, but documented, at great length, an FBI culture that was infested with political bias — specifically a political bias against President Trump.
The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, discovered the bias when he examined the internal communications of FBI officials involved in the Clinton and Trump probes. (The new report specifically covers the email investigation, but also touches on the beginning of the Trump investigation, because they overlapped in time and because a significant number of key FBI officials were involved in both.) Horowitz discovered a group of officials, some of them in key positions in the Clinton-Trump investigations, who made no secret of their support of Clinton and opposition to Trump.
"Our task was made significantly more difficult because of text and instant messages exchanged on FBI devices and systems by five FBI employees involved in the [Clinton email] investigation," Horowitz wrote in the executive summary of the report. "These messages reflected political opinions in support of former Secretary Clinton and against her then political opponent Donald Trump. Some of these text messages and instant messages mixed political commentary with discussions about the [Clinton email] investigation, and raised concerns that political bias may have impacted investigative decisions."
The conduct of the five FBI employees — including some in very high-ranking positions — "brought discredit to themselves," Horowitz concluded, and also "sowed doubt" about the FBI's conduct of the Clinton investigation and beyond.
The five include the now-famous FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page, but also three others, not named in the report but referred to as Agent 1, Agent 5, and FBI Attorney 2.
The single most devastating statement in the report, of course, is from Strzok. When Page, the high-ranking FBI lawyer with whom he was having an affair, texted, "[Trump's] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!" Strzok responded, "No. No he's not. We'll stop it." The exchange occurred on Aug. 8, 2016, just a few days after the July 31, 2016, official start of the FBI Trump-Russia probe. Strzok, who played a key role in the Clinton investigation, was there at the very beginning of the Trump-Russia investigation, too, and remained with the probe through the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller. He was removed from the investigation in late July 2016 after Horowitz brought the texts to Mueller's attention. The inspector general asked Strzok about the "We'll stop it" text, and Strzok responded that he did not "specifically recall" sending it. Horowitz wrote that Strzok explained "that he believed that it was intended to reassure Page that Trump would not be elected, not to suggest that he would do something to impact the investigation."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/byron-york-political-bias-infected-fbi-trump-clinton-investigations