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As Peter Strozk himself noted in his opening statement they were ‘another victory notch in Putin’s belt.’

“I have the utmost respect for Congress’s oversight role, but I truly believe that today’s hearing is just another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart,” reads Strzok’s opening remarks.

Sure-the GOP shut down the Russia investigation back in February-and claimed they saw no evidence of Russia collusion, but of course, they didn’t look very hard-as they didn’t even interview George Papadopoulos whose claims to Australia’s top diplomat about the Russians having emails harmful to Clinton was the basis of the launching of the Russian probe.

Since then the GOP has gone back to investigating Hillary Clinton again. At yesterday’s hearings Trey Gowdy and friends complained about how long the Russia probe has gone on yet they are again talking about Clinton’s emails-and Benghazi, despite finding no wrongdoing just as there was none in the email probe that was much longer than the Russia investigation has been up until now.

And as Strozk himself said yesterday, this probe is just a little more important-it’s about the legitimacy of our democratic process itself.

The obstructionist Republicans outdid themselves yesterday. They opened by threatening to hold Strzok in contempt on the very first question when he stated that FBI counsel told him not to answer questions about the start of the Russia probe. Bob Goodlatte repeatedly threatened him with contempt-‘the FBI isn’t in the Constitution’ and he kept trying to shut up Jerrold Nadler and other Democrats who were calling a point of order and taking issue with his thuggish tactics.

The GOP repeatedly refused to allow Strzok to answer questions. As a Democrat member pointed out later, the GOP wasn’t interested in his answers they just wanted a prop to beat up. The GOPers also made clear they didn’t want to hear the details of the Russia investigation-in terms of what’s actually at stake. They stated they don’t want to hear about the investigation just how it got started-and who started it.

Just so-this is why Putin was the big winner of yesterday’s clown show. The House GOP has long since given up on investigating the substance of Russian interference and possible collusion. They’ve long since moved on and only care about investigating the investigators now.

They threatened Strozk with contempt charges but as Democrat Eric Swallwell pointed out they didn’t charge Steve Bannon when he refused to answer Trey Gowdy’s questions and his refusals were much more numerous and deeper than Strzok’s. Bannon pretty much refused to answer any question he didn’t like.

UPDATE: If the Dems interview Bannon again-they should as he committed perjury last time-maybe they should have Michael Wolff ask him the questions-Wolff clearly knows how to get answers from Bannon.

End of UPDATE

So while they threatened Strozk with contempt they were and are truly contemptible as they have abdicated their oversight role and are acting like so-called ‘President Trump’s defense attorney.

Then there are Strozk’s texts. While everyone-even the Democrats-insists he was totally wrong I’m not sure exactly where he was so wrong. I think you can argue that he should have realized that on an FBI phone he had no expectation of privacy. But the idea that it was outrageous that he held anti Trump views is itself dangerous. In Strozk’s closed hearing last week-the GOP was still resisting making public yesterday-Goodlatte had asked Strozk who he had voted for in the 2016 primary. 

For more see Chapter A.

Yesterday Gowdy had gone down the rabbit hole of demanding to know how Strozk could have been discussing impeachment in June of 2017. The correct answer is that Strozk’s political views are his own and he has a right to them. I mean wether Gowdy agrees with them or not is immaterial. I mean by that time Trump had already fired Comey and arguably that in itself was an impeachable offense. But wether Gowdy or others agree is besides the point. Gowdy has no right to be monitoring Strozk’s political views.

Finally with all the focus on Strozk’s texts I still would very much like to see the texts of the rogue Trump agents in the NY FBI office who hated Hillary Clinton-they’d begun a Clinton Foundation probe on little more than a piece of flawed Right wing oppo research like Clinton Cash  and who leaked furiously about Weiner’s laptop in October of 2016.

What about the outrageous anti Clinton bias that was the real catalyst for the Comey letter?

“Democrats also raised an issue that Republicans, complaining about FBI agents’ political biases, have remained noticeably silent about: concerns expressed by various high-ranking Justice Department and FBI officials in the run-up to the election that employees in the FBI’s New York field office, who opposed Hillary Clinton, would leak new information about her emails to the press. These concerns were outlined in the Inspector General report, and confirmed by Strzok on Thursday. “I was aware of some people expressing that concern,” Strzok said. One of those people, he said, was Comey, who publicly reopened the Clinton email probe just days before the election, while keeping the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign quiet.”

We ought to rifle through the text and email messages of these rogue pro Trump agents over at Trumpland. More important even than their texts were their actions. Unlike Strozk they actually did something about their political preferences.

There is a follow up IG report on leaks coming from pro Trump NY FBI agents and it can’t come out too soon to provide a reality check to this creative fiction about anti Trump bias at the FBI.

UPDATE: I wrote this chapter almost 11 months ago and as we begin June, 2019 we’re still waiting for this follow up IG report-as I argued in Chapter A it’s a real open question if the IG has been compromised by Trump as everything it does seems to reflect his priorities-we don’t know what happened to the investigation about the rogue anti Clinton pro Trump  agents-is it still ongoing, was it shutdown prematurely, is there a full report sitting on a shelf somewhere?

 

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October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

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