347 On Rogue FBI Agent Collusion, Michael Horowitz does a Bill Barr
🧨 On Rogue FBI Agent Collusion, Michael Horowitz Does a Bill Barr
In Chapter IG Compromised, I asked whether the IG’s Emailgate investigation had been compromised.
We can now state conclusively: yes, it was.
🧠Sidebar: Why EW Is Wrong This Time
As much as I hate to disagree with Emptywheel here I have to disagree. Her tweet defending Horowitz as a potential investigator now looks even more mistaken.
It’s now more clear than ever Horowitz was exactly the wrong person to lead any such investigation.
🔍 Modular Insert: The Barr Parallel
In Chapter Adam Schiff, I dissected the media environment leading up to Barr’s dishonest but politically successful “summary” of the Mueller Report.
- Mueller had already written a summary.
- Barr ignored it and released his own.
- The MSM narrative ossified overnight:
- “No collusion.”
- “The Steele Dossier was the real scandal.”
- “Barr was just doing his job.”
Cá´Źá´…á´€: When lies are front-run, truth becomes a footnote. And the footnote never gets read.
🧠Sidebar: The Media’s Obsession
From January to March 2019, the pundit class was obsessed with one question: “When will the Mueller investigation end?”
The story of Russian interference and Trump campaign collusion was never their preferred narrative. They preferred HER EMAILS. They preferred Whitewater.
So by early 2019 they were frankly very eager for the Russia investigation to conclude. Kasey Hunt let the cat out the bad when she declared the night of what would be Barr’s fake exoneriation memo of Trump “People are tired of Mueller.”
No surprise then that when Barr finally released his phony summary, they treated it as gospel.
🔍 Cuomo’s Decree: Enforced Credulity.
In Chapter Schiff, we saw how quickly the Barr narrative took hold. Chris Cuomo dismissed the idea that the actual Mueller Report could contain anything new.
He declared it “impossible to believe” Barr had lied in what turned out of be his fake exoneration memo.. This was the tendency of the entire Beltway media-Bill Barr has to have told the truth-they were simply incapable of considering the idea that he could have lied. There was a kind of enforced credulity. j
UPDATE: Even Comey fell for it. He criticized Hillary’s judgment—again. But no one’s judgment has proven worse than Mr. 500-Year Flood.
Is there a link for this claim? In the initial manuscript?
🔍 Horowitz’s Barr Moment (Expanded + Philosophical Insert)
As noted above, one of the biggest MSM obsessions during the Mueller investigation was when it would end.
The factually based story of Russian interference and Trump campaign collusion was never the pundit class’s preferred narrative.
They preferred HER EMAILS. They preferred Whitewater.
There was something about Russiagate that left the pundit class cold—just as Iran-Contra had decades earlier.
Which is odd, given how often the mainstream media is wrongly called “liberal.” In practice, they’ve pursued Democratic scandals far more enthusiastically.
🧠Philosophical Insert: The Savvy Creed
Why the cold shoulder to Russiagate? A few theories—but one thing seems clear:
Stories like Russiagate cut against the Savvy’s articles of faith:
- American exceptionalism
- Hanlon’s Razor (“Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity”)
They’re uncomfortable with the idea that powerful elected leaders acted with malice.
As we discussed in Chapter Devin Nunes, this discomfort is not just aesthetic—it’s ideological. Again this ideological dogma makes it impossible to discuss systemic wrongdoing.
🧨 Modular Insert: Barr’s Summary vs. Horowitz’s Silence
Barr didn’t take the pundit class’s “savvy” advice to release nothing. Instead, he released a dishonest summary that set in stone the media narrative:
NO COLLUSION.
To be sure So Barr wouldn’t take the savvy advice and release nothing but did pretty well with his dishonest summary that nevertheless set in stone the media narrative on all things Russian Collusion.
FN: See Chapter Katy Kay for how this narrative ossified.
But someone did take the savvy advice:
Michael Horowitz.
He released a thin summary that amounted to:
“Because there were so many leaks, we can’t isolate any individual ones.”
Translation:
Everybody did it, so nobody’s accountable.
✴️ CODA
Cᴏᴅᴀ: When the media preemptively lowers expectations, they don’t just shape the narrative. They shield the saboteurs.
This version keeps the forensic detail, restores the philosophical depth, and gives you room to riff further if you want to build a Sidebar on Hanlon’s Razor as Institutional Alibi. Want to sketch that next?
🧠Sidebar: The Horowitz Shrug
“FBI policies strictly limit the employees who are authorized to speak to the media… Nonetheless… we identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels… in frequent contact with reporters.”
—Horowitz Report Summary
The fact that everyone was leaking somehow didn’t save Andy McCabe.
✴️ CODA
Cá´Źá´…á´€: When accountability is diluted by ubiquity, corruption becomes culture.
🔍 Predictable Silence
It was always obvious—at least to me—that Horowitz would never release this report while Trump was “President.”
But what happened was even more predictable: He waited until Biden was President to announce it would never be released.
FN: You could’ve made real money betting this report would never see the light of day. But they had to wait until Trump left to bury it for good. After all, this was an investigation of
the FBITrumpland—and they don’t call it that for nothing.
🧠Modular Insert: The EW Tweet
Horowitz telegraphed the outcome three and a half years ago:
Horowitz repeats again that they did not look at NY agents for bias. —@emptywheel, June 19, 2018
If they didn’t look for bias—unlike with Strzok and Page—then it’s no surprise they didn’t find it.
Devlin Barrett declared victory after the release. But it’s hard to find bias among your friends if you don’t look.
FN: See Chapter Devlin Barrett and Devin Nunes for more.
🧩 UPDATE: The MSM’s Bad Take Machine
Meanwhile, the MSM delivered yet another textbook bad take—this time on Horowitz’s slender summary.
It all begins with the headline.
FN: As noted in Chapter Dean Baquet and Friends, headlines are where the mischief is done. Most readers never get past them. The Associated Press editor failed to grasp this again and again.
The headline isn’t just packaging. It’s propaganda.
🧠Horowitz’s Barr Playbook, Part II
“Justice Department IG couldn’t find evidence of FBI Clinton probe leaks to Giuliani.” —
Add it to the pantheon: NO CLEAR LINK TO RUSSIA NO COLLUSION NO OBSTRUCTION TOTAL EXONERATION NO EVIDENCE OF LEAKS
🧩 Sidebar: The “No Evidence” Hall of Fame
These headlines aren’t just misleading. They’re institutionalized parody.
Like Barr’s summary, Horowitz’s cut-and-paste job recycled language from the June 2018 report—the only part ever released.
FN: See Chapter Horowitz Barr Playbook for how this summary was telegraphed years in advance.
🔍 Parsing the Pedantry
Giuliani denied receiving info from active agents. He claimed “active” meant retired agents still doing security.
So case closed, right? Guilty people never make false denials.
Meanwhile, the four FBI employees also denied contact with Giuliani. But the IG found they had been in contact with numbers that were “not specific to Giuliani.”
What does that even mean? It could mean they called Rudy’s office. Or his assistant. Or his burner.
It’s like saying:
“I didn’t call you—I called your office and happened to talk to you.”
FN: See Chapter Giuliani’s Semantic Games for more on this tactic.
🧠Modular Insert: The Asymmetry of Exposure
Who are these four FBI employees? Why do they get anonymity when Strozk and Page were publicly crucified?
Horowitz’s logic:
“Too many leaks to isolate any one.”
So:
Everyone did it, so no one’s accountable.
But this logic wasn’t applied to McCabe, Strozk, or Page. They were targeted precisely because they were anti-Trump.
Later GOP-demanded reports revealed many anti-Clinton texts—but they were never publicized.
FN: See Chapter Trumpland Double Standards for the full breakdown.
✴️ CODA
Cá´Źá´…á´€: When the system protects its own, truth becomes a casualty of symmetry.
The rogue agents flipped a democratic election. The public deserves to know who they are.
🧠When the Subject Is the Republican Deep State You Can Never Be Too Cynical
As Emptywheel noted:
“Since they never looked for bias, they were never going to find it.”
On the other hand, in June 2018, she wrote:
“I’m a big fan of Michael Horowitz… He has stood up to FBI pushback reasonably well… That other IGs look to him as their leader reflects the great respect he has earned.”
At the time, even I—cynical as I am—tried not to disbelieve it. I tried to quiet my misgivings.
FN: I trust no one in the Republican Party, few in the MSM, and even fewer in the Republican–Deep State starting with the FBI. I’ve yet to be led astray by being too cynical.
🔦 Sidebar: Cynicism’s Track Record
Every time I’ve trusted my instinct, I’ve been right. The only times I’ve been wrong were the rare moments I bought into savvy canards.
Even Marcy Wheeler, before Barr’s fake exoneration letter, expressed optimism. She was persuaded—wrongly—by DOJ media contacts.
I tried to feel more optimistic. But my instinct was right:
Barr wasn’t an institutionalist. He was a partisan GOP hack.
What mattered wasn’t his elite resume. It was his work for George H.W. Bush—starting with the Weinberger pardons.
FN: See Chapter Barr–Durham Fiasco for the full breakdown
Similarly while I had made the mistake trying to hope for the best on some level I understood that I can’t name a single thing Horowitz has done that didn’t benefit the GOP.
.
✴️ CODA
Cᴏᴅᴀ: Cynicism isn’t a flaw when the institutions are rigged. It’s a survival trait
🧠Sidebar: Horowitz’s GOP Timetable
With Horowitz, we saw a pattern:
- GOP narratives got flagged, investigated, and released on time.
- The rogue FBI agent report? Delayed.
I never believed it would see daylight while Trump infected the White House.
But even after Biden finally got in—after the struggle to get him in the building—Horowitz announced the report would never be released.
✴️ CODA
Cá´Źá´…á´€: When truth is timed to partisan convenience, oversight becomes theater.
🧠Emptywheel’s Own Critique of Horowitz
Even in 2018, when she was admittedly too optimistic about him EW flagged Horowitz’s treatment of NY FBI leaks as “really problematic.”
She quoted Loretta Lynch’s testimony about the deep and visceral hatred of Hillary Clinton at NY FBI.
FN: See Chapter Why the Comey Letter for the full Lynch quote.
The report made clear:
- NY leaks played a key role in Comey’s disastrous decision to reopen the investigation.
- Horowitz did not seize FBI phones of presumed leakers.
- The focus on bias against Trump—not against Hillary—was glaring.
NYCSouthpaw made this point the day the report dropped:
The asymmetric focus on bias is a structural flaw in Horowitz’s approach.
🔚 Conclusion: The Investigation That Was Never Allowed to Conclude
The bottom line is simple—and outrageous: Michael Horowitz tabled an investigation into one of the most consequential abuses of power in modern American history.
The rogue FBI agents he chose to protect didn’t just violate policy. They sabotaged a presidential election.
Their leaks helped elect Donald Trump. Their bias shaped the media narrative. Their impunity reshaped the country.
🧨 Modular Insert: The Cost of Protection
- Horowitz shielded their identities.
- He withheld the substance of their communications.
- He refused to pursue criminal accountability.
- He waited until Trump left office to announce the report would never be released.
FN: See Chapter No Probable Cause and Chapter Why the Comey Letter for the full anatomy of this sabotage.
✴️ CODA
Cᴏᴅᴀ: The abuses of 2016 weren’t just egregious. They were epochal—altering the trajectory of American democracy.
And we are still suffering from them. Still struggling with them. Still being governed by their terrible consequences.
🟥 SIDEBAR: The Investigation That Was Never Allowed to Conclude
“We’ll never know.” That’s the quiet legacy of Michael Horowitz’s decision to table the investigation into FBI misconduct during the 2016 election.
🧩 What We Do Know:
- FBI agents leaked to the press in violation of policy.
- Their leaks helped elect Donald Trump.
- Their bias shaped public perception at a critical moment.
- Their impunity reshaped the country.
Horowitz chose not to name them. Chose not to release their messages. Chose not to pursue accountability. Chose to bury the report until Trump was out of office.
⚠️ The Consequence
This wasn’t just egregious. It was epochal—a rupture in democratic norms that altered the course of U.S. history.
And we are still living in its shadow. Still governed by its consequences. Still denied the truth.
🧠CODA (Embedded)
Cᴏᴅᴀ: When oversight becomes delay, and accountability becomes silence, the machinery of democracy doesn’t just stall. It mutates—into something unrecognizable.
🟥 SIDEBAR: The Horowitz Reflex
When Trump barked, Horowitz jumped. When democracy bled, he tabled the report.
🧠A Tale of Two Oversights
| GOP Demands | Horowitz Response |
|---|---|
| Alleged FISA abuse in Russiagate | Full IG report, expedited timeline |
| Sussmann prosecution | Public commentary, coordination with Durham |
| Hunter Biden laptop | Prompt inquiry into FBI handling |
| Clinton email leaks by FBI agents | No report. No names. No accountability. |
🧨 The Asymmetry
Horowitz’s office became a reactive instrument of GOP grievance, chasing phantoms while ignoring documented sabotage.
He moved mountains for Trump’s allies. He buried the truth about Trump’s rise.
🧠CODA (Embedded)
Cá´Źá´…á´€: Oversight without integrity is just performance. And performance without accountability is how institutions rot.