371 Three Months Before His Death Wayne Barrett Interviewed Arch Rogue FBI Agent James Kallstrom

🧠 Barrett’s Final Warning

Wayne Barrett spent 40 years warning the world about Donald Trump. In vain, alas. Fittingly, he passed away on January 19, 2017—the day before Trump’s inauguration. Barrett was spared the scene of American carnage.

He also spent decades warning about Roger Stone. Much of the Stone history in this book comes from Barrett’s original reporting.

🧠 Horowitz Buried the Rogue FBI Investigation

As we saw in Chapter Why the Comey Letter, Michael Horowitz spent four years slow-walking the investigation into rogue FBI agents—while fast-tracking Trump’s conspiracy theories. After Biden took office, Horowitz officially tabled the probe.

His 10-page statement amounted to this: There were so many anti-Clinton leakers, none should face accountability.

Even public exposure was deemed too much.

Among the 100 rogue agents leaking to take down Hillary Clinton, you wonder: did Horowitz speak to Kallstrom? I’d bet he didn’t. And he should have checked with Wayne Barrett—who did.

🧠 Kallstrom: King of the Rogue Anti-Clinton FBI

If you want to talk rogue anti-Clinton FBI agents, they don’t come bigger than James Kallstrom—former director of the NY FBI, the belly of the beast.

Before November 8, 2016, Kallstrom and his BFF Rudy Giuliani boasted of talking to current and former agents furious that Comey had exonerated Clinton.

Ungrateful, considering Comey had already hit her where it hurt—politically.

🧠 Barrett’s Final Scoop

On November 3, 2016—just after the Comey Letter—Barrett published his final major piece. He quoted Giuliani:

“There’s a kind of revolution going on inside the FBI… I know that from former agents. I know that even from a few active agents.”

Later they hedged: only former agents. But as we saw in Chapter Why the Comey Letter, Comey told Loretta Lynch that many of these agents were retired but kept coming into work anyway.

The crusade to take down “that woman” invigorated them.

Who fits that description better than Kallstrom?

🧠 Kallstrom’s Media Blitz

Barrett wrote:

“Kallstrom has been on an anti-Comey romp for months… calling the Clintons a ‘crime family.’ He’s invoked unnamed agents in interview after interview.”

On Fox, Megyn Kelly asked: “How angry must they be tonight?”

Kallstrom replied: “I know some of the agents… the senior staff… they’re P.O.’d. No question.”

🧠 Horowitz, If You’re Listening…

But you probably aren’t. As Maddow says: Look at what they do.

When Comey cleared Clinton in July, Kallstrom said:

“I’ve talked to about 15 different agents today—both on the job and off.”

By Labor Day: “50 different people.”

By September 28: “Hundreds of people… retired agents and a few on the job.”

“They feel like they’ve been stabbed in the back.”

FN: I’d bet anything Kallstrom wasn’t guessing. He knew about Huma’s emails—probably before Nunes. This was NY FBI intel. His old stomping grounds.

As we saw in Chapter Nunes, Deviln Barrett claimed there were NONE.

🧠 Kallstrom Endorses Trump

Kallstrom’s exchanges with active agents violated FBI policy. So did Giuliani’s. But Kallstrom went further—he formally endorsed Trump on Fox Business, calling Clinton a “pathological liar.”

Horowitz alluded to 100 rogue leakers. Kallstrom claimed hundreds.

🧠 Giuliani’s “Nonpolitical” Agents

Giuliani insisted the agents who pressured Comey weren’t political.

“They don’t look at it politically.”

Sure. Like Kallstrom. Or Bernard Kerik. Both endorsed Trump. Both were “apolitical.”

FN: In retrospect, that endorsement was a hell of an investment. Value-added, indeed.

🧠 Kerik, Kallstrom, and the Machinery of Collusion

It’s fair to ask what Bernard Kerik’s role was in the Comeygate operation. He’s essentially Kallstrom’s bookend—the former NYPD Chief to the former NYFBI Director. The two biggest bastions of Hillary hatred.

FN: Kerik was Rudy’s handpicked NYPD Chief in late 1990s NYC.

Giuliani and Kallstrom go way back. The ties that bind Trumpland the FBI are deep, incestuous, and strategically placed.

Kallstrom first worked with Giuliani when Rudy was a young assistant prosecutor in the early ’70s. He later served as Pataki’s public safety director post-9/11, and claims he recommended Comey for U.S. Attorney in the Southern District—Giuliani’s old job.

Comey had worked in the Southern District since 1987, hired by Louis Freeh—another Giuliani deputy.

🧠 Pirro, Leaks, and Selective Outrage

Kallstrom’s victory tour included a Fox appearance with Jeanine Pirro, former Westchester DA and Pataki ally. Pirro once claimed to be the victim of law enforcement leaks during her 2006 race against Andrew Cuomo.

Her concern about leaks didn’t extend to Hillary Clinton.

Kallstrom told Pirro: “He couldn’t hold on to this any longer.” Then added: “Maybe the locals would’ve done it.”

Pirro echoed gleefully: “New York City, that’s my thing!”

By “locals,” he meant NY FBI and NYPD. His own people.

🧠 The Anonymous NYPD Threat

In Chapter True Pundit, we discussed an anonymous NYPD chief who threatened to leak Huma Abedin’s emails to Wikileaks if Comey didn’t act.

Was that Bernard Kerik?

🧠 Kallstrom’s Post-Letter Spin

After the Comey Letter, Kallstrom tried to get on message—like Rudy—insisting it was only retired agents. But his heart wasn’t in it.

In a phone interview with The Daily Beast, he claimed hundreds of calls and emails—all from retired agents. Then admitted he’d interacted with active agents.

“In all but two cases,” they agreed with his TV appearances. The other two thought he should be more supportive of Comey.

🧠 The Retired vs. Active Distinction Was a Farce

As noted above, the distinction between retired and active agents was meaningless in 2016. Many “retired” agents kept coming into work—motivated by the Hunt for Her Emails.

When Wayne Barrett reached out, Kallstrom dissembled:

• Denied contact with agents “involved” in the Clinton case
• Claimed not to know “the agents’ names”
• Called the inquiry “offensive”
• Then admitted: “I know agents in the building who used to work for me.”

He didn’t know anyone in the Washington field office. But that’s beside the point. The belly of the beast was NY FBI—his turf.

🧠 Horowitz Waited Too Long

If—as I strongly suspect—Horowitz never questioned Kallstrom, he missed his chance. Kallstrom joined Wayne Barrett and Peter Smith in the Great Beyond this past July.

The rogue network buried its own tracks. And the watchdogs never barked.

🧠 “Locals” and the Weiner Case

Later, Kallstrom acknowledged that “the bulk” of the agents on the Weiner case were in the New York office. But he insisted the “locals” he referenced to Pirro weren’t necessarily agents.

Sure. Just like Giuliani’s “nonpolitical” agents who endorsed Trump.

🧠 Kallstrom’s “Surprise” Doesn’t Pass the Laugh Test

Kallstrom declined to explain why Megyn Kelly stated as fact that he was in contact with agents “involved” in the Clinton case. When asked if he encouraged any actions in those exchanges, he replied: “No.”

Then he pivoted: “Now, I’m supporting Comey.” Why? Because Comey won the election for Trump. Before October 28, Kallstrom sang a different tune.

Post-letter, he backed the man who delivered the kill shot. Pre-letter, he was sharpening the blade.

🧠 The Lie That Keeps on Lying

Kallstrom claimed he was “surprised” by the Comey letter. This, despite predicting in September that more facts would soon come out. He said Giuliani’s “big surprises” were probably WikiLeaks or Project Veritas tapes.

Better than Rudy’s lie that the “real big surprises” were a new ad campaign in Wisconsin. But still a lie.

My assumption? Kallstrom’s pre-letter statements were based on intimate knowledge—just like Stone, Corsi, Smith, Prince, and TruePundit’s Michael Moore. Just like Nunes later revealed he had.

FN: See Chapter Devin Nunes

🧠 The “Independent” Farce

Despite ties to Pataki, Limbaugh, and Trump, Kallstrom claimed he was apolitical. Never involved in a campaign. Registered independent. Said FBI agents he knew were “as nonpartisan as he is.”

Some independent. He endorsed Trump at the height of the campaign.

Kallstrom’s comedic timing was impeccable.

🧠 Barrett Kicks the Hornet’s Nest

As we saw in Chapter Louise Mensch, when I discussed this on Twitter, Schindler’s dupes came after me. He blocked me—while still trying to take my money.

Then Mensch accused me of being a Russian agent.

FN: I defend her in the chapter. Why? Partly because I’m kind of a great guy. Mostly because truth matters.

Her Twitter theatrics were counterproductive. But toward the end of the election, she did good work—especially on Comeygate. Her reporting on the Alpha Bank server hasn’t been refuted. The real criticism is how Savvy pundits like Erik Wemple tried to slander it and carry Trump’s water.

🧠 The FBI’s Quiet Part Out Loud

Barrett made a point I’ve made on Twitter, in this book, and almost nowhere else has it been acknowledged:

No Democrat has ever been appointed FBI Director.

Four Democratic presidents—starting with FDR’s selection of J. Edgar Hoover in 1935—have all picked Republicans. Obama nominated Comey in 2013. He was confirmed 93 to 1.

This doesn’t include the seven acting directors named for brief periods over the last 81 years.

For the first time in FBI history, the agency is now run by someone who isn’t a registered Republican—only because Comey changed his registration.

He didn’t say what he changed it to. But he’d donated to McCain and Romney. The pattern is clear.

🔥 Final Punch

The FBI isn’t just structurally conservative. It’s institutionally Republican. The myth of independence is a smokescreen. The machinery runs on loyalty, not law. And the Democrats keep pretending it’s neutral—while it keeps stabbing them in the back.

🧠 Freeh, Kallstrom, and the DNA of Partisan Law Enforcement

Six months into his first term, Bill Clinton tapped Louis Freeh—an FBI agent who’d worked under Kallstrom. Freeh spent eight years trying to put Clinton in jail, even dispatching agents to collect the president’s DNA during a formal dinner.

When Freeh stepped down in 2001, he joined MBNA—a major Republican donor—where Kallstrom and another top Freeh appointee were already working.

He’s still hunting the Clintons. Last year, he delivered a speech assailing them at an FBI event in New York.

🧠 The Culture of the Bureau

It’s not just the man at the top. The FBI’s hierarchy and line staff lean Republican. It’s a white, male, usually Catholic, and deeply conservative culture.

This is why I’ve long argued President Joe should’ve fired Wray and appointed a Democrat. Unless you think 113 years of Republican rule isn’t enough.

🧠 Wray’s Failures and Schiff’s Surrender

Under Wray, Schiff revealed that HSPCI stopped receiving regular counterintelligence reports on Russia. Schiff and Friends threatened Wray with a subpoena. Wray didn’t blink. They dropped it.

President Joe waited exactly one day to assure Wray he was staying on.

This is why Kurt Bardella was right: Nobody fears the Democrats.

FN: add link to Bardella’s tweet.

🧠 The Long History of Democratic Deference

There’s no cost to calling their bluff. Not with:

• LBJ in 1968, who sat on intel that Nixon stole the election with help from North Vietnam
• Carter, who downplayed Reagan’s theft of the 1980 election in collusion with the Ianian Ayatollah
• Clinton, who canceled Iran-Contra investigations and appointed Ken Starr
• Obama, who refused to investigate Bush-Cheney abuses
• Biden, who saw it all—and still kept Wray

UPDATE: Jacobin – The October Surprise Was Real

🧠 President Joe: The Opposite of a Counterpuncher

Even when attacked, Biden tells his staff not to fight back. If elections were decided on decency, this would be great. But reality is different.

Who pays the price for Joe’s goodness? Not him. His life is fine. We do.

The voters who gave Democrats power. The millions suffering under a system Democrats refuse to confront.

FN: Find link to where Biden said not to fight back

Maybe Joe should’ve campaigned for Mother Teresa’s job. We still need a President who fights in the real world.

🧠 The Myth of Apolitical Agents

Giuliani and Kallstrom claim the agents revolting against Comey were apolitical—just seeking equal treatment. But where were they in 2007, when Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales tried to replace nine U.S. attorneys with “loyal Bushies”?

Democrats were five times more likely to be prosecuted than Republicans during the W. Bush years.

🧠 Giuliani’s Bipartisan Smoke Screen

In 2008, Giuliani defended Gonzales: “A decent man.” He lectured: “We should try to remove on both sides as much of the partisanship as possible.”

He recalled post-Watergate rules limiting law enforcement’s contact with political figures—while bragging on national TV about doing exactly that.

He’s a political figure. He just doesn’t care.

🧠 Biden’s Bipartisanship G-Spot

The sad thing is, Biden would hear Giuliani’s line and call him a wonderful, decent man. Because bipartisanship is Biden’s G-spot.

When Rudy says it, he’s blowing smoke. When Biden says it, he means it.

That’s the tragedy of institutionalism. Both sides invoke it. Only Democrats believe it.

🧠 The Mukasey Maneuver and the Fox Pipeline

Giuliani’s mentor, Michael Mukasey, succeeded Gonzales as attorney general and appointed a special investigator to examine the U.S. attorney scandal. She concluded no laws had been broken.

Four days earlier, a federal appeals court vacated seven of eight convictions in a case she supervised—citing suppressed exculpatory evidence, including FBI notes.

Kallstrom didn’t comment on the blatant partisan interference. Why? “Never asked,” he said. He was a CBS law enforcement consultant at the time. How he became a Fox regular is anyone’s guess.

🧠 The Bipartisanship Blankie

The tragedy of Democrats like Biden—and much of the Old Guard—is that even after reading this, they’d hug their bipartisanship blankie tighter.

They don’t learn. They double down.

🧠 The Fox Funnel and the Clinton Foundation Farce

When Comey sent his internal memo explaining the renewed Clinton probe, the scoop went to Fox News. Kallstrom got booked to call the Clintons a “crime family.” Peter Schweitzer—author of Clinton Cash, tangled in Breitbart and Trump conflicts—announced on Fox that NY FBI agents asked him to sit down.

The New York Times later reported those agents relied on Schweitzer’s discredited work to pitch a full-scale probe.

UPDATE: This point belongs in Chapter McCabe, especially in context of McCabe’s leak and the unpredicated nature of the Clinton Foundation investigation.

UPDATE 2.0: Not sure that’s true about chapter McCabe

🧠 Biden’s Performance and the Procedural Gap

I wrote this in 2021, when Biden’s reelection prospects looked shaky. By July 2023, I felt better—about his prospects and his performance. But his refusal to engage in procedural hardball remains a major shortcoming.

Kamala was my first choice in 2020. Warren was second. Both would’ve been more aggressive. Hillary, too. It’s hard to imagine anyone being less aggressive than Biden.

If women are still unelectable to the top job, then Biden was the right choice. But it’s a damning reflection of the system.

🧠 The Red Wave That Wasn’t

In 2021, the “Red Wave” loomed. In 2022, Democrats wildly overperformed. But let’s be honest: they were lucky.

Dobbs changed the game. The Dem Establishment had long avoided defending abortion rights—too “divisive,” said the Savvy class.

🧠 The Electoral College Trap

Polls showing Biden up by 4 don’t inspire confidence. He won 2020 by 7—and got the same EC margin Trump got in 2016 after losing by 3.

The GOP’s structural advantage remains.

🧠 The Approval Abyss

As noted in Chapter Leeden Manifesto, Biden’s approval rating remains abysmal. He’s more likely to win in 2024 than not. But there’s no room for complacency.

None so blind as those who will not see.

🔥 Final Punch

Let’s end with Oscar Wilde:

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”