The twin reports from Justice Department Inspector General
Michael Horowitz and US Attorney John Durham have been eagerly awaited by both
sides in the debate over whether members of the Trump campaign were baited by
intelligence and law enforcement agencies in an effort to establish a probable
cause to begin an investigation. A few weeks ago, we
reported that Horowitz’s report would not contain bombshells about Deep
State conspiracies that had been unearthed and now it seems that Durham will
not give conspiracy theorists any Christmas gifts either.
The Washington
Post reports that Horowitz had
submitted a number of questions to Durham, who was handpicked by Attorney General
Barr to investigate and prosecute misconduct in the DOJ relating to the Russia
investigation. Among the questions was whether Durham had evidence that Joseph
Mifsud, a Maltese professor, was a government asset who was used to entrap
members of the Trump campaign. The Post’s sources, who have seen a draft copy
of the Horowitz report, say that Durham has no evidence to contradict
government denials that Mifsud was an asset.
The inspector general’s office, the Durham investigation,
and the DOJ all declined to comment on the report.
Sources indicate that the Horowitz report will find that
there was adequate cause for the FBI to initiate the Russia investigation but
will also find fault with FBI handling of the case. In particular, Horowitz will
criticize later renewals of the FISA application for Carter Page, which failed
to convey that information from Christopher Steele was not as reliable as
previously believed. Nevertheless, the report will apparently not conclude that
the omissions were significant enough to have compromised the integrity of the
entire renewal.
Horowitz will also find fault with Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI
lawyer who altered an email that related to the FISA application against
Page. Clinesmith was forced out of the FBI after his deception was discovered
and may be indicted by Durham. Again, Horowitz will say that the action did not
compromise the integrity of the investigation.
Clinesmith, who spoke with the Post, also sent emails and
text messages with anti-Trump comments. Clinesmith said that such messages were
jokes and that his political views did not affect his work.
The Horowitz report will also address the origin of the
Russia investigation. As was commonly believed, the investigation was based upon
comments made by Trump advisor George
Papadopoulos to the Australian ambassador in May 2016. Even though the DNC
hack was not public knowledge until July, Papadopoulos told Greek and
Australian diplomats in May that Russia was in possession of stolen emails
relating to Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos got his information from Mifsud, who
he now claims was an agent for some western intelligence agency.
The full IG report has not yet been released to the public,
but Barr, who has seen drafts of the report, has disputed Horowitz’s conclusions
that there was no conspiracy of DOJ officials who were biased against President
Trump and worked to undermine his presidency. The Washington
Post reported recently that Barr has praised Horowitz’s work but believes
privately that the IG does not have access to enough information to draw firm
conclusions. With the DOJ exonerated, Barr has indicated that he believes the
key to the conspiracy may lie with other agencies such as the CIA or with
foreign governments.
Without being specific, Barr told CBS
News last May, “I assumed I’d get answers when I went in and I have not
gotten answers that are well satisfactory, and in fact probably have more
questions… Some of the facts that … I’ve learned don’t hang together with the
official explanations of what happened.”
It is not known whether Horowitz has contacted the CIA and
other intelligence agencies to look into possible ties to Mifsud, but Barr and
Durham have reportedly
reached out to foreign governments. Horowitz’s questions to Durham involved
whether he might have found additional information that the IG was not privy to
and that would change his conclusions. Durham’s answer seems to have been
negative.
At this point, it seems that the Horowitz and Durham
investigations will undercut years of conspiratorial talking points from the
Trump Administration and Republican pundits. However, don’t expect the sunlight
of facts to dispel the myth that moles within the government were out to get Donald
Trump. A characteristic of conspiracy theories is that layers can be added to
the conspiracy to deny information that contradicts the narrative. Years of
breathless-but-wrong revelations of DOJ wrongdoing won’t be easily overcome.
To paraphrase a favorite Ronald Reagan aphorism, it isn’t that
the Deep State believers are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that
isn’t so.
Originally published on The
Resurgent
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