While the direct attacks against Americans' constitutional rights, from gun-grabbers attempting to violate the Second Amendment and Internet social media giants and Google/YouTube actively attacking our First Amendment right of free speech, are both critical issues, there is also some very big news on another front that should not be ignored.
ANP readers have noted that recent events has knocked this growing scandal off the front pages of the major newspapers, buried beneath an avalanche of other issues, many of which more important to the MSM than to ordinary, everyday Americans.
DOJ INVESTIGATION INTO FISA ABUSE SCANDAL
Last week Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the DOJ would be investigating potential Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by the Obama administration, specifically in relation to charges that information contained in the unverified, Kremlin sourced, Steele dossier was used to obtain FISA warrants to surveil Trump campaign team members.
The reaction to the announcement, especially that it would be the DOJ Inspector General that would be spearheading the investigation, has been mixed, with President Trump stating "Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!"
On the flip side of the coin, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, publicly came out in favor of the Inspector General's help in investigating wrongdoing by top FBI and DOJ officials during Barack Obama's presidency. Nunes stated "I welcome anybody to help come investigate because so far it's only the House Intelligence Committee Republicans who are actually doing anything to get to the bottom of who was colluding with Russia.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday, Nunes wrote that the apparent use of the controversial "Trump dossier" to make the case for spying on Page suggests a "clear violation" of FBI protocols because it contained unverified information and such a breach of protocol may have violated five criminal statutes, including conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and contempt of court. He asked Sessions to answer questions about DOJ protocol and any actions performed to "hold accountable those officials who violated these protocols," and asked for an answer next week. (Source)
Nunes did not stop there as he then claimed there is "clear evidence" that it was Democrats that actively colluded with Russia.
Both men are correct.
President Trump is correct that the DOJ Office of Inspector General report of IG Michael Horowitz's year-long plus investigation into the FBI/DOJ actions in regards to the Hillary Clinton private server, classified email scandal, has not been issued yet. He is also correct that Hororwitz is an Obama nominee, but considering Horowitz's history in battling the Obama administration since the day he was confirmed to the position, just to discover that Obama's AG, Eric Holder, had effectively neutered his ability to investigate the agencies it was his job to expose mismanagement and wrongdoing within, he may just be the perfect man for the job.
Horowitz won that war against the Obama administration, which some claimed was a battle for independence and his ability to do his job without being hindered by agencies refusing to provide the documentation he needed to investigate them, with the passage of the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2016.
President Trump is also correct that Horowitz has no prosecutorial power, but Nunes has it right as well, as Hororwitz has already shown he is more than willing to dig deeply and expose wrongdoing, seemingly without regard to politics, as some of the senior FBI and DOJ officials that have been exposed, was a direct result of Hororwitz's investigation. Those include, but are not limited to; Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie's association and collusion with Fusion GPS, who hired Steele to create the dossier that was used by the FBI to obtain the FISA warrant. That dossier was funded in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, but the FISA application never informed the FISA court of the Hillary Clinton/DNC funding.
Horowitz's ongoing investigation is also what exposed FBI senior agent Peter Strzok's texts with his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Those texts showed plotting to help Hillary Clinton avoid charges and changing the wording of the exoneration statement made by former FBI director James Comey. Those texts also exposed Strzok and Page as being leakers to the MSM, and creating an "insurance policy" (The Russia investigation) in the event that Donald Trump won the 2016 election.
Those are just a few examples of what the IG has exposed, even before his final report has been released.
Multiple agencies have told Congress, repeatedly, that they would be determining what, if any, charges to bring up against the senior level FBI/DOJ officials who have been exposed, based on the final IG report.
We have had our reservations about some of AG Sessions' decisions and actions as many Trump supporters do, but in this matter, handing the investigatorial process over to the IG, rather than asking DOJ officials to investigate their own department, may be the only way to offer any type of confidence in the integrity of the new investigation into FISA abuses, which implicates members of multiple intelligence agencies, including the DOJ itself.
Below Hannity discusses some of the newer developments in the FISA abuse scandal.
The media has relegated the FISA abuses conducted during the Obama administration to the back-burner, and with attacks against Americans' constitutional rights coming from every direction, there has been no shortage of updates on those issues by Independent Media, but the new developments in the FISA abuse scandal which implicate a number of former and possibly current intelligence community senior members, is a topic everyone should be watching carefully as well.
While we share readers, and President Trump's frustration over how long these investigations have taken, we do feel it is only fair to point out that the Office of Inspector General fought with the Obama administration for over four years to obtain his right to simply do his job, and the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2016 passed by Congress, was not signed until December 2016, and within one month, his investigation into the FBI/DOJ wrongdoing regarding the Clinton investigation began.
In other words, Obama's politicized intelligence agencies had nearly five years to run rampant and unchecked, so Horowitz has quite a bit to catch up in regards to oversight and investigating.
Below, liberal comedian Bill Maher, highlights some of the "news" that the media found more important than the growing FISA abuse scandal and the DOJ investigation into those abuses. LANGUAGE ALERT.
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