Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is over. No "collusion," between Russia or any U.S. persons was established. The 400+ page report is now public with limited redactions. Liberals, Democrats and the media made their opinions very clear that they were unhappy with the result of the nearly two-year long "Witch Hunt," as President Trump has dubbed it, that just happened to cost American taxpayers between $25 and $35 million.
Everything we have seen since, the Democrat politicians gnashing their teeth, crying because of the limited redactions, mostly from grand jury testimony that is illegal to share, their spectacle in "questioning" Attorney General Bill Barr at congressional hearings, which was more like attacking him at every opportunity, is all nothing more than one huge temper tantrum, because the Mueller report did not provide them with another nearly two years of being able to scream "collusion" right up until the 2020 Presidential election.
The media, online liberal activists and Democrat politicians, will all spend the next few weeks desperately trying to keep the "story" alive, but the general public is tired of hearing about the Mueller investigation. The aforementioned groups have truly backed themselves into a corner because as the story they have been peddling for three years dies its brutally slow death, the other ongoing investigations, reviews and upcoming reports, will take center stage and the Deep State fear and panic is palpable.
While voters are ready to put the whole Mueller fiasco behind them, there is an apparent appetite for a different investigation, one that is already occurring on multiple fronts, regarding the origins of the Russia probe. Even a poll conducted by CNN found that 69 percent of those polled want answers as to how the whole Russia collusion "insurance policy," came about. [Correction - In one point of partisan agreement over Mueller's work, 69% think Congress ought to investigate the origins of the Justice Department's inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, including 76% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 62% of Republicans.] (Thanks Maria!)
While regular ANP readers already know that the DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz is reviewing a number of issues, including the actions of former FBI Director James Comey, and the possible FISA court abuses by intelligence agencies under Obama to spy on the Trump campaign, along with a separate team of prosecutors led by Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber, in cooperation with the IG's office, AG Barr has also launched an investigation of his own into the entire process that led to the whole Russia collusion investigation.
Weeks ago Barr testified that he hadn't launched a team yet, and many of us were in wait-and-see mode. Was he just humoring the Republican politicians by telling them he "planned" to gather a team together as he was "trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016?"
As of Barr's most recent testimony, amidst the pearl clutching and hand-wringing by Democrats, we learned that Barr was not just blowing hot air, he has already gathered his team and they are in the process of doing exactly what he promised. We also learned that his probe if more far-reaching than we originally thought it would be.
Kimberly Strassel over at Wall Street Journal caught what the liberal media either did not, or just chose not to report on: (Linking to Power Line for the key quotes since the WSJ piece is behind a paywall)
Mr. Barr made real news in that Senate hearing, and while the press didn’t notice, Democrats did. The attorney general said he’d already assigned people at the Justice Department to assist his investigation of the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. He said his review would be far-reaching—that he was obtaining details from congressional investigations, from the ongoing probe by the department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, and even from Mr. Mueller’s work. Mr. Barr said the investigation wouldn’t focus only on the fall 2016 justifications for secret surveillance warrants against Trump team members but would go back months earlier.
He also said he’d focus on the infamous “dossier” concocted by opposition-research firm Fusion GPS and British former spy Christopher Steele, on which the FBI relied so heavily in its probe. Mr. Barr acknowledged his concern that the dossier itself could be Russian disinformation, a possibility he described as not “entirely speculative.” He also revealed that the department has “multiple criminal leak investigations under way” into the disclosure of classified details about the Trump-Russia investigation.
Do not underestimate how many powerful people in Washington have something to lose from Mr. Barr’s probe. Among them: Former and current leaders of the law-enforcement and intelligence communities. The Democratic Party pooh-bahs who paid a foreign national (Mr. Steele) to collect information from Russians and deliver it to the FBI. The government officials who misused their positions to target a presidential campaign. The leakers. The media. More than reputations are at risk. Revelations could lead to lawsuits, formal disciplinary actions, lost jobs, even criminal prosecution.
The attacks on Mr. Barr are first and foremost an effort to force him out, to prevent this information from coming to light until Democrats can retake the White House in 2020. As a fallback, the coordinated campaign works as a pre-emptive smear, diminishing the credibility of his ultimate findings by priming the public to view him as a partisan.
Barr doesn't have to start from scratch, the information has all already been compiled from a variety of sources, and the IG has already weeded through most of it, along with the underlying documentation compiled by the Mueller investigation, and whatever Huber has obtained.... they all report back to Barr.
Hence the over-the-top personal attacks coming out against Barr by Democrats and their media puppets.
The problem for them is that Barr isn't the one uncovering the information, that has already been done mostly by Horowitz, which means that the liberal media needs to attack Horowitz as well, and they have already started doing so.
I refer you to Natasha Bertrand, over at Politico, around mid-April, that cites unnamed sources (of course!), in an attempt to smear Horowitz's investigations, which I might add, has been responsible for the dozen-plus or so high level intelligence agencies demotions, resignations and terminations, already.
Here are a couple of the key statements in her "reporting."
• One former U.S. official left the interview with the impression that the Inspector General’s final report “is going to try and deeply undermine” Steele, who spent over two decades working Russia for MI6 before leaving to launch his own corporate intelligence firm.
Undermine Steele? We have already seen reporting that much of the information in the Steele Dossier, was most likely Russian disinformation. Then the dossier was used by Obama intel officials to obtain the FISA warrant to spy on Carter page.
• Former U.S. officials interviewed by the inspector general were skeptical about the quality of his probe. They emphasized to Horowitz that information in a warrant application need not be wholly verified, as long as the reliability of the source of the information is disclosed to the court, which the FBI did in the Page FISA case with regard to Steele. But the inspector general seemed neither well-versed in the FISA process nor receptive to the explanations, the officials said.
The IG is not "well versed in the FISA process? That couldn't be further from the truth. Horowitz has been the IG since 2012. Prior to that Horowitz worked in DOJ from 1991 to 2002. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1991 to 1999, where he was the Chief of the Public Corruption Unit and a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. In 1995, he was awarded the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service for his work on a complex police corruption investigation. Thereafter, he worked in the DOJ Criminal Division in Washington from 1999 to 2002, first as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General and then as Chief of Staff. (Source)
I would wager that Horowitz is far better versed in the FISA process that Bertrand's anonymous sources will ever be, and the statement that he wasn't "receptive to the explanations," is entertaining, because it appears that what he wasn't receptive to was the excuses and justifications that those he is investigating tried to hand him for spying on the Trump campaign.
SLITHERING OUT FROM UNDER THEIR ROCKS
When I said the Deep State panic was palpable, it was because all of a sudden people that have been keeping a very low profile, have begun slithering out from the rocks they have been hiding under. Why else would Obama's former Deputy AG Sally Yates and former FBI Director James Comey be writing op-eds once the "no collusion" bottom line of the Mueller report was revealed?
Both of them and the other talking heads that have signed on with MSNBC or CNN, former Obama officials, all know that one of Horowitz's upcoming reports, which Barr said would be released in May or early June, focuses on the FISA warrants that Yates signed of on, to spy on the Trump campaign and the investigations into the Russia collusion hoax that James Comey began.
I'll admit up front, I was one of those people that heard Barr was going to "Investigate the Investigators," and settled back and waited to see if he truly would. We've been disappointed before, so it seemed prudent to watch it play out, but we now know that not only is he following through, but Barr is working very closely with the DOJ IG in the investigation.
Democrats can scream, yell, attack Barr, as they have been doing, but it will not protect the "deep state" members that are under investigation. The media can try to help by hammering the "Mueller report," and breathlessly report everything the Democrats say and do, but they cannot protect the deep state members either.
It does appear that certain liberal media outlets understand what is coming, and that they cannot stop it, nor protect those in the crosshairs, as recently the NYT has started reporting on the spying attempts by intelligence agencies, as well as questioning the "Steele Dossier" and whether it was nothing more than a Russia disinformation document.
Better late than never, or just the NYT trying to cover their own butts after pushing the Russian collusion delusion for the past three years? You decide.
Last but not least, as Stefan mentioned to me earlier, pray that Barr and Horowitz have very good security teams surrounding them.
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