Bloomberg News got a look at the watchdog report being released today and which Trump surrogates have been clamoring for so they can use any findings to smear Robert Mueller's special counsel and the FBI as they investigate the 2016 election and the Russians.
A hot topic among the propagandists has been Peter Strzok and Lisa Page since they weren't fond of Trump and private text messages were leaked and reported on to smear the FBI.
In the video above, The Guardian's Sabrina Siddiqui gives us a quick and accurate tour:
SABRINA SIDDIQUI: I think you have seen a dramatic escalation when it comes to the president's attacks on the work of the Justice Department and the FBI. It does bear reinforcing that while the Inspector General condemned some of the individuals at the FBI and their conduct, he did not find any bearing on their work on the investigation. Peter Strzok certainly was reassigned from the Special Counsel when these texts first surfaced.
ANDREA MITCHELL: It was Robert Mueller who reassigned him.
SIDDIQUI: Yes, It was Robert Mueller who reassigned him.
And that does not change the fact that we have seen least 20 people indicted and three companies, with respect to the special counsel and its inquiry. I think as Jeremy pointed out, the president is going to continue to seize on any bread crumb he can find in order to further his attacks on the FBI and suggest that there is bias when, if anything, this report refutes the notion that there is widespread bias against this president.
Too bad Trump, Fox, and their allies they won't get what they hoped for
“We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed,” Horowitz said in the report to be issued Thursday. “The conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation.”
A newly released text by Strzok reported in the Washington Post from will fuel some nonsense from the always Trumpers on Fox News, but his text is only a text and the results of the election speak for themselves since the FBI actually helped Trump get elected.
And FBI agents are allowed to have personal opinions like anybody else on anything and everything but they are not allowed to let those opinions influence any investigation.
They did not do anything wrong and discussing their views is not a crime but since Trump surrogates will do everything to destroy the integrity of the FBI and its members, they used these texts to claim bias.
And we knew before this report that James Comey broke long-standing protocols in his summer briefing on the Clinton investigation.
The Republicans held a hearing on it after Hillary was cleared or have they forgotten already?
Greg Sargent wrote a great piece on Trump's gaslighting:
We need to return to the fact that Trump justified his firing of Comey by citing Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s memo claiming that Comey had erred by treating Clinton unfairly. That memo highlighted Comey’s decision to hold a news conference in July 2016 at which he criticized Clinton, even though he recommended against charges, as a violation of protocol.
Frances Langum contributed to this post.
