As we’ve told you earlier, the media and Democrat spin on the IG report is in, but people like AG Bill Barr and John Durham disagree, and they aren’t alone.
GOP Rep. Mark Meadows took on the immediate spin that the FBI has been exonerated and cleared of any accusations of political bias in the events leading up to the formation of the Russia investigation:
THREAD: You will probably see plenty of spin and headlines today claiming the FBI is exonerated in this report. That is laughable, to put it lightly. The report eviscerates senior officials who broke rules and abused power.
Let's go over some of the details.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
We’re looking at you, James Comey & Andrew McCabe.
For starters, the "no bias" talking point you see is misdirection from the left. See this line, from the IG:
"Our role in this review was not to second-guess discretionary judgments by Department personnel about whether to open an investigation"
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
If you see someone harping on the "bias" point, they are giving you a broad, misapplied talking point to distract from the specifics within the IG report that are damning.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
How is the spin inaccurate? Meadows counted the ways:
Some top takeaways:
1) FBI heavily abused the FISA process. Presented false info and withheld exculpatory info from the court.
2) FBI used 'defensive briefings' to investigate Trump campaign officials
3) FBI relied on knowingly dubious sources for anti-Trump information
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
Page 361: MAJOR FISA abuse.
IG identified "numerous serious factual errors and omissions in the applications … that undercut certain allegations in the FISA applications."
They knowingly used bad information to surveil American citizens in the Trump campaign.
Wow.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
Page 341: In August 2016, the FBI used a briefing with the Trump campaign as an opportunity to gather potentially relevant investigative information about Michael Flynn, a member of the Trump campaign at the time.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
What IG report page 341 tells you: the FBI used a defensive briefing with the Trump campaign as a tool for an investigation into its members. Unbelievable.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
Page 289: Peter Strzok lied to the OIG?
Strzok said he "didn’t know whether Bruce Ohr kept meeting with Steele after Steele was terminated." But Strzok’s handwritten notes show he got updates on 12/12/16, 12/20/16, and 1/23/17 regarding Ohr and Steele's ongoing communications !
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
“Not biased but incompetent” doesn’t seem to be the fallback Democrats think it is either:
Page 64. Andy McCabe kept Peter Strzok on the Crossfire Hurricane team, despite warnings. IG says there were even times Strzok (and Lisa Page) evidently bypassed chain of command to advise specifically McCabe about case related information. Red flag.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
Another IG report nugget: as we suspected, FBI kept using Chris Steele even after he was terminated for cause. Bruce Ohr met with the FBI 13 times (!) to pass along information he had been given by Steele, who had been fired.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
There is more we'll continue sharing. Bottom line: this report confirms what we've been saying. There was significant abuse all over the FBI's efforts to investigate the Trump campaign.
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) December 9, 2019
Meanwhile, James Comey is claiming that the FBI’s “mistakes” were just good people trying to protect America.
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