After an 18-month investigation into the FBI and DOJ's Hillary Clinton probe, the highly anticipated report from the Justice Department's Inspector General Michael Horowitz is out. Here's a look at the three biggest takeaways.
An unidentified FBI employee described Trump voters as "uneducated" and "lazy POS" the day after the 2016 presidential election, according to the Justice Department watchdog's bombshell report on the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
The employee was responding to instant messages from "FBI Attorney 2," whom DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz indicated was one of five FBI employees who had been referred for investigation and possible disciplinary action over politically charged messages.
Horowitz said Attorney 2 had been assigned to the Clinton investigation "early in 2016." Approximately one year later, the report said Attorney 2 was made the "primary FBI attorney" assigned to the Russia investigation.
IG REFERS FIVE FBI EMPLOYEES FOR INVESTIGATION, AS MORE ANTI-TRUMP MESSAGES REVEALED
On the morning of Nov. 9, 2016, Attorney 2 messaged the employee: "I am so stressed about what I could have done differently."
The employee answered: "Don't stress. None of that mattered," an apparent reference to the FBI's investigation of Clinton. When the attorney said: "I don’t know. We broke the momentum," the employee answered: "That is not so."
"All the people who were initially voting for her would not, and were not, swayed by any decision the FBI put out," the employee wrote. "Trump’s supporters are all poor to middle class, uneducated, lazy POS that think he will magically grant them jobs for doing nothing. They probably didn't watch the debates, aren't fully educated on his policies, and are stupidly wrapped up in his unmerited enthusiasm."
"POS" is an acronym that typically means "piece[s] of s---."
"Attorney 2" later messaged the employee: "I'm just devastated. I can't wait until I can leave today and just shut off the world for the next four days."
He later added: "I just can't imagine the systematic disassembly of the progress we made over the last 8 years. [The Affordable Care Act] is gone. Who knows if the rhetoric about deporting people, walls, and crap is true. I honestly feel like there is going to be a lot more gun issues, too, the crazies won finally. This is the tea party on steroids. And the GOP is going to be lost, they have to deal with an incumbent in 4 years. We have to fight this again. Also [Vice President Mike] Pence is stupid."
When asked about the messages, "Attorney 2" said the two were "just discussing our personal feelings ... between friends." He also told the watchdog that the "so stressed about what I could have done differently" message referred to the length of time investigators took to examine Clinton emails found on former Congressman Anthony Weiner's laptop.
"[I]f we would have opened a few weeks earlier, as opposed to at that time, two weeks before the election, I think it, you know, it would have given more time for the FBI’s actions and, and required and, and necessary investigation to, to occur to allow the, the public a chance to make their own [decisions]."
The Nov. 9 exchange of messages was one of three that Horowitz flagged as raising "concerns of potential bias" on the part of "Attorney 2."
Another exchange took place on Oct. 28, 2016, the day then-FBI Director James Comey notified Congress that he was reopening the Clinton email investigation after emails were found on Weiner's laptop. According to Horowitz, the attorney send messages to four separate FBI employees that referred to Comey's letter as "the destruction of the Republic."
"I mean, I never really liked the Republic anyway," the attorney messaged two different FBI employees, while a message to a third read: "As I have initiated the destruction of the republic.... Would you be so kind as to have a coffee with me this afternoon?" A fourth message read: "I'm clinging to small pockets of happiness in the dark time of the Republic’s destruction."
When questioned by the inspector general's office, Attorney 2 described the language in the Oct. 28 messages as "hyperbolic" and "off-the cuff commentary to friends." He also denied that his "personal political feelings or beliefs" played any role in his work on the Clinton or Russia investigation.
No comments:
Post a Comment