Holman Jenkins: The Comey coverup unravels

The Justice Department is investigating whether then-FBI Director James Comey illegally leaked secret information concerning a Russian document; Fox News correspondent David Spunt reports.

In a curious report on Thursday evening, the New York Times carefully averts its eyes from everything that’s interesting. Even Adam Schiff has acknowledged that James Comey’s actions in 2016 may represent the most important and significant Russian influence on the election. (Hoist your shot glass. This will be the umpteenth time I’ve quoted Mr. Schiff on this matter in this column.)
Surely one of the most consequential pieces of intelligence ever received by U.S. agencies was, as we now learn, received in early 2016 from a Dutch counterpart. This is the dubious Russian intelligence that set off Mr. Comey’s multiple interventions in the last presidential race, culminating in an improper act that may have inadvertently elected Donald Trump. Even at the time Mr. Comey’s FBI colleagues considered the intelligence, which indicated questionable actions by the Justice Department to fix the Hillary email investigation, to be false, possibly a Russian plant.
The Times adds the unsurprising revelation that Mr. Comey himself is suspected in the illegal leak that, in early 2017, alerted the media to this untold aspect of his 2016 actions, before the matter disappeared again behind a veil of official secrecy. Yet bizarrely, the paper plays down its scoop, suggesting that any inquiry into a “years-old” leak now can only be a political hit job by an “ambitious” Justice Department attorney seeking to please President Trump.
First of all, I doubt this subject pleases Mr. Trump—it re-raises the question of whether his election was an accident caused by Mr. Comey. Second, the information is obviously important. The scandal hiding in plain sight is our intelligence establishment’s misuse of its authority to muck around in the 2016 election.
As a bonus, I’m going to suggest the FBI’s own pursuit of the collusion will-o’-the-wisp may have been occasioned by its hope of finding that the same fabricated Russian intelligence was in the hands of the Trump campaign, providing an ex post justification for Mr. Comey’s actions that he desperately would have wanted once fingers began pointing at him for Mrs. Clinton’s defeat. (I guess we can at least be glad he didn’t plant the information on Carter Page. )
Let’s call a spade a spade. The media is a big part of the coverup. When the Justice Department inspector general issued his damning report on Mr. Comey, not one media outlet in the Factiva database told its readers about the existence of its classified appendix except this column and Britain’s Daily Mail tabloid.

Let’s call a spade a spade. The media is a big part of the coverup.

Mr. Comey himself, after allegedly leaking the secret information to the press, penned a sententious memoir suggesting the same info should remain hidden from the American people “decades from now.”
And while flogging fake revelations from the nonexistent Trump-Russia conspiracy, the mainstream press ignored a public plea, uttered before Congress, by the Justice Department’s own inspector general that the secret Comey information be declassified so the people and their representatives can know the truth about 2016.
On Thursday night, former Rep. Trey Gowdy reported that the information Mr. Comey is suspected of leaking to the media he refused to share even with Congress in a classified briefing, saying it was too top secret.
The mainstream media has been uncharacteristically silent about all this for too long—and you’re about to find out why. Whether from design or myopia, it allowed itself to be instrumental in suppressing real news in favor of a fairy tale about Mr. Trump and the Russians. That’s the deeper message of the Times’s weirdly conflicted handling of its scoop about Mr. Comey.
Leaking secret intelligence, if that’s what Mr. Comey did, is a crime. But even more palpable is something else: The information remains officially classified not to protect national security but to protect the national-security establishment from embarrassment.

Leaking secret intelligence, if that’s what Mr. Comey did, is a crime. But even more palpable is something else: The information remains officially classified not to protect national security but to protect the national-security establishment from embarrassment.

The story here truly contains something for everybody. If you think Mr. Trump never should have been president, blame Mr. Comey. If you think the “deep state” is running amok, here’s your evidence. If you think the intelligence establishment is incompetent and needs a Trumpian kick in the derrière, even more so.
Alas, every revelation about this matter turns out to be a revelation also about the deviousness and expediency of Mr. Comey, the nation’s former FBI director. What should happen now? More than ever, Attorney General William Barr should act on the authority Mr. Trump has given him and declassify the inspector general’s report as well any material describing the role of other agencies (e.g., the CIA) in Mr. Comey’s election-meddling escapades.

NYPD union leader sides with ICE against de Blasio over ‘sanctuary’-tied murder: ‘He owns this’

A top New York Police Department union official on Friday called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to “own” the consequences of the city’s sanctuary policies -- while insisting officers want to be allowed to work with federal immigration enforcement -- after an illegal immigrant who was freed in November is alleged to have sexually assaulted and murdered a 92-year-old woman.
“The mayor can say what he wants to say -- he owns this,” Sergeants Benevolent Association Vice President Vincent Vallelong told reporters. “He should step up and say these are his policies, he owns it.”
The remarks came at a press conference led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Matthew Albence in New York, days after the deadly consequences of the city’s policy again made headlines due to the murder this month of 92-year-old Maria Fuertes.
Reeaz Khan, an illegal Guyanese immigrant, is accused of attacking Fuertes as she walked home on Jan. 6. Fuertes was reportedly found at 2 a.m. in 32-degree weather and near death on a sidewalk with her clothes pulled above her waist. She was taken to a hospital, where she died from injuries that included a broken spine, according to The New York Post. The Post cited law enforcement sources who said she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
ICE revealed this week that it had issued a detainer -- a request that ICE be alerted of an illegal immigrant’s release from custody so that they can be transferred into ICE custody and go through deportation procedures -- in November for Khan.
But the NYPD followed the city’s sanctuary policy -- which limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities and means that most detainers are ignored -- and released him without informing ICE.
“A phone call, one simple phone call and Maria Fuertes could be alive today,” a visibly furious Albence told reporters.
The horrific crime has fired up a fresh fight between de Blasio and the Trump administration, which says that the murder is yet another example of a policy that puts law-abiding Americans in danger. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the case showed that New Yorkers are “facing the deadly consequences of the sanctuary policies.”
De Blasio responded by claiming that the policy had made the city safer, and also said there were some crimes serious enough that the city would cooperate with federal immigration officials. He also adopted a pro-cop stance and told Wolf to “quit spreading lies about the good work of the NYPD.”
But according to the SBA, New York police want to work with ICE and help them catch illegal alien criminals.
“I can guarantee you every single one of our members wants to help them out, unfortunately, the way the policies are set up, they don't allow us to,” he said. “How do we have our own hands handcuffed to not be able to work with these guys?
“We’re here not to ... pick and choose what crimes are out there, we’re here to actually enforce the law and that's exactly what these guys are doing and that’s why we’re here to support them today,” he said.
Albence said that he had been told the same thing by cops enforcing the law in the Big Apple and elsewhere -- telling reporters that police “hate” sanctuary city laws.
“Go ask the line cops in any jurisdiction -- they hate these things, and I’ve talked to many,” he said. “A lot of these guys are repeat offenders, they are violent offenders and these cops are out there day after day putting their lives on the line and it’s got to be incredibly frustrating for them to arrest these guys, knowing they're here illegally, knowing that ICE could get them off the streets and three weeks later they're arresting them again for a more dangerous crime or a more heinous crime.”
Albence cited statistics saying that last year ICE lodged 7,526 detainers via its New York field office. Those individuals accounted for 17,873 criminal convictions and 6,500 criminal charges. Those charges and convictions include over 200 homicides, over 500 robberies, over 1,000 sexual offenses, over 1,000 weapons offenses and over 3,500 assaults. Only 10 detainers were honored.
Albence expressed anger at an initial denial from the city that there had been a detainer issued at all -- a denial that led ICE to post online the fax receipt showing it had in fact been sent.
“If you’re going to have a sanctuary city policy and you know it's going to result in people going back out to the street and committing more crimes, at least own it, at least stand up and say 'yeah that’s our policy,'” he said. “Own it, don't sit there and try to push the blame onto someone else -- it’s disgusting.”

Trump says Second Amendment is 'under very serious attack' in Virginia ahead of gun-rights rally

President Trump on Friday declared the Second Amendment is “under very serious attack” in Virginia amid a contentious gun debate in the commonwealth and ahead of a controversial gun-rights rally in Richmond on Monday.
“Your 2nd Amendment is under very serious attack in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia,” the president tweeted.
Thousands of gun-rights advocates are expected to attend a rally organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League Monday.
Earlier this week, Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., declared a state of emergency and said he is temporarily banning individuals from carrying firearms and other weapons on Capitol grounds ahead of the rally for fear of a repeat of the violence law enforcement was ill-prepared to deal with at another rally in Charlottesville more than two years ago.
Pro-gun activists have challenged that order. But a Richmond Circuit Court judge upheld Northam’s order, denying a lawsuit brought forth by the Virginia Citizens Defense League as well as Gunowners of America seeking an injunction against the Democratic governor's ban.
Meanwhile, FBI agents on Thursday arrested a former Canadian armed forces reservist and two other men linked to a violent white-supremacist group, who were believed to be heading to the rally.
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It is also known as "Lobby day" in Virginia politics as advocates for a number of causes use the holiday to try and buttonhole lawmakers. It's also traditionally when pro-gun and gun-control advocates hold rallies.
The rally comes as Virginia senators have been debating a package of gun-control bills.
The Democrat-led Senate advanced legislation limiting handgun purchases to once a month, requiring universal background checks on gun purchases, and allowing localities to ban guns in public buildings, parks and other areas. The measures largely passed along partisan lines and will now go to the House for consideration.
Democrats said they were reasonable measures that would improve public safety while respecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. They said the public had made clear by voting for Democrats in recent elections that new gun laws were needed.
Republicans decried the legislation as an assault on the Second Amendment. They said the bill was aimed at appeasing special interest groups and donors such as Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg. GOP senators said the new laws would entrap innocent people and do nothing to stop bad actors.
Fox News’ Vandana Rambaran and Frank Miles and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pelosi Signing Pen Cartoon

FBI updates policy on state election interference

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has updated its policy with regard to election interference and is changing the process for alerting state officials to voting irregularities and breaches.
The bureau on Thursday called election security a "top priority" for federal agents and the Department of Justice (DOJ) as they gear up for the 2020 election cycle.
The top law enforcement agency also said the internal policy changes will help bolster America's election infrastructure, which is frequently under siege.
"Protecting the integrity of elections in the United States against criminal activity and national security threats is among the top priorities of the Department of Justice and the FBI," the agency said in a statement. "Cyber intrusions affecting election infrastructure have the potential to cause significant negative impacts on the integrity of elections. Understanding that mitigation of such incidents often hinges on timely notification."
"The FBI’s new policy recognizes the necessity of notifying responsible state and local officials of credible cyber threats to election infrastructure," the bureau added.
Under the new standards, the federal government will strive to respect the autonomy of local election officials, while still encouraging a cooperative relationship with federal authorities in rooting out those who seek to destabilize the U.S. voting.process.
"The FBI’s interactions regarding election security matters must respect both state and local authorities," the bureau said. "Thus, the FBI’s new policy mandates the notification of a chief state election official and local election officials of cyber threats to local election infrastructure."
The initiative is based on existing FBI standards related to cybercrimes but also includes new guidelines about the severity of each threat and how they should be handled.
"The new policy is informed by existing FBI policies surrounding cyber incident notification thresholds and cyber victim notification in general," the agency said.
"The new policy, however, provides updated and additional guidance on the timely dissemination of notifications and/or threat reporting; the protection of victim information and disclosures; and coordination between FBI and other agencies in regard to election security for maximum impact," it added.

Cuomo should focus on NY's bail law, $6.1B budget gap than state flag, license plates: state lawmakers

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been taking heat this week from state politicians, many of whom say the governor's priorities seem misplaced.
They argue that Cuomo has appeared more concerned about trying to get the motto “E Pluribus Unum” onto the state flag than about closing the state's $6.1 billion budget gap or addressing a much-criticized bail-reform law.
The bail-reform law has come under fire following a series of highly publicized crimes, including the rape and murder of a 92-year-old woman, a wave of anti-Semitic attacks and a $1 million burglary spree.
State Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island who's running for a U.S. House seat, tweeted Thursday that Cuomo, "is more concerned about changing the state’s license plate and flag than the botched bail law that’s putting New Yorkers in imminent danger. This is ridiculous."
"There are $6.1 billion more important things to be focused on," Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay agreed, according to The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester.
Stony Point Councilman Tom Basile, a former member of the George W. Bush administration, former executive director of the New York Republican Party and a Fox News contributor, called Cuomo “unhinged.”
"Violent offenders are running free," Basile wrote on Twitter. "City schools graduate less than 1/3 ready for college. High taxes are driving people out -- BUT he wants to change the state flag."
Even Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, a Democrat from Schenectady, was against the flag-change idea.
“People aren’t interested in changing the flag—they’re interested in PUBLIC SAFETY and keeping more of their HARD EARNED MONEY!” he wrote online.
Cuomo has placed the U.S. motto meaning “out of many, one” at airports, train stations, subway stops and in tunnels, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
The governor proposed adding the motto to the state’s coat of arms in the middle of the flag – which has changed little since the Revolution - during his State of the State speech last week, according to the newspaper.
"In this term of turmoil, let New York state remind the nation of who we are," Cuomo said in his Jan. 8 speech, the newspaper reported. "Let's add 'E Pluribus Unum' to the seal of our state and proclaim at this time the simple truth that without unity, we are nothing."
The current state flag hasn’t been altered since 1882, according to Rochester's WROC-TV.

Florida Supreme Court sides with DeSantis, rules convicted felons must pay off fines before voting

Florida's Supreme Court has sided with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis by ruling that some convicted felons should be required to pay off any fines or fees before they can regain their right to vote.
The court released an advisory opinion Thursday affirming the language used by DeSantis in response to Amendment 4, a change to the state's constitution in 2018 to restore voting rights to nearly 1.4 million ex-felons. Before the amendment, voting rights had been revoked for anyone convicted of a felony in Florida.
The governor wanted clarification from the court over certain language added to the law, which said that rights would be restored “upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation."

"The Governor asks whether the phrase 'all terms of sentence' encompasses legal financial obligations (LFOs)—fines, restitution, costs, and fees ordered by the sentencing court," the opinion said.
The court responded: "We answer in the affirmative, concluding that 'all terms of sentence' encompasses not just durational periods but also all LFOs imposed in conjunction with an adjudication of guilt."
DeSantis said Thursday he was "pleased" with the court's decision.
"I am pleased that @FLCourts confirms that Amendment 4 requires fines, fees & restitution be paid to victims before their voting rights may be restored," he wrote on Twitter. "Voting is a privilege that should not be taken lightly, and I am obligated to faithfully implement Amendment 4 as it is defined."
Kathy Rundle, state attorney for the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, said she was "terribly disappointed" in the ruling, arguing it was a roadblock for what "the majority of Floridians voted for in 2018."
"We need to be working on a responsible and accessible path forward on restoring rights, not making it harder," she wrote.
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has long advocated for restoring voting rights for felons who have completed their prison sentences.
"In my state, what we do is separate. You’re paying a price, you committed a crime, you’re in jail. That's bad," Sanders said. "But you’re still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that, yes, I do.”

House Republicans demand FISA court explain Carter Page surveillance, other missteps

House Oversight Committee Republicans on Thursday sent a series of interrogatories directly to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), Fox News has learned, in a major new intervention that highlights the secret court's growing credibility crisis following Department of Justice Inspector General (DOJ IG) Michael Horowitz's damning report earlier this year.
In a letter to FISC Presiding Judge James Boasberg, obtained by Fox News, House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., demanded to know whether the FISC feels it "bears any responsibility" for the surveillance of former Trump aide Carter Page, the details of whatever "disciplinary action" the FISC intends to pursue against attorneys who knowingly deceived the court, and the timing of when the FISC learned of the first "indication" that materials in the Page warrant application were false or incomplete.
Additionally, Jordan and Meadows asked the FISC to explain whether it "conducted any internal review to examine the accuracy or validity of information contained in the FBI's surveillance applications for Carter Page," and if so, to explain the steps taken. Further, the Republicans asked whether the FISC would review FBI filings "in other matters" to ensure that they were completed accurately.
In December, the FISC ordered the FBI to review previous applications involving ex-FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, whom Horowitz found to have doctored an email from the CIA to make it seem as though Page's interactions with Russians were suspicious. However, the FISC left out other key players seemingly implicated in FISA misconduct by Horowitz's report, including FBI agent Joe Pientka, who quietly relocated to San Francisco in recent months without explanation, according to an update on a bureau site that was eventually edited to remove reference to his name.
Pientka was one of the agents responsible for following established procedures to verify dozens of inaccurate or unsubstantiated facts in the Page FISA warrant application, but he failed to do so, according to Horowitz's report.
Jordan and Meadows also took aim at the FISC's selection of David Kris -- a former Obama administration lawyer who has appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show" and written extensively in support of the FBI's surveillance practices on the blog Lawfare -- to oversee the FBI's surveillance reforms. Kris, the Republicans wrote, "has seemingly prejudged the FBI's conduct with respect to Carter Page," including by writing articles that preemptively defended the Page warrant applications.
Even after Horowitz's report, Jordan and Meadows noted, Kris said that the FBI's errors were the result of sloppiness and not deliberate bias -- a conclusion Horowitz did not draw.
The oversight panel asked the FISC to specify "all candidates" considered alongside Kris for the role of FBI watchdog, as well as whether the FISC had reviewed Kris' previous accusatory statements about Page or his dismissive thoughts on the now-vindicated 2018 memo produced by House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., which asserted a series of surveillance abuses by the FBI against Page.
"If not, please explain why not," the Republicans wrote.
Earlier this week, Kris alerted the FISC that the FBI's proposals for reform were "insufficient" and must be dramatically "expanded" -- even declaring that FBI Director Christopher Wray needs to discuss the importance of accuracy and transparency before the FISC every time he "visits a field office in 2020."
The unclassified findings were a stark rebuke to Wray, who had filed assurances to the FISC last week that the agency was implementing new procedures and training programs to assure that the FBI presents accurate and thorough information when it seeks secret warrants from FISC judges. At the same time, Wray acknowledged the FBI's "unacceptable" failures as it pursued FISA warrants to surveil members of the Trump team.
Kris' submission was something of an unexpected redemptive moment for Republicans who have long called for more accountability in how the bureau obtains surveillance warrants, and who have questioned Kris' suitability.
"You can’t make this up!" President Trump tweeted on Sunday. "David Kris, a highly controversial former DOJ official, was just appointed by the FISA Court to oversee reforms to the FBI’s surveillance procedures. Zero credibility. THE SWAMP!”
"It’s hard to imagine a worse person the FISC could have chosen outside [James] Comey, [Andy] McCabe, or [Adam] Schiff,” Nunes said this weekend. Speaking to Fox News contributor Sara Carter, Nunes added: “It’s a ridiculous choice. The FBI lied to the FISC, and to help make sure that doesn’t happen again, the FISC chose an FBI apologist who denied and defended those lies. The FISC is setting its own credibility on fire.”
The Oversight Committee Republicans broadly asked the FISC to "explain what specific steps the FISC will take to better protect the civil liberties of American citizens who are not represented in ex parte proceedings for electronic surveillance [i.e., those in which the defendant is not represented]" -- a topic that Kris broached in his most recent submission to the FISC.
The FBI's "focus on specific forms, checklists and technology, while appropriate, should not be allowed to eclipse the more basic need to improve cooperation between the FBI and DOJ attorneys," Kris told the FISC earlier this week, noting that the FBI and DOJ have historically not always worked well together.
"A key method of improving organizational culture is through improved tone at the top, particularly in a hierarchical organization such as the FBI," Kris said, noting that Wray's public statements on the matter, while positive, have not gone far enough. "Director Wray and other FBI leaders, as well as relevant leaders at the Department of Justice, should include discussions of compliance not only in one or two messages, but in virtually every significant communication with the workforce for the foreseeable future."
Indeed, the FISC "should require the FBI and DOJ to document and report on the nature and extent of this communication; such a requirement to document and report communication may encourage the FBI and DOJ to conduct more of it," he said. Every time Wray "visits a field office in 2020," Kris wrote, he should stress the importance of accuracy in FISA applications.
Top-down culture changes require "ongoing" and sustained efforts, not simply a handful of organizational reforms, Kris emphasized.
Separately, Kris urged the FISC to hold more hearings and involve field agents in those hearings when possible, both to increase accountability and break down communication barriers. However, Kris noted that the bureau needs to be cautious when it implements major changes involving field agents, given its tarnished credibility.
In the meantime, the FISC has some new homework: The Oversight Committee Republicans set a 5:00 p.m. EST deadline on Jan. 30 for the FISC to respond to their questions.