Here Are Three Scary FBI Scandal Factors You Must Know

There's an old Washington maxim that advises being careful because 'what goes around almost always comes back around'

There are three scary but crucially important factors underlying the rapidly growing FBI scandal that most people miss even though they are hidden in plain sight. Recognizing and understanding this trio goes a long way toward explaining what has happened in the scandal and where it is likely to go next.

First, there’s Horowitz’ Revenge. Virtually everybody in the nation’s capital is waiting either in fear or eager anticipation for the upcoming investigative report of Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Horowitz is among the most respected and effective IGs ever appointed but former President Barack Obama, who nominated him in 2011, may consider that decision among those he most regrets from his eight years in the White House.

Here’s why: The Inspectors General Act of 1978 authorizes the IGs and their investigators and auditors to obtain and examine any official document necessary to carrying out their responsibilities in fighting waste, fraud and corruption in government. Presidents appoint IGs but they report to Congress, making them an important component of congressional oversight of the executive branch.

But a few months before Horowitz was sworn-in in 2012, Eric Holder, Obama’s Attorney General and previously deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton, gutted the IG act provision that mandates their access to all necessary documents. Holder acted at the behest of then-FBI Director Robert Mueller and others at the bureau.

Holder — who would subsequently be held in contempt by Congress for refusing to turn over subpoenaed documents in the Fast and Furious scandal — thus forced Horowitz to request in writing any documents he sought from the bureau.

There then ensued a three-year struggle in Congress and the media that culminated in Obama having no choice but to sign the Inspector General Empowerment Act of 2016 that removed all doubt about the IG’s access.

During the three years between Holder’s blatant subversion of the 1978 IG Act and passage of the 2016 law, James Comey succeeded Mueller as FBI chief but continued to wall off Horowitz’s access to documents essential to doing his job until the new law was passed.

Horowitz has been investigating the FBI’s conduct in its investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server and email system to conduct official business as America’s chief diplomat. He’s also probing the bureau’s investigation of allegations of collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and elements linked to the Russian government.

In the course of those two investigations, Horowitz has obtained and reviewed an estimated 1.2 million documents. There is an old saying in Washington that “things that go around have a way of coming back around.”

Second, there’s Obama’s Perogative. As more facts are uncovered about the lengths to which former FBI Director James Comey, his then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and a half dozen other pro-Hillary Clinton bureau insiders went to protect the Democratic nominee in her email scandal, the least discussed element is Obama’s role in the affair.

But former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy make persuasive cases that protecting Obama in the Clinton email scandal was key to...
Read more HERE