BY WILLIAM JUNEAU
The U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee is continuing its investigation into the origins of the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation of Donald Trump--as a candidate and then as the nation's 45th President.
Recently it took testimony from its fourth witness, Andrew McCabe, 51, former deputy and acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the force behind Crossfire's "Get Trump" investigation, which was based entirely on lies and manufactured evidence exposed in a detailed report by an Inspector General.
The 12 Republican senators on the 22 member committee chaired by South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, believe that McCabe, a 21-year employee of the Bureau, who was fired in March of 2018 for lying, took his political marching orders from 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Reportedly, Clinton forces had donated more than a half-million dollars to McCabe's wife, Jill, a physician, who had run unsuccessfully for the Virginia senate in 2015. The veteran G-man was grateful for the extraordinarily large donation for his wife seeking a state legislative office, and it was thank-you time.
In past weeks and months, the Judiciary Committee has taken testimony from former FBI Director James Comey, and acting Attorney General Ron Rosenstein. Sally Yates, a former deputy Attorney General and a well-known Donald Trump hater, also has testified. Each acknowledged, with hesitation and a red face, that the "collusion" investigation of President Trump which cost taxpayers $40 million was unwarranted and unjustified. Yates even excoriated Comey as having gone "rogue" in his duties as director of the world-famous police agency.
Comey was fired from the FBI in May, 2017, for what President Trump called "lying, and leaking classified documents; and for incompetence." The ill-tempered Yates was fired by President Trump for insubordination shortly after he was sworn in as President.
While serving as Acting Attorney General, Rosenstein had ordered the "collusion" investigation and under oath told the committee that the investigation was a mistake and that he regretted his actions. Rosenstein has resigned from the FBI.
McCabe was fired from the FBI for lying to federal agents, but has not yet been prosecuted. Seventeen months after his termination, McCabe was hired by CNN as a contributing pundit on political events, allowing him to stand tall alongside media colleagues castigating the President.
At the virtual-style hearing, McCabe said that the FBI commenced its "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation of President Trump in July, of 2016, with reports of his alleged friendly relations with Russia, seeking aid in his political battle with Clinton for the presidency.
Chairman Graham noted that recently it has been revealed that Hillary Clinton was working to link candidate Trump to the Russians as a way of diverting attention from her own email problems. The FBI was notified of this in a letter from CIA Director John Brennan on September 7, 2016. It was an investigative lead from Brennan who also briefed President Obama on the Clinton plan. The CIA actually learned of Clinton's machinations to throttle Trump from Russian intelligence, Sen. Graham said.
"So, the question is," said Graham to the ex-FBI deputy chief, "did the FBI investigate the allegations against Clinton like they did Trump? If not, why not?
The question had the bespectacled McCabe twitching a bit, and his answer was that the information of Hillary Clinton's plan to make her opponent into a Russian pawn, was in so many words never investigated. " I have read that memorandum," said McCabe, " and I don’t understand it to be a request for investigative activity. I’m not aware that any agents were assigned to investigate the information."
Continuing the Crossfire probe of the president, the FBI, with McCabe and Comey riding in front, obtained warrants from the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) for spying purposes. As evidence in support of its petition, the FBI used a dossier prepared and paid for by the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton to persuade the court that there was sedition afoot in the Trump campaign. The dossier purported that Trump had whored around Russia while consorting with Russian officials. It was all manufactured baloney, but the FISA judges bought into it from the disingenuous FBI.
As the second in command at the FBI, McCabe and Comey had signed onto the phony evidence presented to FISA. The four applications for the FISA warrants contained about two dozen errors and omissions, and McCabe was grilled by senators on the deception. In response, McCabe said:
"We opened a case to find out how the Russians might be undermining our elections," he said. "We opened a case because it was our obligation, our duty to do so. We did our job." Had he known of the inaccuracies and the omissions in the FISA court applications, he said that he would not have signed off on it.
"Who should be held responsible for the misbehavior of the FBI as outlined by the Inspector General, asked Louisiana Sen. John Neely Kennedy. McCabe responded that one FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, has admitted to altering documents and he is being prosecuted. But for him, said McCabe, there was no other "intentional misconduct" that I know of.
“I think we are all responsible for the work that went into the FISA, applications,” McCabe told the committee. When asked if he misled the court, McCabe said that he “signed a package” that contained errors or omitted information that should have been included...and that any error with the exception of Mr. Clinesmith's was "unintentional misconduct"
Why were you fired from the FBI," asked Kennedy. It was for lying, wasn't it...it was not for parking in a handicapped spot," he continued. McCabe argued that his termination was the consequence of a "flawed" investigative report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and that he (McCabe) is challenging his dismissal in a lawsuit now pending in federal district court.
In May of 2017, with the Crossfire Investigation underway, and aware of the desires of Mrs. Clinton to denigrate the President as a Russian pawn, the Congress appointed a special investigator to investigate the President for "colluding" with Russia. That investigation went on for 22 months at a cost of $40 million, and concluded with a finding that the president had not colluded in any way with Russia.
In closing his interrogation of McCabe, Sen Kennedy asked the witness if he was aware of the harm which he and Director Comey had caused to the reputation of the FBI. What do citizens think when they learn of the disingenuous conduct of the world's foremost police agency, he said. What do people think when they are interviewed by an agent of the FBI? Do they worry that they will be guilty of something if their political affiliation differs from that of the FBI agent?
What is a citizen to think, said Kennedy, when you, an FBI chief, lied in answer to questions and was not prosecuted; and others of a different political persuasion like Gen. Michael Flynn are accused of lying and are prosecuted for doing so?
When I hear your testimony, said Kennedy, I have to wonder how you ever "made it through the birth canal."
Chairman Graham said that the Judiciary Committee will continue until the entire story of the attack on President Trump is revealed, and "I hope that those responsible will be held accountable."
Future witnesses, said Graham, will include former CIA director John Brennan and the former Director of Intelligence, James Clapper.
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