As Reagan wrote yesterday, former deputy director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, will not be prosecuted. The man is a total and utter disgrace and one of the folks who reportedly discussed executing a coup against Donald Trump. He’s also a convicted liar, which was the reason for his firing from the FBI. He had lied about leaks to the media concerning the bureau’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation. He’s mentioned the texts between another disgraced former FBI agent, Peter Strzok, and his mistress, lawyer Lisa Page, regarding an insurance policy against Trump. The texts were a source of embarrassment for the FBI, whose reputation as an impartial and professional investigative body has been damaged, possibly irreparably. What was the insurance policy? Well, many suggest it was a reference to the now-debunked Trump dossier, which was compiled by ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele. The Hillary Clinton campaign retained the services of a research firm, Fusion GPS, who then hired Steele to find dirt on Trump. It was a biased piece of political opposition research that was at the heart of the Trump-Russia collusion myth and the piece of “credible” evidence that secured a FISA spy warrant against Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. It appears it was never fully vetted, which is why McCabe would deploy countermeasures on such questions when asked by Congress.
The recent Department of Justice inspector general report torches the FBI for systemic failures in the FISA process that led to Carter Page having his life ruined based on myths and innuendo. Oh, and please spare us the ‘no bias’ portion of this report. There was bias, as Wall Street Journal Kim Strassel noted when the IG report was released last December:
15)Last point. When IG says he found no "documentary" evidence of bias, he means just that: He didn't find smoking gun email that says "let's take out Trump." And it isn't his job to guess at the motivations of FBI employees. Instead...
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
16) He straightforwardly lays out facts. Those facts produce a pattern of FBI playing the FISA Court--overstating some info, omitting other info, cherrypicking details. Americans can look at totality and make their own judgment as to "why" FBI behaved in such a manner.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
Yet, the most damning part about McCabe’s tenure was that little chat about invoking the 25th Amendment with other top DOJ officials, including then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Oh, and remember that part about McCabe being a liar? Yeah, that played a role here because we have a tale of two coups here. Here’s what he said to CBS News’ Scott Pelley February 17, 2019:
Scott Pelley: How did he bring up the idea of the 25th amendment to you?
Andrew McCabe: Honestly, I don't remember. He, it was just another kinda topic that he jumped to in the midst of a wide-ranging conversation.
Scott Pelley: Seriously? (LAUGH) Just—
Andrew McCabe: Yeah—
Scott Pelley: —another topic
Andrew McCabe: Yeah.
Scott Pelley: Did you counsel him on that?
Andrew McCabe: I didn't. I mean, he was discussing other cabinet members and whether or not people would support such an idea, whether or not other cabinet members would, shared, his belief that the president was — was really concerning, was concerning Rod at that time.
Scott Pelley: Rosenstein was actually openly talking about whether there was a majority of the cabinet who would vote to remove the president.
Andrew McCabe: That's correct. Counting votes or possible votes.
Scott Pelley: Did he assign specific votes to specific people?
Andrew McCabe: No, not that I recall.
Scott Pelley: As you're sitting in this meeting in the Justice Department, talking about removing the president of the United States, you were thinking what?
Andrew McCabe: How did I get here? Confronting these confounding legal issues of such immense importance, not just to the FBI but to the entire country, it was— it was disorienting.
Three days later:
McCabe on 60 Minutes: Rosenstein was "counting votes or possible votes" on using the 25th Amendment.
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 20, 2019
McCabe today on if Rosenstein was counting votes: "Not that I'm aware of." pic.twitter.com/miCBfTmuDI
So the senior-most law enforcement officials in the country effectively plotted a coup against the elected president because they didn't like his views on Russia. Meanwhile, Democrats cheer this and have zero misgivings about the precedent being set https://t.co/RTnzxSOZ3i
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 14, 2019
And somehow this guy is a hero to the liberal media because he’s anti-Trump. Yeah, so was Michael Avenatti and look how that turned out. CNN spent yesterday both celebrating the DOJ’s decision to end their investigation into McCabe over his unauthorized leaks to the press and trying to stoke feelings of sympathy for him. I, for one, do not feel bad for this man. He’s trash. His actions were deplorable. And there’s not enough gold in Fort Knox to make me feel even a scintilla of compassion for this deep state clown. Newsbusters’ Curtis Houck voiced similar sentiment and clipped the CNN lovefest. Oh yeah—I forgot after he was fired by the FBI—CNN gave this guy a contributor spot on the network (via Newsbusters):
In the three shows since the McCabe news broke, it was nothing but an ebullient sense of relief for the network, celebrating how “a black cloud” has lifted despite all “he has endured” and having suffered “a tremendous cost monetarily not just when it comes to sort of stress” which they unanimously panned as having been a waste.
CNN host Brianna Keilar led off CNN Right Now with a half-celebration, half-pity party masquerading as a McCabe interview, which started by wondering if he could “just give us a sense of the reaction of hearing this news.”
An exasperated McCabe responded:
I don't know if I can give you a sense of it. To have this horrific black cloud that's been hanging over me and my family for almost the last two years, to have that finally lifted is just an unbelievable — it's a relief that I'm not sure I can really explain to you adequately. It's just a very emotional moment for my whole family.
[…]
Keilar later gushed that McCabe’s case isn’t “going to go anywhere” while senior Justice reporter Evan Perez argued that, in terms of proving McCabe’s guilt, “was a very difficult case from the beginning and everyone knew that.”
While speaking to former Obama official Katrina Mulligan and liberal Republican lawyer J.W. Verret, Keilar grumbled that this was an example of the DOJ being “weaponized” and urged everyone to “just think about how much it costs to have a defense team.”
“So, we're talking about things that he has endured. To put into perspective even an investigation on you goes nowhere, there's still a tremendous cost monetarily not just when it comes to sort of stress and having this case,” she added.
Boo hoo.
Video: @BriKeilarCNN is rolling out the red carpet for Andrew McCabe, who they're treating like as having just received the Medal of Honor, solved climate change, and saved a litter of kittens from a burning building.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 14, 2020
News flash: Noooooobody should feel sorry for him #CNNSucks pic.twitter.com/4g1mHnLEpO
Video: @CNN's @AbbyDPhillip (the #DemDebate moderator who slimed @BernieSanders) implores us to feel bad for Andrew McCabe and his wife b/c "these are real people" who dealt w/a lot.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 14, 2020
Bet CNN doesn't give a damn in the same vein about Flynn, Stone, or any WH aide w/legal bills pic.twitter.com/GhBN9tIbff
.@CNN really, really, really, really wants to feel bad for Poor Andrew McCabe and view his life as so, so, so tough. Cry me a river. Behold today's example of why @CNN is poisonous to our body politic and only care about their interests https://t.co/4YIZncAd9f
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 14, 2020
Two separate rules example again.
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