The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel believes Rep. Adam Schiff owes the country an “enormous apology.”
She spoke to “Fox & Friends” hosts about the release of the anticipated Justice Department inspector general report, noting that the contents spell “triumph” for Rep. Devin Nunes and trouble for his Democrat colleague, Schiff.
(Video: Fox News)
Strassel explained that it was Nunes who, in early 2018 was heading the House Intelligence Committee, raised the alarm over the issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants to spy on former Trump campaign official, Carter Page.
The Fox News contributor noted that Nunes’ “explosive revelations” should have “provoked a bipartisan outrage” but was downplayed by Schiff. The report released by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Monday now clearly showed that there were at least 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the Page FISA applications.
Strassel laid out the key findings of the report in a Twitter thread as well.
1) Key findings of Horowitz report:
–Yup, IG said FBI hit threshold for opening an investigation. But also goes out of its way to note what a “low threshold” this is. Durham’s statement made clear he will provide more info for Americans to make a judgment on reasonableness.— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
2) The report is triumph for former House Intel Chair Devin Nunes, who first blew the whistle on FISA abuse. The report confirms all the elements of the February 2018 Nunes memo, which said dossier was as an “essential” part of applications, and FBI withheld info from FISA court
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
3)Conversely, report is an excoriation of Adam Schiff and his “memo” of Feb 2018. That doc stated that “FBI and DOJ officials did NOT abuse the [FISA] process” or “omit material information.” Also claimed FBI didn’t much rely on dossier.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
Strassel noted that even though Schiff had access to same documents as Nunes, he “chose to misinform the public.”
4)In fact, IG report says dossier played “central and essential role” in getting FISA warrants. Schiff had access to same documents as Nunes, yet chose to misinform the public. This is the guy who just ran impeachment proceedings.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
Strassel was asked about Schiff obtaining phone records from President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani and his now-indicted associate Lev Parnas. Conversations with Nunes and journalists were also revealed in the logs.
The author called out Schiff for the “bad faith move,” citing the legal perspective of the Democrat lawmaker asking a phone carrier for records as well as the “bad precedent” that he set in doing so.
“This is, as far as I know, the first time you have the head of an Intelligence Committee using the powers of Congress to spy on a fellow member,” she said. “If that’s the standard we’re going to have going forward, you think politics is ugly now, watch where this goes.”
In her continuing Twitter thread, Strassel noted the “highly convenient” issue of people at the FBI not remembering “anything about anything.”
14) Finally, intriguing just how many people at the FBI don’t remember anything about anything. Highly convenient.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 10, 2019
She also explained the IG report’s finding of “no political bias” in the launching of the investigation into the Trump 2016 campaign.
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
“He laid out all the facts,” Strassel told “Fox & Friends,” explaining that the “fact pattern” makes it clear this was a “deliberate attempt by the FBI to abuse its powers” in going after the president.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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