Lawmakers Frustrated by McCabe Testimony on Trump Dossier, Hillary
More subpoenas coming out next week.
The House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) grilled FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for seven hours over the dossier published against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and the FBI’s investigation into then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
Unfortunately, he could not give them much information and actually contradicted testimony of former witnesses, which has led the committee to issue new subpoenas.
Dossier
From Fox News:
While HPSCI staff would not confirm who will be summoned for testimony, all indications point to demoted DOJ official Bruce G. Ohr and FBI General Counsel James A. Baker, who accompanied McCabe, along with other lawyers, to Tuesday’s HPSCI session.
The issuance of a subpoena against the Justice Department’s top lawyer could provoke a new constitutional clash between the two branches, even worse than the months-long tug of war over documents and witnesses that has already led House Speaker Paul Ryan to accuse DOJ and FBI of “stonewalling” and HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to threaten contempt-of-Congress citations against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“It’s hard to know who’s telling us the truth,” said one House investigator after McCabe’s questioning.
McCabe told the panel that the FBI worked hard “to verify the contents of the anti-Trump ‘dossier’ and stood by its credibility.” However, he could not tell the lawmakers if “the bureaur has been able to verify the substantive allegations in the dossier, or even identify a substantive allegation that has been corroborated.”
The lawmakers asked him which part of the dossier was true and Mccabe only pointed to the part “that the unpaid, low-level Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page visited Moscow in July 2016.”
Fox News continued:
The sources said that when asked when he learned that the dossier had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, McCabe claimed he could not recall – despite the reported existence of documents with McCabe’s own signature on them establishing his knowledge of the dossier’s financing and provenance.
Hillary Clinton
When it comes to failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, McCabe’s testimony did not sway the GOP on the panel to change their minds that she received special treatment from the FBI.
Remember, in the middle of the campaign, then-FBI Director James Comey cleared her of any wrongdoing despite listing all the careless ways she handled confidential information.
James Comey
McCabe did confirm Comey’s previous testimony that Trump asked the former FBI director for his loyalty. From CNN:
In private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee this week, McCabe told lawmakers that Comey informed him of conversations he had with President Donald Trump soon after they happened, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.
The testimony suggests McCabe could corroborate Comey’s account, including Trump’s ask that Comey show him loyalty, which the President has strongly disputed. Comey previously testified that he briefed some of his senior colleagues at the FBI about this conversation with Trump.
Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee back in June that Trump told him “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty” as the two men dined at the White House last January. Comey described Trump to the committee as a man “obsessed with loyalty and publicly clearing his name amid an FBI investigation of his associates.” The Washington Post wrote that the testimony showed Comey’s “growing unease with the nature of the demands being made of him in their private conversations.”
Trump fired Comey in May and denied Comey’s testimony.
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Just hours after FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe delivered private testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, his boss, FBI Director Christopher Wray, announced that the bureau’s top lawyer would be leaving his post, an attempt to bring in “new blood” to an agency whose reputation has been hopelessly compromised by revelations that agents’ partisan bias may have influenced two high-profile investigations involving President Donald Trump and his former campaign rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
As the Washington Post reported, the FBI’s top lawyer, James Baker, is being reassigned. WaPo says Baker’s removal is part of Wray’s effort to assemble his own team of senior advisers while he tries to defuse allegations of partisanship that have plagued the bureau in recent months.
.. so much for “there is nothing there”
Yes. After Wray and the congressmen observed and listened to McCabe and Wray’s interaction, it become apparent Baker was a co-conspirator. Or such goes the thinking.
Why hasn’t Jill McCabe been questioned in regards to
$650,000 bribe – I mean donation by Pantysuit – to her political committee ?
Maybe as a MD she has better memory 🙂
House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) alleged that Clinton received special treatment during the email investigation as a consequence of her candidacy for president.
He said there is email evidence from McCabe indicating that Clinton was going to get a “headquarter special,” which suggests that normal FBI processes were not followed.
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/12/22/rep-gaetz-alleges-extreme-pro-hillary-clinton-bias-fbi
“I need loyalty, I expect loyalty” Mr. Comey claims the President said. Who does not want loyal employees?
The big surprise is that Mr. Comey took umbrage. If Comey had shared the same concern for the very real Obama/Clinton antics the FBI might not be so damaged.
There are varying levels of loyalty.
There is “I got your back” loyalty and then there is “to the death” loyalty.
The former is expected, the latter should never be given.
A President is entitled to executive employees who do not seek to undermine his policy goals.
Seems pretty clear that McCabe and Comey gave Obama and Hillary “to the death” loyalty.
There is a documentary on video from 2012 that A & E did on Trumps 757.
When you watch that, you see the absolute loyalty from his pilot and other employees that they interviewed.
“Perfection” of every detail is an understatement.
I suspect that the line to Comey about loyalty has been a long time phrase that he uses when he interviews high level employees.
Only someone with some butthurt and a political axe to grind would take that comment as a somehow nefarious.
Comey was somehow under the opinion that the FBI was an independent branch of government. Very strange.
Your sarcasm is brilliant – assuming you know you are full of BS.
Well said!
With all the contradictions, seems like somebody in this testimony chain should be guilty of a process crime similar to Mike Flynn.
Process crimes are omnipresent. There is a rather long, nearly endless, list of Obama Administration lackeys who could be prosecuted for process crimes. Such determinations are a function of politics and bear little resemblance to right and wrong.
“….failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton…”
I never grow tired of reading those words.
Under Comey, this is the same FBI that was warned by Russia about the Boston Marathon bombers, but the FBI punted.
Under Comey, this is the same FBI that had the Pulse Night club in Florida mass murderer on their radar, but the FBI punted.
Under Comey, this is the same FBI that was exposed for their own massive data mining in the wake of the NSA leak scandal.
And let’s not forget that under Comey, the FBI put the screws to Apple, Inc. to crack the backdoor of the San Bernadino mass murderer’s iPhone. Apple refused, and finally won that pissing contest.
The deep state looks more like the KeyStone Cops. They’re up to their eyeballs in this sooper secret decoder ring electioneering to screw over Trump in favor of Mrs. Pants Suit.
But they’re on ‘The Apprentice,’ now, and they will soon hear Trump snarl that famous phrase.
locomotivebreath1901
Perhaps the FBI did not stop them because the Deep state was behind them
That would be treason.
Writing it also makes you sound like a “9/11 Truther.”
Please be careful in such statements, as we here at Legal Insurrection like to be thought of as generally a blog that looks for fact and Truth (capital “T”).
Now, on the other side, if you’ve got some evidentiary connection out there indicating that someone in the Deep State was actually involved in providing material support to the Boston Marathon bombers, Pulse Nightclub Shooting or to the Data Breach, you’re in the wrong place.
looks to me like he’s blaming passivity and incompetence, not causation. Treason would require more causation, such as giving the drug cartels high powered american made weaponry to advance their operations, on orders from top leadership, and then attempting to cover up the entire operation. If something like that was proved, I would say it absolutely was Treason, and the men in charge of carrying it out should be executed just like the Rosenbergs were.
Rats are running loose in the top ranks of the FBI.
Loyalty is a cheap slogan for most people. To have true loyalty, to understand it is rare. Loyalty can be like gold refined many times over out of crashed rock ore and remelted stinking smeltings: loyalty developed and extracted in the relationships one has through sticking by friends, family or just fellow humans over an extended period of onerous and difficult hardship is like that.
True Loyalty can be gained — and this is rarer still — through one exceptional action that bonds one person to another. Hopefully this is a good action, by evil acts can also so bind souls together, although the loyalty of cads itself rots quickly in their acids of perverted morality.
Likewise loyalty of a sort — still a true sort — can be manufactured by fear and joint obsession, by violence and oppression taken up in an group as a habit. This is sad, but very common.
The best refined gold of loyalty is that of the type George Washington had, gained, and held over the course of his lifetime. Dave Ramsey, the good man of financial advisor to the young and old, says this wise insight as to the type of loyalty Washington won:
“Everyone knows the story of Washington and the cherry tree. Whether legend or truth, Washington did lead a life overflowing with honor. ‘Integrity and firmness are all I can promise,’ he wrote to a friend shortly before being sworn in as president. Through his words and deeds, Washington proved over and over again that he would do the right thing and he could be absolutely trusted.”
Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee back in June that Trump told him “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty” as the two men dined at the White House last January.
As opposed to Hilliary, who would say “I need lying, I expect lying!”
McCabe is as dirty as they come.
It is time to subpoena his entire family’s bank records to see who is bribing him – probably multiple sources.
And let us not forget that it was Mueller who promoted this hack to his current level of criminality, so he needs to be held accountable as well.
I’d add to that Mueller’s bank accounts as well, particularly if he has any off shore accounts (hint, hint)!
I don’t believe anyone lasts long in DC if they’re not willing to turn tricks in a dumpster behind a liquor store.
“The sources said that when asked when he learned that the dossier had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, McCabe claimed he could not recall – despite the reported existence of documents with McCabe’s own signature on them establishing his knowledge of the dossier’s financing and provenance.”
Is there really no actionable offense here? It seems like the only defense he would have is saying that his signature was forged…which can be forensically tested.
I guess reported existence of documents is not actual public documents. This one irks me more for personal reasons…I’ve recently had to report some cheaters in my college courses and can’t believe what lengths they will go to in order to deny objective proof that I have in front of them. I also think they may get it away with it as easily as this guy.
Maybe McCabe can use the, “Hey…I sign a LOT of stuff!!” defense.
Dear GOP,
THIS is the way you testify…Never. Remember. ANYTHING.
This is how a deputy director of the FBI testifies to Congress? With lies and obfuscations? He should have been fired after the hearing. I guess Comey set a precedent.
Did anyone ask him about the insurance plan in case Trump was elected?
I seem to remember noting on previous threads that the FBI and other Democrat-controlled agencies will not testify truthfully to Congress. And will get away with it.
Until the day comes when the consequences of undermining the Constitution outweigh the benefits of undermining the Constitution, they will continue doing it.
And with our current AG their continuance will continue.
In public discourse, the question of “loyalty” most often immediately raises concerns of ‘blind’ loyalty; eg, even if criminal fact must be suppressed.
But ‘common’ loyalty is nothing so sinister, being merely an expectation against ‘backstabbing’; against any misrepresentations of personal facts (typically done for revenge on unrelated matters, &/or personal enrichment), or even just not blabbing about daily mundane happenings, eg, leaks to a hostile media.
This is a reasonable expectation; what everyone in their own daily lives presumes by “loyalty.”
Presumptions of blind loyalty – without evidence of fact – are not merely unwarranted, but are an egregious defamation.