“A TWO-TIERED JUSTICE SYSTEM”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 18, 2018) — On his Monday night show, commentator Sean Hannity highlighted that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified earlier in the day to the Senate Judiciary Committee that former FBI Director James B. Comey is “under investigation” by his office.
One of Comey’s deeds as FBI Director which Horowitz told the committee he is examining is his release of memos which reportedly contained classified information to a “friend” with the intent of leaking them to The New York Times.
Comey testified following his termination in May of last year that he purposely leaked the memos in the hope that a “special counsel” would be appointed to oversee a probe into alleged ties between Trump campaign aides and Russian operatives.
Horowitz confirmed the probe into Comey’s actions during the first half-hour of his Monday afternoon testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. By his side was FBI Director Christopher Wray, who said he “accepted” the findings of Horowitz’s 568-page report released Thursday dealing with the FBI’s handling of the Clinton private email server probe.
Last Thursday, Comey tweeted his “appreciation” for Horowitz’s report, claiming that he himself “urged them to do this review.”
On the same day, Comey had an op-ed published in The New York Times titled, “This Report Says I Was Wrong. But That’s Good for the F.B.I.” Comey has not since commented on the IG report or Horowitz’s declaration that he is investigating him.
In his opening monologue, Hannity contended that the IG report, while extensive and detailed, reveals bias on the part of highly-placed FBI agents and the disparity in their probing of Clinton and Trump, creating what Hannity said is a “two-tiered justice system.”
Hannity’s first guest on the program, Fox News Legal Analyst Gregg Jarrett, said that the “bias at the FBI” demonstrated by the IG’s report, although denied personally by Horowitz, has tainted the probe led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Trump-Russia collusion.
Trump has long called the probe a “witch hunt” and on Monday morning said that Comey gave “marching orders” to FBI counterintelligence deputy director Peter Strzok while Strzok was active in both the Clinton investigation and as he embarked on the Trump-Russia probe. Strzok played a key role in both investigations.
At 9:21 p.m. EDT, investigative journalist Sara A. Carter said that Sen. Lindsey Graham’s questioning of Horowitz earlier on Monday showed that top officials at the FBI appeared to be “rigging an election” based on their comments that they would “stop” Trump from winning and/or taking office.
“Mueller assembled a team of partisans, some of whom were also in on the Hillary Clinton” investigation, Jarrett said.
At the bottom of the screen during Hannity’s joint interview with Atty. David Schoen and former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz was a banner reading “The Deep State’s Anti-Trump Bias Exposed.” That theme was embraced later by guest and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who said that Hillary Clinton should have gone to prison decades ago for her 1994 profiting from her purchase and trade of “cattle futures.”
Ending the segment at 9:34 p.m., Hannity predicted that the FBI “rank and file are going to testify.”
On Tuesday, Horowitz and Wray will testify to the House Judiciary Committee.