A “CORRUPT” RELATIONSHIP
by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 21, 2019) — On Saturday night’s edition of “Watters World,” Congressman Matt Gaetz said that the acceptance by some in the FBI of incentives from members of the media in exchange for leaks of information about the Hillary Clinton private server probe will be the subject of the next Justice Department Inspector General’s report.
His remarks begin at 22:22 in the YouTube rebroadcast and follow those of investigative reporter Sara A. Carter as to the revelations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report that the Trump-Russia “collusion” narrative perpetrated for nearly three years to the American people was false.
Carter looked ahead to anticipated reports focusing on FBI and DOJ conduct through probes conducted by U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John Huber into possible abuse of the FISA law; the Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr as to the origins of the “collusion” allegations; and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz into possible misconduct within the FBI and DOJ in regard to the Trump investigation, FISA warrants and other actions.
Horowitz’s first report concerning the FBI and DOJ’s 2016 actions, released last June after 17 months of research and investigation, revealed the discovery of the media “bribes” and pledged to amplify those findings in a subsequent report.
While Horowitz found bias in thousands of text messages exchanged between then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, both of whom worked on the Clinton and Trump investigations, he declared that the decision not to recommend Clinton for criminal investigation as announced in July 2016 was not politically-tainted. Horowitz also recommended that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe be investigated for criminal prosecution after concluding that he was dishonest with investigators about his communications with the media or authorizations for others to leak information.
During his interview with Watters, Gaetz characterized as “corrupt” the giving of gifts, such as tickets to sporting events, by some in the media to certain FBI agents to obtain inside information about ongoing investigations. “We’ll be seeing that even before we see the inspector general’s report on how this fraudulent investigation began,” Gaetz said.
“The media was doing the bribing,” he added.
On Capitol Hill on April 9 and 10, Barr told two congressional panels that he expects Horowitz’s report on possible FISA abuse to be released in “May or June.”