Fox hosts spin IG report that debunks their own conspiracies about the Russia probe: “We were right"

[tulc]

Fox spins IG report debunking right-wing conspiracies: "We were right"

Fox News hosts went into spin mode after the release of the Justice Department inspector general report they had hyped for years disproved many right-wing talking points about the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

The 432-page report released by Inspector General Michael Horowitz criticized the FBI for mishandling surveillance applications for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page but refuted President Donald Trump’s and his defenders’ repeated allegations that the FBI had “spied” on his 2016 campaign and the investigation was launched out of officials’ bias against then-candidate Trump.

Despite the report soundly undercutting the core of Fox News’ defense of the president, the network’s hosts declared victory anyway on Monday.

tulc(thought this was pretty interesting)

 

[redleghunter]

They were right. Read the IG report. The left press spun this one focusing on one issue...political motive. Those interviewed who were part of the process said “oh no this had nothing to do with politics.”

Horowitz was asked if Jim Comey or anyone in the FISA process were “vindicated.” He said his report vindicated no one in the process.

Horowitz also stated given his mandate he did not prefer charges against anyone in the process but handed those issues over to the Durham special investigation.

Read the report. It’s online for all to read how a presidential campaign was surveilled with misleading information, doctored evidence and an unverified bought and paid for HRC and DNC dossier from Christopher Steele.

Bet CNN did not report on that as they were peddling their own pseudo narrative.

 

[redleghunter]

For those interested I would at least read the executive summary:

https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf

 

[Albion]

I saw this one coming from way back.

The conspiracy theory that fueled three years of attempts to undo the 2016 election, at last debunked, has been met by the people who pushed it by calling acceptance of the facts that have now been revealed...a conspiracy theory.

That double talk is in keeping with Pelosi-Schiff-Nadler et al saying that they are saving "democracy" by rigging an impeachment inquiry in order to vacate the results of a national election.

 

[The Barbarian]

The report shows that Trump lied about his campaign being spied on, and that the investigation into Russian interference in our elections was justified and not politically motivated.

Which destroys any hope republicans had of justifying their conspiracy theories.

 

[redleghunter]

The conspiracy theory that fueled three years of attempts to undo the 2016 election, at last debunked, has been met by the people who pushed it by calling acceptance of the facts that have now been revealed...a conspiracy theory.

You read the articles from the usual MSM sources before and after the IG report all you hear is "vindication" of those involved and the "hoax" debunked. Which means they were repeating talking points prepared beforehand. The executive summary alone paints the picture of "someone" or "some people" motivated to get the Carter Page FISA application pushed through with dubious data and withholding information to ensure it would go through. Everyone in the chain of supervision signed off on it not once but three times.

What's interesting is the exculpatory evidence the FBI had on Page. He actively and willingly worked with "another government agency" (cough CIA) for counterintelligence gathering. I think the part missed is that in the FISA process Page was outed as a government intelligence community source. Now where are all those Valerie Plame "pearl clutchers" now?

 

[grasping the after wind]

The report shows that Trump lied about his campaign being spied on, and that the investigation into Russian interference in our elections was justified and not politically motivated.

Which destroys any hope republicans had of justifying their conspiracy theories.

It does that only if one lives in Bizzaro world.

 

[Albion]

You read the articles from the usual MSM sources before and after the IG report all you hear is "vindication" of those involved and the "hoax" debunked. Which means they were repeating talking points prepared beforehand.

Yes, and did you notice this? Although the House committee identified two supposed violations that merited impeachment, Nadler and the others then proceeded to claim that it was about their favorite conspiracy theories instead of the actual charges.

This may explain why the committee, after trying out bribery, treason, Quid Pro Quo, obstruction of justice, etc. etc. settled on two rather vague accusations.

Immediately after those were decided upon, Nadler and others were meeting the press and saying that the reasons for impeachment were something else! -- Collusion with Russia, perverting the 2016 election, and collusion with Ukraine en route to rigging the 2020 election!

The formal charges are vague in order to allow any plotters to claim whatever they want to claim against the president, and whatever sounds the worst, even if (as with the Mueller investigation) those claims have already been found to be without merit.

For anyone who doubted that the whole idea behind impeachment was to keep the president from winning re-election, this certainly seems to shows it to be so.

 

[The Barbarian]

It does that only if one lives in Bizzaro world.

It's not debatable. The IG report very clearly states that. The Trump campaign was not being spied on. The investigation into Russian interference was justified and not politically motivated. The game is up. Time for republicans to find a new conspiracy theory.

 

[The Barbarian]

For anyone who doubted that the whole idea behind impeachment was to keep the president from winning re-election, this certainly seems to shows it to be so.

It would have been easy for Trump to have avoided this. If he hadn't held up aide to Ukraine, pending Zelenski aiding his political campaign, none of this would have happened.

 

[redleghunter]

The formal charges are vague in order to allow any plotters to claim whatever they want to claim against the president, and whatever sounds the worst, even if (as with the Mueller investigation) those claims have already been found to be without merit.

I would consider the bolded above the political definition of "Assertion." Meaning make an assertion and then stuff in the kitchen sink from NYTs and WaPo articles and Adam Schiff's fantasies.

 

[redleghunter]

If he hadn't held up aide to Ukraine, pending Zelenski aiding his political campaign

There's the problem...No proof of this. Zelenski got the money, got the meeting and got the endorsement. Where is this help in the 2020 campaign exactly?

 

[The Barbarian]

Barbarian observes:
If he hadn't held up aide to Ukraine, pending Zelenski aiding his political campaign.

There's the problem...No proof of this.

There's the transcript of the call, in which he offered the aid, but at the price of a favor to help him get dirt on a political opponent. There's the testimony of administration officials. And there's the fact that Guiliani was telling people what Zelenski would have to do to get the money.

Zelenski got the money, got the meeting and got the endorsement.

After Trump was aware that someone had blown the whistle on him:
President Donald Trump knew about a bombshell whistleblower complaint that exposed his pressure campaign against Ukraine when he decided to release a withheld military aid package to Kyiv, The New York Times reported.
Trump knew about whistleblower complaint before he released Ukraine aid, report says

Too late. He was already caught.

Where is this help in the 2020 campaign exactly?

Worst possible outcome for Trump. He got caught doing the crime (it's a felony to even ask a foreign nation to help a political campaign, much less attempt to withhold aid to pressure the foreign nation) And when he was caught, he quickly released the aid, getting nothing at all for it.

 

[redleghunter]

Barbarian observes:
If he hadn't held up aide to Ukraine, pending Zelenski aiding his political campaign.

Who said aid was held up for political campaign? Adam Schiff’s story time hour?

So impeachment is based on a supposed thought crime. Thought so.

 

[redleghunter]

It's not debatable. The IG report very clearly states that. The Trump campaign was not being spied on. The investigation into Russian interference was justified and not politically motivated. The game is up. Time for republicans to find a new conspiracy theory.

You are really conflating things here.

The overall investigation into Russian interference was justified. Violating and ignoring FBI FISA procedures, doctoring evidence, withholding exculpatory evidence on Carter Page to gain access to the Trump campaign was not justified and the IG report shows this. Not to mention outing a willing source used by the CIA in Carter Page.

The FBI OG refused the Carter Page FISA application in August 2016 as thin at best. It was not until the HRC paid and discredited Steele dossier was handed to the FBI that they got the FISA passed through the FBI brass who are all now playing Sergeant Shultz “I see nothing”

By getting that FISA warrant in Page, the FBI then stepped up electronic surveillance on the Trump campaign. This is called a counter intelligence operation. The very definition of spying.

But you would know this if you actually read at the very least the IG report executive summary.

 

[The Barbarian]

It was not until the HRC paid and discredited Steele dossier was handed to the FBI

Ah, that's a testable claim. What in the dossier has been disproven? So far...

Contacts between Trump's team and Russians
The dossier contains allegations against several of Trump's campaign officials and associates of having secret contacts with Russians during the campaign. Steele's raw intelligence reports cited unnamed sources alleging these communications were part of a widespread effort to collude on the election and secure the White House for Trump.
When the memos spilled into public view, Trump and at least five other senior administration officials denied in emphatic and often sweeping terms that anyone involved in the campaign was in contact with Russians. But in the two years since those denials were issued, news reports and court filings revealed that at least 16 Trump associates had contacts with Russians during the campaign or transition.
Steele's memos lay out specific meetings that haven't been corroborated. But his claim that there was regular contact between Trump's campaign and Russians has held up over time. When he wrote his memos in 2016, hardly any of these contacts were publicly known. They have since been revealed in Mueller's court filings, countless news reports and testimony on Capitol Hill.

Russian meddling in the 2016 election
Written in the midst of the campaign, Steele's memos contained allegations that Russia was waging a broad effort to interfere, and Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in the effort, motivated by his "fear and hatred" of Clinton. That assertion is now accepted as fact by the US intelligence community and Trump's handpicked intelligence leaders, though Trump himself has refused to unequivocally accept the conclusion that Putin was trying to help him.
...
The dossier said that the hacks against Democrats, which were publicly released by WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, were part of a wider Russian hacking effort. That has since been confirmed in Mueller's court filings, and last year, the special counsel indicted a dozen Russian intelligence agents in connection with the hacks.
The dossier also noted efforts from the Russian government to exploit political divisions within the US and the Democratic Party after the bruising primary fight between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders. A separate Mueller indictment dealt with disinformation efforts by a Kremlin-linked troll farm that played on those divisions. Since the 2016 election, social media companies have pulled thousands of accounts tied to Russia.

Trump's real estate dealings in Russia
The dossier claimed that the Russians tried to influence Trump by offering him "sweetener" real estate deals, in hopes of drawing him closer to Moscow. The specific details about these purported deals haven't been corroborated, but the dossier said Trump declined these offers.
Throughout the campaign, Trump said he had "nothing to do with Russia." When the dossier was first published, there wasn't any indication that Trump's company was involved in Russia beyond the Miss Universe pageant that he hosted in Moscow in 2013.
But it recently became public knowledge that Trump pursued a lucrative project in Moscow deep into the 2016 campaign, and that his then-attorney Michael Cohen sought help from the Kremlin to move the project along. Cohen admitted these shocking details when he pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow proposal, which never came to fruition.
Steele's sources were right that Trump had recently explored business dealings in Russia.

Potential Russian leverage on Trump
Cohen's guilty plea in November revealed that he had a phone call with a Kremlin aide in 2016 about the Trump Tower Moscow project. While Trump publicly said his business had no Russian ties, the Kremlin knew about the Moscow deal and could have revealed it at any time, theoretically even with recordings of the Cohen call.

Michael Flynn's paid trip to Moscow
Another allegation that's proven true: Steele's sources noted that the Russian government had indirectly paid Michael Flynn to travel to Moscow, a reference to his attendance at a 2015 gala honoring the state-run broadcaster RT.
Flynn, who later advised Trump's campaign and was briefly Trump's national security adviser, denied during the campaign that he received any payments from Russia.
But a bipartisan inquiry by the House Oversight Committee in early 2017 revealed Flynn was paid more than $33,000 by the Kremlin-funded network to attend the black-tie event and participate in a question-and-answer session.

All these claims in the Dossier have been confirmed. What has been definitely falsified? Tell us about that.

 

[The Barbarian]

Report on F.B.I. Russia Inquiry Finds Serious Errors but Debunks Anti-Trump Plot
A long-awaited report by the Justice Department’s inspector general delivers a scathing critique of the F.B.I.’s handling of a wiretap application but also punctures many conspiracy theories.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/us/politics/fbi-ig-report-russia-investigation.html

 

[redleghunter]

Ah, that's a testable claim. What in the dossier has been disproven? So far...

You have just demonstrated you have not read the IG report.

 

[The Barbarian]

Barbarian asks:
Ah, that's a testable claim. What in the dossier has been disproven?

You have just demonstrated you have not read the IG report.

You're not alone; no one else can find anything disproven, athough much of the dossier, as you just learned, has been confirmed. And today isn't your best day, it seems...

“We did not find any documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI's decision to conduct these operations. Additionally, we found no evidence that the FBI attempted to place any CHSs within the Trump campaign, recruit members of the Trump Campaign as CHSs, or task CHSs to report on the Trump campaign.”


P. 411 DOJ IG Michael Horowitz's report into origins of Russia probe

 

[redleghunter]

You're not alone; no one else can find anything disproven, athough much of the dossier, as you just learned, has been confirmed. And today isn't your best day, it seems...

LOL just read the report before you keep making these unfounded assertions.