The Inspector General Report on the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election concluded:

• the FBI investigation was justified

• no evidence of bias or political motive

• FISA warrant presentation sub-standard

FBI Director copped to sub-standard performance at the Bureau, while recognizing the legitimacy of findings and warning of ongoing Russian efforts.

Key word......START.

Of course they will take any "rumors" seriously, when it involves the presidential election........

Now, the rest, all the irregularities, exculpatory evidence, omissions, etc......went AGAINST Trump......when, if they would had done the RIGHT THING, the investigation would have STOPPED, and he would not had to DEFEND himself.... against these lies, and now you call that obstruction.......of what......NOTHING.

You even know what exculpatory evidence is?

Exculpatory evidence is evidence favorable to the defendant in a criminal trial that exonerates or tends to exonerate the defendant of guilt.[1] It is the opposite of inculpatory evidence, which tends to present guilt.

In many countries, including the United States, police and prosecutors are required to disclose to the defendant exculpatory evidence they possess before the defendant enters a plea (guilty or not guilty).[2]

Per the Brady v. Maryland decision, prosecutors have a duty to disclose exculpatory evidence even if not requested to do so. While the prosecution is not required to search for exculpatory evidence and must disclose only the evidence in its possession, custody, or control, the prosecution's duty is to disclose all information known to any member of its team, e.g., police, investigators, crime labs, et cetera. In Brady v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court held that such a requirement follows from constitutional due process and is consistent with the prosecutor's duty to seek justice.[3]

Fool, useful fools.

WebsterMark wrote on 12/09/19 at 16:09:39:

Yeah, Barr doesn't agree either...
I'm sure Trump and Gulliani won't either.
Did we expect anything else?...

So you have no idea what the US Attorney’s report will say and you already dismiss it?

eau de sauvage wrote on 12/09/19 at 17:25:02:


The Democrats, diplomats and bureaucrats are confusing us instead of exonerating or convicting ? I don't understand, the maze of this diplomat said that, that bureaucrat said that etc etc is getting on my nerves.
BTW I have a healthy disdain for "gubbamint" officials, whose biggest skill seems to be to navigate the process of getting govt employment. I know a few people who list their skill as "works in government" Maybe its so top secret, they'd have to kill me if they told me. Except before that, they were a school administrator. So as a skill, its shuffling paperwork.
I don't got no patience for this crap.
Cool.
Srinath.

WebsterMark wrote on 12/09/19 at 18:01:32:


Que? I'll take Lawfare's analysis, perhaps, you've been watching Fox.

Today, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz declared in more than 450 pages that the "Witch Hunt" narrative was nonsense. Yes, the investigation had problems—some of them serious. But the problems were not political in character. There was no effort to “get” candidate Trump. There was no “insurance policy.” There was no coup. There was no treason.


https://www.lawfareblog.com/inspector-generals-witch-hunt-report-quick-and-di...

5) Report is a devastating indictment of Steele, Fusion GPS and the "dossier." Report finds that about the only thing FBI ever corroborated in that doc were publicly available times, places, title names. Ouch.
6)IG finds 17 separate problems with FISA court submissions, including FBI's overstatement of Steele's credentials. Also the failure to provide court with exculpatory evidence and issues with Steele's sources and additional info it got about Steele's credibility.
7) Every one of these "issues" is a story all on its own. Example: The FBI had tapes of Page and Papadopoulos making statements that were inconsistent with FBI's own collusion theories. They did not provide these to the FISA court.
8) Another example: FBI later got info from professional contacts with Steele who said he suffered from "lack of self awareness, poor judgement" and "pursued people" with "no intelligence value." FBI also did not tell the court about these credibility concerns.
9)And this: FBI failed to tell Court that Page was approved as an "operational contact" for another U.S. agency, and "candidly" reported his interactions with a Russian intel officer. FBI instead used that Russian interaction against Page, with no exculpatory detail.

Trump looked into the camera on live TV and asked for Russian interference in the election.

Trump's campaign shared polling and demographics in key districts with  Russian intelligence.

Trump-contracted social engineering company Cambridge Analytica coordinated with Russian State propaganda machine The Internet Research Agency to influence the vote; Trump himself repeated Internet Research Agency propaganda.

The Independent Counsel demonstrated multiple Trump campaign members lied about contact with Russian operatives; several have been sentenced for related crimes and are serving time in prison right now.

The Independent Counsel determined Trump obstructed Counsel's investigation of Russia's concerted effort to impact the US election outcome.

---

These are just a few matters of record- not conjecture, not supposition, not obvious conclusions on the order of hearing a gunshot then seeing a person with a smoking gun standing over a corpse with a fresh bullet hole.   These are just a handful of facts out of the pile.

Trump solicited Russian help with his 2016 bid for the Presidency; he coordinated with that effort.   Since then, he has solicited Ukraine and China to take part in the 2020 election.   The FBI investigation into candidate Trump's campaign has been completely validated.

Trump is a criminal, violated our trust and the Constitution.  We don't know yet if Republican efforts will prevent holding Trump to account for what he has done, while he remains in office.   We just don't know.  What we know, without any shade of doubt, is that those of you who are complicit in covering for Trump will carry that stain forever.