Sometimes appearances count and there is a clear appearance of bias in the handling of all of the investigations related to Hillary Clinton and those related to Donald Trump.
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Washington Post - June 14
By Devlin Barrett, Karoun Demirjian, John Wagner and Matt Zapotosky
“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” the lawyer, Lisa Page, wrote to Strzok.
“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,”
The inspector general concluded that Strzok’s text, along with others disparaging Trump, “is not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.”
The messages “potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations,” the inspector general wrote.
“Under these circumstances, we did not have confidence that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over following up on the midyear-related investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias,” the report said.
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Mr Horowitz thus stated that there was an appearance of bias and an implication of a willingness to take official action, and furthermore that they did not have confidence that the prioritizing of the Trump investigation over the Clinton investigation was free from bias. Peter Strzok led both the Clinton and Trump investigations.. Yet, Mr Horowitz did not say that what looked like a duck was a duck.
Testifying before Congress earlier this week, Mr. Horowitz was asked if he believed whether Mr. Strzok’s texts showed political bias. “I think as we found it clearly shows a biased state of mind,” Mr. Horowtiz said. Later, Mr. Horowitz was asked if Strzok’s bias led to the start of the Russia probe. He responded, “that’s a matter that we have under review and are looking at right now.”
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See also: WSJ -- June 23, 2018 -- David E Rivkin Jr. and Elizabeth Price Foley
Mueller’s Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
“All special-counsel activities -- investigations, plea deals, subpoenas, reports, indictments, and convictions -- are fruit of a poisonous tree, byproducts of a violation of due process.”
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Since Mr. Horowitz’s report, Mr. Strzok was escorted out of the FBI building last week.
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte has now subpoenaed FBI agent Peter Strzok to be deposed by the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.
