Despite the fact that the Department of Justice Inspector General's report concluded that opening the investigation into Russian interference into our 2016 elections was completely justified, Republicans are pulling out every stop they possibly can to pretend the report says the opposite. Fox News, of course, is talking to only people on Earth 2. Trump and Bill Barr, are talking only to, well, Trump's ego. And now, the Senate Republicans have dragged the Inspector General himself, Michael Horowitz, in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to talk about the procedural mistakes that were made, and, of course, hope to castigate him for concluding that there was no political bias in opening this investigation.
Well, here is all you need to know in under a minute-and-a-half.
We also reviewed as we've detailed in the report, the e-mails, text messages and other documents of those involved in that decision and particularly Mr. Priestap's, and we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that indicated political bias or improper motivation influencing his decision to open the investigation. While the information in the FBI's possession at the time was limited, in light of the low threshold established by the department and FBI predication policy, which by the way is not a legal requirement but rather a prudential one in the FBI and department policies, we found that Crossfire Hurricane was opened for an authorized investigative purpose and with sufficient factual predication.
"In compliance." Without "political bias or improper motivation." Opened "for an authorized investigative purpose" and with "sufficient factual predication."
Think that will shut them up? Of course it won't.
