Fog of War, or Deliberate Smoke Screen?

By Lee Pillsbury

In an apparent bid to obfuscate any possible results of the Mueller investigation, some Republicans are engaging in a concerted effort to conflate different events, investigations, and talking points to cloud an already complicated story.

Lately we have heard much about a series of texts between two FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) agents who committed the great sin of having opinions on political candidates. Lisa Page, a bureau lawyer who was involved with the Clinton email investigation, and Peter Strozk, a counter-intelligence agent involved in the early days of the Trump-Russia investigation, exchanged texts critical of Hillary Clinton, the press, and candidate Donald Trump.

While there is an Inspector General investigation ongoing into leaks during the Clinton email investigation, the texts released do not make clear that either Page or Strozk allowed their personal opinions to affect their job performance in any way. It is ridiculous to think that there has ever been an agent in history who didn’t have an opinion on the subjects of his/her investigations. It is also insulting to think that professionals cannot do their jobs while holding an opinion.

One of those texts contained a reference to the first meeting of a “secret society” which caused Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson to run to get in front of every TV camera he could find to shout, “A-HA!” He was quickly forced to walk it back the next day, along with his ridiculous claim that a whistleblower had confirmed the secret society, when it became obvious that the reference was a joke.

Then we get to the many congressmen who were deeply distressed that there was a five-month gap in the texts that were turned over as if this was proof of a massive cover-up. Conveniently not mentioned in this narrative is the fact that the Page-Strozk texts were part of a larger data glitch that affected 3500 agents, and that they were all recovered by the IG from Page and Strozk’s devices instead of the FBI server. Hardly the 18 ½-minute gap in the Nixon tapes.

Lost in all the media hype by those on the right was that none of this had anything to do with the Mueller investigation. It was meant to raise questions about the integrity of the investigation.

Next up is the Nunes memo. Congressman Devin Nunes, who was part of the Trump transition team, was forced to recuse himself from the Russia probe back in April of last year after his midnight ride to the White House to deliver “highly classified information.” Now he has written a four-page memo that is reported to cover the application for a FISA warrant on Carter Page, a Trump advisor during the campaign.

The thrust of the memo seems to be that the warrant was issued due to the use of the so-called Steele dossier and that, if Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein used a dossier partially composed of opposition research, paid for by the Clinton Campaign, any results of the investigation are fruit of the poison tree and can’t be used in a legal proceeding.

This narrative leaves aside the fact that FISA applications are normally 40-60 pages and a four-page memo would have to be cherry-picked. Leaving aside that any information used to obtain a FISA warrant requires corroboration from different sources, once again Robert Mueller didn’t get them. They were part of a separate FBI counter-intelligence investigation.

The stagecraft of Nunes writing a memo, and then starting a drumbeat to #releasethememo, is akin to Joseph McCarthy standing in the well of the Senate waving a blank piece of paper while screaming, “I hold in my hand a list of names of communists in the state department,” while not producing any names.

So, after 10 days of speculation, leaks, and breathless proclamations that this memo contains evidence of corruption at the highest levels, corruption that threatens the very foundations of democracy, the House Intel Committee has voted to release a partisan majority (Republican) memo written to cast doubt on an ongoing investigation while voting not to release the minority (Democratic) rebuttal memo. If reports are correct, Rod Rosenstein, who applied to renew the FISA warrant, will soon find himself in the crosshairs.

If the reports about the memo are true, Rosenstein will join an ever-growing list of career FBI and DOJ (Department of Justice) employees who have been smeared by the President and his supporters:

James Comey: Fired for not halting the Russia investigation;

Andrew McCabe: Forced out after constant attacks by the President for what seems to be no more than marrying a Democrat;

Lisa Page and Peter Strozk: Careers and reputations ruined for having opinions.

All of this is designed to give the President the ability to claim he is the victim of a vast left wing conspiracy inside the Justice Department. Meanwhile, Robert Mueller is quietly going about his work which has already resulted in guilty pleas from two of the President’s  closest advisors and the indictment of two more.

Republicans willing to destroy the reputation of the FBI and DOJ in defense of a partisan agenda will have to answer to the American people, and probably soon.