Sm he20 didnt talk about 2020. Would you agree President Trump was acting wrongly and corruptly that he was askingee r the investigation explicitly to help his 2020 election prospects . Yes, my experience as ten years as a prosecutor, you never have a defendant or someone whos engaging in misconduct who would ever explicitly say in this case, president zelensky, i am going to bribe you now or i am going to ask you for a bribe, i am going to extort you, thats not theto way these things work. Mr. Castor. You said about hunter biden going back to 2014 for burisma. Yes. President trump supported ukraine with aid and otherwise, 2017 and 2018, correct . We are going to keep an eye on thatee testimony in todays impeachment before the house judiciary. We have some Breaking News for you on that other story we have been monitoring. A long anticipated Justice DepartmentInspector General report on the investigation into the origins of the russia probe, the conduct of a career long Law Enforcement officials who President Trump has maligned and attacked. This report was expected to flatly t refutes of the president s alarming claims about a deep state conspiracy that undermines his presidency based on what i have read so far. It does just that. Julia ainsley is live for us at the department of justice. What are you learning of this report . Nt so nicole, this report just came down from the Inspector General here at the Justice Department here, it is over 400 pages. I had a chance to leap through
this and pulled out some of the headlines. You are absolutely right. The in speck sor Generspector Ge was no evidence of political bias by the fbi and their decision to open the investigation into the 2016 meddling of russians into the president ial campaign. He did however say that this was not, they did not follow the chain of command, throughout the chain of command, there were a lot of mistakes made that initially this investigation was opened because of attempt from a Foreign Government that being the australians and not the infamous or Uncrorroborated Steele dossier. He said the steele dossier played outside an impact of carter page. He called that inaccurate. They were not getting that much material. It was not that useful to the overall investigation. Some news for you here nicole. The Inspector General is opening another investigation into how the fbi uses warrants and how they apply and whether or not more protocols should be put in place as the fbi seeks to surveil them through these court orders. Thats what we are c following here now. Overall you can say the Inspector General found no evidence of political bias on the fbis decision to open that initial investigation. Julia, stay with us. I got some more details coming out of this. What i think we should be focused on is this finding of the cross fire hurricanes, the intelligence investigation of the russians led to the Special Counsel was found to be properly
predicated on facts. Explain that. That means the fbi actually had the legal bases to properly open this investigation. Hi is predication probable cause, it is like a standard for opening the investigation . It became a full. The advantage used for a full investigation is specific that a foreign power power was involved. The ig is saying you properly opened this case and you open four related cases. The populaapadopoulospapadopoul manaforts case, all properly opened on facts. If you were to put a report on the timeline, all of the conduct that the fbi engaged him when they opened up the investigationy into Donald TrumpsCampaign Staffers and associates tied with russia including carter page, manafort and papadopoulos and who was the
fourth . Flinn. All the conduct in opening those investigations and conducting them of whats proper and the problem happens here . After they were ongoing . The initial report was saying after those cases properly predicated and open, there were some Policiy Standards and protocol violations by some personnel. Also there is a rulely important finding here. For people like chuck and myself, we care deeply of the brand and rep repation reputat. And to include Human Sources under cover agents and the technique all being found to have validly used in this case. I guess it is extraordinary
to have found wrong doing sort of downd the timeline after al these investigations were properly opened and there was cause for investigating all the connections to russia. Thats how it is supposed to function. Su what about the three years of smears on people like Andrew Mccabe who was called a traitor and people like jim comey for things that the ig found is lawful. I want an apology from the white house but an apology is due because thats all we have been hearing for years, this was a hoax and conspiracy by a deep state and the intelligence km t community and whatll we are hearing from the in spspector
general, i didnt not found any hoax. I found properly predication. Let me put you on the spot. T opened and conducted Good Housekeeping seal of approval from the ig properly predicated investigations. Would those people carry out the same reforms that we understand, maybe put in place today based on the findings of wrong doing . I believe the way Inspector General describes them is a low level fbi lawyer. No doubt. Anybody would have carried out these reforms. There are two things that did not surprise me at all. The firstri one that frank articulated so wellth that ther was no political bias and no political motive and the case was properly predicated or founded on facts. It dmou it does not surprise me at all. When ever an Inspector General looks at anything and any department carefully and closely, you are going to find procedural flaws. I have never seen an ig report that says no problem here. Sorry to waste your time. If you work in the government, it says everything right up close. What the ig is about, the in speck s inspect inspectorgener general. The department of justice, Inspector General looked at a wholel bunch of important thin including the process that we obtain fungicid
obta obtain warrants. In any big complex organization, the fbi is a big complex organization, there are going to be procedural flaws, sometimes it is people acting rationally or sometimes people with bad purpose or just people falling to follow complex regulations. Inspector generals always find something toay criticize. I dont mean it as a criticism. It is a fact. Let me ask you on a personal level, you know the men and women who havew been maligned,e have been covered on this show on a daily bases. He attacked Rod Rosenstein and jim comey, how does it feel for the leaders of the fbi to be exonerated from the central attackro from this president th the fbi set him up and spied on
h him . They know what they did and they know what they did not do and howdi they were motivated. These are good and decent people. It does not tell them anything new. On the other hand, it feels pretty good. Because now you have an independent Inspector General who has come to the conclusion that we all suspected all along, right . If you spend any time watching fox news, claire, Michael Harwitz was the right answer. The report i am waiting for is harwitz. There is a lot of eggs in the basket. Is among what he describes as a low level lawyer but the attack from the man in the office with no corner has been about treasons and traitors. Harwitz has one of his witnesses, mr. Durham. The republican senators who have been all in, the only hoax here is the fbi had corruption. In january of 2018, the chairman of the Homeland Security committee in the senate said this is all about further evidence of corruption more than bias. That chairmann issued an apolog this afternoon and any of the members of the Republican Party on the hill and reestablished that we do not make reckless accusations about Law Enforcement in the world. It is stunning to me because
no s matter where you stand on e question, you should be cheered today, Inspector General found no bias or corruption, it was properly predicated and conducted until the point when it was not. That person will be under investigation. What do you think about the fact that even some one heard from within who looks at the agency with a critical objective eye. Thats the thing. It is not only we are not going to get apology or the people thats o exonerated. This is an example of donald trump over promising. He set the bars so high for what we had to find that no chance republicans could have
established. Establ accomplished. That was never going to happen and occur. And so theha report not only validates the hard work and legitimate peopleha of working t it shows the president continually overnt promises and creates insane Conspiracy Theory that wellon dedicated people wh may be loyal to him cant backup. Heidi, i keep thinking about to jasons point, the moving of the post. Now we are hearing around the right wing, wait for durham. Hell get them. What do you make following the facts and the evidence, good news for all americans of any political persuasion of any opinion of donald trump. Very good news that the doj cleared all the leadership of
any political bias and any wrong doing in the opening of the russian investigation. Thoroughly eviscerate our Law Enforcement officials, a coup if you will, it was used to bring down the president of the United States that it may play into thisla whole debate, nicole, Abt Whether Thereic should be a thi count on obstruction. What we are talking about right now in terms of the shape of articles against President Trump, you have this debate raging about whether there is enough to bring a third or second article on obstruction or whether that he just be folded into the broader abuse of power. Well, now you have the president s ten potential counts in the Mueller Investigation trying to obstruct these officials who are now exonerated
of anything and proven to do thispr Investigation Complete completely now over whether there should be a solid third article on obstruction. Some reaction from some of the people who are on the receiving ends of Donald Trumps attacks and smears about the predication, former Acting Director of the fbi, Andrew Mccabe has reviewed the Inspector Generals report and says this. They also found personnel, not doing so would be the duties of the fbi. Those are strong words from Andrew Mccabe. Andrew mccabe and his wife were cascaded on twitter and we are now finding that Andrew Mccabe had it right. He saw threats and he addressed by opening the russian intelligence case bysi putting trumps name in the title of that case and the ig saying he did it right. Julia ainsley, any action coming in from william barr is really taking the 23month long Mueller Investigation and prespinning it asn it came ou and i afterwards being derogato about its fiendings. Strong reaction from the Attorney General. Hes already saying this report really questions the legitimacy of the investigation which is not what the in spespector says. Spstop, stop, where does it come from . I will read you his words. The Inspector General reports now makes clear that the fbi launched the intrusive investigation of the u. S. President ial campaign onof the thinnest ofn suspicions that i my view were insufficient to justify the accepts taken. The Attorney General disagreeing with his Inspector General. There was no evidence of political bias and opening of this investigation and the only area where Inspector General is questioning the mistakes that were made have to do with the warrant that was not critical to the investigation in the first place. Can i just read though the first page of the report put out by his justice represent says this, the decision to four individual cases on current members of the Trump Campaign,
papadopoulos he finds no wrong doing that. I guess whats so stunning is to stand in front of that building and read a statement from the Attorney Generalnt refuting a document from his own department . What explains that julia . Well, you have to think about where the Attorney General stays now . Heto is someone that appointed john durham to do a criminal investigation into the same matter, nicole. The Attorney General wants to look at whats being exposed today as something to justify that investigation and to try to build a case for what he has said. This is a same Attorney General who said he believed there may have been spying. Thats not anywhere in the Inspector General report. He keeps on making this case, he says it is also clear that from
its inception, the investigation, the evidence produced by the investigation was consistently exculpatory. It was not all exculpatory evidence. The Attorney General is making no lines blurred when it comes to how he views this Inspector General report and how he views this entire investigation from the fbi through muellers collusions. Help me understand this, frank. The Attorney GeneralDisparages Andne does not belie in the Robert Muellers investigation, 23 months long. Guilty convictions and guilty pleas by mike flynn and manafort and roger stone. The american Attorney General does not believe his own Department Inspector generals report. If there is reasons for concerns today, whats the evidence that hes looking at the facts . Hes choosing to ignore the facts. Hes looking at possible necessity of policies and procedure changes. Is it in here, too . What i am seeing here for example in the report is to the fact that wow, the fbi does not have any written policy on the president and his campaign so they went with a policy they had and he complied with it. So what i think you are going to hear is a steady drum beat now saying oh, the fbi got to rewrite their policy, they should not be looking into the campaign, it is intrusive. Yeah, it is intrusive but they followed the rules. There was not a misconduct in opening and conducting the case. One instance i am reading. The fbi went above and beyond. Cooperating source were wired in thisce investigation. Fbi policies said a Field Supervisor can approve that. They went all the way to the
assistant director to approve wearing a wire. You will see evidence in here of extra ruling following. You will see the white houses ig saying i dont like this. If it was obama being investigated, did you not like the policy because it is your guy . I am old enough to remember the investigations of Hillary Clintons emails. I dont remember a single republican supporting the idea of investigating a president s. How do you investigate a campaign where there are suspicion of wrong doing. It is mind boggling that this is the second years long investigation into the president s campaign that barr does not believe. Well, the Attorney General characterized thera standards a insufficient in my view. To franks point, it is not that
they did not comply with their guidelines, it sounds like the Attorney General does not like the guidelines of which they complied. Did he complain about them when they replied to the Hillary Clinton campaign . I dont know him to ever comply to guidelines. This is an important point. I will read it from the report. The fbi has a domestic investigation operation guide. Thats one of the two Main Operations that tell the fbi what it can do and cant do. It has guidelines with the same purpose. Th using those two documents to T Togeth Torgt Document a preliminary investigation may be opened based on any allegations or
information indicative of possible activities or threats to the National Security. It is set low. Why was it set low . Because you cant investigate a case before you investigate a case. You open the case. I should better say it. You cant no the results of the investigations before you open investigations. You set the threshold low. You use all the lawful tool of your disposal and you m