by James A. Bacon
This morning I found an email in my inbox, a fund-raising message from U.S. Senator Mark Warner calling for the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr. It saddens me to say what I’m about to say because, other than breaking his promise not to raise taxes, I thought Warner did a commendable job as Virginia’s governor. I got to know him in his run-up to the governorship and came to like him personally. He was one of the good guys. But 10 years of operating in the Washington, D.C., political/media bubble, I fear, has severely distorted his perspective.
Here’s how the fund-raising missive starts:
Last week, the Department of Justice released a long-awaited report into the origins of the Russia investigation. Contrary to what President Trump and his allies have been claiming for three years, the report found no evidence that the investigation — which exposed criminal activity by the President’s campaign manager, national security adviser, and other top aides — was influenced by political bias.
Warner’s letter — I’m sure he didn’t write it, but if it went out under his name, he bears responsibility for the contents — is not a remotely complete summary of the Office of Inspector General‘s conclusions regarding the FISA application to survey Carter Page. Here is a main finding that the Senator cherry picks:
We concluded that [Assistant Director E.W. “Bill”] Priestap’s exercise of discretion in opening the investigation was in compliance with Department and FBI policies, and we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced his decision.
While the OIG found no documentary or testimonial evidence of bias, it did find indisputable evidence of wrong-doing that raised disturbing questions for which, the OIG said, senior FBI officials provided no satisfactory answers. The OIG had no power to issue subpoenas, and it was not within the inspector’s purview to probe FBI officials’ evasions and forgetfulness. So, if anyone is going to determine if there was bias, it has to be the U.S. Justice Department.
Warner’s letter continued:
Mr. Barr went on national television and, instead of accepting the findings of a non-partisan, two-year investigation, proceeded to attack the men and women of federal law enforcement, mislead the American people, and try to provide political cover for the President.
I’m not sure which of Barr’s statements Warner was referring to, but here’s what the AG told NBC News, which was consistent with what he said elsewhere:
In the rush to obtain and maintain FISA surveillance of Trump campaign associates, FBI officials misled the FISA court, omitted critical exculpatory facts from their filings, and suppressed or ignored information negating the reliability of their principal source,” Barr said, adding that “the malfeasance and misfeasance detailed in the Inspector General’s report reflects a clear abuse of the FISA process.
Barr has never condemned “the men and women” of federal law enforcement. He has condemned the actions of a few senior FBI officials whose abuses were highlighted in the OIG report. Here are some of the OIG’s conclusions (my highlights):
We concluded that the failures described above and this report represent serious performance failures by the supervisory and non-supervisory agents with responsibility over the FISA applications. … We identified at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications, and many additional errors in the Woods Procedures. These errors and omissions resulted from case agents providing wrong or incomplete information to OI and failing to flag important issues for discussion. While we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct on the part of the case agents … we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or problems we identified. …
That so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, hand-picked teams on one of the most sensitive FBI investigations that was briefed to the highest levels within the FBI, and that FBI officials expected and would eventually be subjected to close scrutiny, raised significant questions regarding the FBI chain of command’s management and supervision of the FISA process. … In our view, this was a failure of not only the operational team, but also of the managers and supervisors, including senior officials, in the chain of command.
The FISA court judges themselves agree that the FISA process was abused. Wrote Presiding Judge Rosemary M. Collyer:
The OIG Report … documents troubling instances in which FBI personnel provided information to NSD which was unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession. It also describes several instances in which FBI personnel withheld from NSD information in their possession which was detrimental to their case for believing that Mr. Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power. … The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable.
Warner acknowledges none of this in his fund-raising letter. Rather, he attacks Barr for “substituting partisan spin for the facts” and his “latest attempt to rewrite history.” In truth, Warner is the one who “substituting partisan spin for the facts” and “rewriting history” by totally ignoring the damning evidence in the OIG report. The OIG has exposed the biggest scandal in FBI history since the revelations of J. Edgar Hoover’s misdeeds — perhaps bigger — and Warner has nothing to say about it.
In reviewing Warner’s press releases, I have found no indication that Virginia’s senior Senator has ever spoken out about the FBI abuses revealed by the OIG report. His response to the scandal has been extraordinary. On the one hand, Warner cannot bring himself to condemn the abuses of senior FBI officials. Instead, he finds Barr’s accurate citation of OIG findings so reprehensible that the AG should resign.
One of two things must be true. Either (1) Warner is ignorant of the OIG findings and is spouting off about a document which he has not fully read, or (2) he is deliberately cherry picking from and misrepresenting the report. Either possibility is inexcusable. The Mark Warner I see on television today is not the man I knew 16 years ago. He has become the very thing — a hyper-partisan and polarizing figure — that he accuses of Barr of being.
