FBI and FISA Court: IF YOUR POLITICS ARE FAVORED, YOU’RE HOME FREE

• No jail time for malfeasance of a monumental nature
• A slap on the wrist and on to a new job
• Makes importuning of FBI bureaucrats a political strategy
• Every lying FBI bureaucrat now has a get out of jail free precedent
• Respect for the integrity of the FBI and courts it answers to questioned
  
• More comment follows

From Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf and the team behind the Law & Order franchise, FBI is a fast-paced drama about the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This elite unit brings to bear all their talents, intellect and technical expertise on major cases in order to keep New York and the country safe.”

That’s how CBS describes its “fast-paced” drama series about the FBI. There have been many television series over the years about the Federal Bureau of Investigation (who can forget Ephrem Zimbalist, Jr.?), its exploits and its hardworking, courageous, brilliant agents, field personnel and leadership as well.

But does any of the stuff about the Bureau aired by TV networks in fictional series reflect today’s FBI (or any day’s)?

What would Mr. Zimbalist feel about portraying the heroic exploits of ‘Andy’ McCabe or Peter Strzok?

For that matter, what do the real FBI veterans, those now retired, feel about their former ’employer’?

Would they say these portrayals of the Bureau they once served accurately reflect their work?

Or would they say, “Nah. We were more of a government bureaucracy devoted to the interests of leftwing political organizations and individuals. When rightwing politicians were in office, our main job was to do whatever it took to undermine their administration. If it were a leftist political administration, we were to do whatever it took to advance their agenda…if, in either case that meant spying on US citizens or using phony documents to get the help of friendly courts, that’s what we did!”

We doubt that any retired FBI administrator or operative would say that. And we are among those who believe that the FBI was not always that kind of operation. But, after observing the reality, and reading of of the Bureau’s activities over the past 4 years…and even a bit longer ago than that, we don’t believe TV shows like “FBI” are any longer accurate depictions of what the nation’s…the world’s…”premier law enforcement agency” is today.

The story below does not tend to encourage us to abandon those views…and doesn’t, in our opinion, reflect favorably on our courts either.

If there’s anyone out there who has first hand knowledge of the FBI operating philosophy now, or in the recent past, we’d welcome their comments and perspective (contributions to the reader commentary section can be anonymous).     dlh

Wall Street Journal: A Pass For Kevin Clinesmith 

How can the American people take the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seriously when it doesn’t do so itself? That’s our view of Friday’s sentencing of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted to falsifying evidence submitted to the court for a warrant to spy on onetime Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page.SUB

“Federal Judge James Boasberg spared Mr. Clinesmith prison in favor of 12 months probation and 400 hours of community service. The judge said the evidence persuaded him that “Mr. Clinesmith likely believed that what he said about Mr. Page was true.”

Wow, what a legal defense concept — Your honor my client believed it was not fraud, he just exercised substituted judgement of what he believed should have been the case.

Corporate Execs go to jail for lying on SEC forms, they don’t get a defense of ~~ well I thought the company was that fit

Restitution? The victim is less the FISA Court (which apparently doesn’t mind being bamboozled very much) rather, it is respect for the FBI and most significantly the American people and President Trump who were defrauded by this act of lying to the court, the extensive damages being from policies inflicted on us as a result of the burdening  of President Trump’s reelection.  R Mall

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