<p>Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz submitted a report on then-FBI Director James Comey&#8217;s behavior in launching an investigation into President Trump and Russia. The report described many questionable actions by Comey, but declined to prosecute.</p>
<p>I understand this. The scope of the IG&#8217;s report was limited, and the questionable actions of Comey were basically violations of policies of the FBI, policies that Comey was in charge of making and enforcing. As for passing classified information, Comey was the ultimate classifying authority for the FBI, and while his judgment and motives can be questioned, his authority there cannot be.</p>
<p>But there is a bigger issue here, one not covered by IG Horowitz.</p>
<p>The report stated that when Comey visited the President to inform him about the &#8216;dossier&#8217; his purpose was not really to inform. His purpose was to elicit a reaction from Trump in an attempt to gather evidence to further an existing investigation against him (all the while telling Trump he was not under investigation). After that meeting, he immediately met with Crossfire Hurricane, a special counterintelligence investigations unit, to report and document what he had learned.</p>
<p>Isn&#8217;t this direct proof that Comey was directly involved in conspiring against Trump? &#8211; indeed he surreptitiously interrogated him, lying to him all the while. <em><strong>This wasn&#8217;t a straight interview, this was a covert mission carried out personally by the Director of the FBI to attempt to trap the President of the United States.</strong></em></p>
<p>This was certainly grounds for Trump firing Comey, there was no way for an FBI Director to serve a president after that. And this was certainly evidence of a &#8216;conspiracy&#8217; against Trump.</p>
<p>The key to the question is the evidence that led up to it and whether the FBI knew that it was fabricated. Comey can argue that he was doing what the FBI should be doing, and he would be right if the evidence were solid.</p>
<p>But it wasn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>The classic question then &#8211; <em><strong>what did they know and when did they know it?</strong></em></p>
<p>Launching an investigation based on information known to be fabricated would be a crime rising to the level of treason. Obviously, some of the FBI agents knew it was fake, but did Comey?</p>
<p>The thing is, the &#8220;dossier&#8221; was so obviously fabricated (<a href="https://punchingbagpost.com/2017/01/12/former-intelligence-officer-buzzfeed-russia-trump-documents-are-fake-here-the-proof/">I wrote about this</a>, I saw the flaws in the first couple of minutes) that one has to ask how upper management in the FBI would not have seen it.</p>
<p>And this is the unbelievable part. <em><strong>Any CIA case officer would look at the &#8216;dossier&#8217; and be horrified at the exposure of sources and methods</strong></em>. Is FBI management so clueless that they would believe such a document?</p>
<p>Or did they conveniently forget to check with their counterintelligence people (who are paid to be suspicious)?</p>
<p><em><strong>But wait! The Crossfire Hurricane unit WAS counterintelligence!</strong></em> Is this elite counterintelligence unit not capable of seeing the same flaw in the &#8216;dossier&#8217; as I did? Do they not understand how spies work, and how this document was so obviously not the work of of true intelligence officers?</p>
<p><em><strong>Or were they ordered to ignore the flaws, so that the FBI elites would have a direct path to attack Trump?</strong> </em>An attack motivated strictly by political ideology?</p>
<p>The more I work this out in my head, the more obvious the answer becomes.</p>