[HOT AIR] NY Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote a column yesterday in which he reviewed for readers the history of the FBI’s actions during the Trump administration with regard to the Steele dossier. Stephens argues that if Igor Danchenko is convicted, it will be a real embarrassment for the media outlets who promoted the dossier. However he says that putting the media’s role aside, Danchenko’s indictment is an even bigger blow to the credibility of the FBI:
What this indictment further exposes is that James Comey’s F.B.I. became a Bureau of Dirty Tricks, mitigated only by its own incompetence — like a mash-up of Inspector Javert and Inspector Clouseau. Donald Trump’s best move as president (about which I was dead wrong at the time) may have been to fire him.
The Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s handling of the FISA process found "many basic and fundamental errors." Stephens suggests this raised the question of whether the FBI was biased or incompetent. But he includes there’s evidence it was both. He points to FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith’s rewriting of an email to conceal the fact that Carter Page was working with the CIA: |