Kash understands the critical balance<\/a> between national security and\u00a0protecting civil rights [and] will work hand-in-hand with Congress to restore trust.\u201d<\/p>\nA former ally of Patel on the Hill, who was also spied on by the FBI, called the leak investigation a \u201cfishing\u00a0expedition\u201d: Former Senate investigator Jason Foster claims McCabe used it as a \u201cpretext\u201d to find out what he\u00a0and Patel were doing to expose FBI corruption in its Russiagate probe of Trump.<\/p>\n
At the time, his Senate panel,\u00a0the Judiciary Committee, had forced the FBI to turn over the shady Page FISA applications. Foster noted that\u00a0the inspector general determined that no one was ever charged in the FBI\u2019s years-long investigation of the\u00a0unauthorized disclosures to the media, despite the wide net McCabe cast.<\/p>\n
Foster also noted that McCabe himself was investigated for leaking to the media about an earlier Clinton-related investigation, and then lying about it to the IG, as well as FBI inspectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. McCabe lied about his own leaking and should have been prosecuted for it, according to the Obama-appointed Justice IG [Horowitz], but wasn\u2019t,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cNow that this fishing expedition into the\u00a0communications of congressional attorneys has been confirmed by the same IG, the new administration needs\u00a0to finally hold people accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently chairing a whistleblower support group, Empower Oversight, Foster said that what the McCabe FBI did is more\u00a0egregious than reported. It also swept up the phone records of spouses, including his own wife.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cMy\u00a0head was spinning\u201d when he found out. And he said agents and prosecutors withheld from the DC magistrate\u00a0judge who approved the subpoenas and non-disclosure orders the fact that the targets were congressional attorneys.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey misled the court,\u201d he said. \u201cThey left out the key fact we were all congressional attorneys. They claimed\u00a0over and over, with no basis, that we were flight risks or would \u2018destroy evidence.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n
IG Horowitz agreed that the language agents and prosecutors used in the subpoenas was \u201cboilerplate,\u201d making\u00a0it more likely the judges would rubberstamp them.<\/p>\n
As a result, \u201cthey got all kinds of information on who we were talking to, and when, with no probable cause and\u00a0no notice to congressional leadership, so there was no chance for Congress to challenge it,\u201d Foster added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they can still get that kind of information,\u201d barring reforms to protect separation of powers in the future.<\/p>\n
Horowitz confirmed the personal data collected from the subpoenas (including more than 75,000 text\u00a0messages), along with the electronic communications documenting the opening of the investigations and the\u00a0FBI interview reports, are stored at FBI headquarters.<\/p>\n
He noted he only reviewed \u201ca select number\u201d of the\u00a0thousands of files, which leaves loose ends for Patel to investigate.<\/p>\n
A handful of agents and supervisors\u00a0involved in the case are still employed there, the IG said, and maintain access to the files.<\/p>\n
Bad actors remaining at the bureau could be fired, but how can those who have left be held accountable? The\u00a0five-year federal statute of limitations has expired, making prosecution of suspected criminal abuses by current and former\u00a0FBI officials and agents a non-starter.<\/p>\n
Foster suggested they still could lose their coveted national security clearance. As FBI director, Patel would\u00a0have the authority to strip McCabe and other former officials of their classified credentials, making it virtually\u00a0impossible for them to work again in federal law enforcement. Patel said in a recent podcast that any official involved in framing Trump as part of the \u201cRussiagate hoax\u201d should have his clearance revoked.<\/p>\n
On CNN, where he works as an analyst, McCabe recently opined that Patel wasn\u2019t qualified to lead the FBI:\u00a0\u201cHe doesn\u2019t really have a fraction of the qualifications that any former FBI director chosen by any president\u00a0has.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCabe says he worries Patel will turn the bureau back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover, when it was \u201cessentially the enforcement arm for the president\u2019s political activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
He fears\u00a0Patel\u00a0<\/em>will trample over\u00a0civil liberties? That\u2019s rich, Patel points out, as it was \u201cgangster\u201d McCabe who signed one of the illegal FISA warrants\u00a0to spy\u00a0on Page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day after Patel is confirmed as FBI Director should be ‘epic’. BLUF He fears\u00a0Patel\u00a0will trample over\u00a0civil liberties? That\u2019s rich, Patel points out, as it was \u201cgangster\u201d McCabe who signed one of the illegal FISA warrants\u00a0to spy\u00a0on Page. Report reveals that FBI spied on its likely new director, Kash Patel. It\u2019s\u00a0going to be awkward at … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucraps","category-goobermint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106215,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106214\/revisions\/106215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}