Share
Commentary

FBI Official Improperly Took Gifts from Members of the Media Between 2014 and 2016: DOJ Inspector General

Share

File this one under “Trump was right … again.”

A report from the Department of Justice inspector general has found that a former senior FBI official was accepting pricey gifts from and engaged in unauthorized socialization with members of the media while the agency was investigating then-presidential candidate Donald Trump based on “intelligence” it was fed from the Hillary Clinton camp.

You don’t say?

On Tuesday, the inspector general’s office released its report on allegations that the official had made “numerous contacts with members of the media between January and November 2016 in violation of FBI policy.”

Prior to the investigation, the Office of the Inspector General had “found indications that the Senior FBI Official received items of value from members of the media.”

The subsequent probe “substantiated the allegation that the Senior FBI Official had numerous unauthorized contacts with the media from 2014 through 2016, in violation of FBI policy,” a summary report said.

“In addition to substantive communications with reporters, this media contact included unauthorized social engagements outside of FBI Headquarters involving drinks, lunches, and dinners.”

The OIG also found that “the Senior FBI Official violated federal regulations and FBI policy when the Senior FBI Official accepted tickets from members of the media to two black tie dinner events, one valued at $225 and the other valued at $300, and received transportation to one event from a reporter, all without prior authorization.”

DOJ OIG Summary by The Western Journal

The official in question declined an interview with the OIG, having already retired from the FBI prior to the investigation. The inspector general does not have the authority to compel or subpoena testimony from former bureau employees or those who retire or resign in the midst of an investigation, the report noted.

Did the media and the deep state collude against Trump?

While there are few details to indicate why this particular official may have been courted by the media, it is rather indicative of the state of the FBI at the time that our now-former president was in the early stages of what he and many of his supporters have long decried as a “deep state coup.”

Do not forget that it was the media that fired the first shot of the spygate scandal by way of the now-notorious BuzzFeed report on the since-debunked Steele dossier, which was put together by former British spy Christopher Steele at the behest of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

It was the media that screamed at us for two years that Trump was an agent of Russia, while they were agents of the crooked scheme to frame him for “collusion.”

Related:
Sean Spicer Reveals His Lost Court Case Is Huge Precedent for 47: 'On Day One, President Trump Can Go in and Fire Everyone'

It is odd how, after the years of relentless accusations on the part of the Democratic and media establishments, all along it was the establishment federal intelligence agencies that appear to have been colluding with the media.

After years of probing and intense, biased scrutiny from the mainstream media, there was nothing but mere vapors of evidence that there was any wrongdoing on the part of the Trump campaign when it came to “Russia collusion.”

Yet as time goes on, the evidence of collusion on the part of the Democratic establishment, the federal bureaucracy and the vehemently anti-Trump media only continues to pile up.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , , ,
Share
Isa is a homemaker, homeschooler, and writer who lives in the Ozarks with her husband and two children. After being raised with a progressive atheist worldview, she came to the Lord as a young woman and now has a heart to restore the classical Christian view of femininity.
Isa is a homemaker, homeschooler, and writer who lives in the Ozarks with her husband and two children. After being raised with a progressive atheist worldview, she came to the Lord as a young woman and now has a heart to restore the classical Christian view of femininity.




Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Conversation