Some observations from the Senate Hearing (The House one is later today) and opinions:
1. The best questioner was
John Kennedy, the Republican Senator from Louisiana who, by the way, I never heard of until yesterday. His questions were clear and logically sequenced and he didn't show off with long lawyer-speak speeches as lead-ins, like most of the rest of them did, therefore, it seems like he got more questions in. He certainly got answers to questions that others didn't ask. On the subject of Strock bias, he read ALL of Strock's biased e-mail/texts, not just the biased ones related to the Clinton e-mail scandal, to show how pervasive it was.
2.
Kamala Harris was the worst. She got it wrong a couple of times (maybe her staff is to blame for that), her questions weren't logically sequenced and she has the "Senate hearing" personality of drying paint. This is the second Senate hearing (ironically, the other one featured Rosenstein and McCabe) I watched her in where she came off badly so maybe she just stinks at hearings. I predict she will never be President because she'll never make it out of the Democrat primaries due to a lackluster personality that she'll need to get Democrat voters enthused about her.
Ted Cruz gets the Phoney-Baloney hearing award, not for what he said (which was pretty good) but for pausing for dramatic effect much like his presidential campaign speeches. He's always performing. Can't stand him. He wasn't the only one showboating but he was the Number 1 showboater (Coons from Delaware was the runner up).
3.
Around 50, that's
50 FBI employees, accepted gifts from the news media or had contact with them so I wish the media and the politicians would stop saying the rank and file FBI agents are angels...and we're ONLY talking about anything related to the Clinton e-mail scandal with that 50 number. Obviously, this goes deeper than the handful of executives on the 7th floor in DC that we always hear about. If they did it for this case, when else have they done it? By the way, not a single Senator asked Horowitz or Wray, who in the media offered those gifts. I want to know that, don't you? I suspect it's both righty and lefty media and that's why both sides are keeping a lid on it so it doesn't hurt them politically (getting shut out from media attention). Oh yeah, SES employees (those are FBI
executives on a different pay scale than the agents) are going for a ONE day, all day training class to make rules crystal clear including Hatch Act. Wray, very unimpressive, acts like this re-training idea is a big deal. Some people have been referred to OPR (Office of Professional Responsibility) but he wouldn't say who.
4. No one asked the Inspector General why he didn't have a clue about what was going on BEFORE the sh** hit the fan. If the employees were running to the media not a single thing reached his ears? Where's his office? In the basement?
5. Senator Kennedy from Louisiana asked if Comey was being referred for possible prosecution. Comey has
NOT been referred. This is after he definitely came off as the biggest screw-up by just about everyone present including the 2 testifying. Yup, even more than Strock, Page or McCabe.
6. The questions and answers about the Bill Clinton/Loretta Lynch meeting on the tarmac provided an interesting response. The Inspector General only got Lynch's (and her staff's) side of the story.
7. Ted Cruz asked Wray, I think, who lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee for conflicting stories, McCabe or Comey? Wray said he can't comment on ongoing investigations, a response Wray gave frequently to assorted questions.
8. The most frequent response IG Horowitz gave was "My investigation was only related to the Clinton e-mails with the exception of Anthony Weiner's computer" that touched on this and other investigations. Mostly Democrats, but not only Democrats, tried to tie in the Mueller investigation.
9. Another big issue - how did Giuliani know in advance that something big was coming with Democrats primarily intimating to Wray that the New York FBI also leaked like a sieve not just DC.
10. Leaking: They want us to read Attachment G and H of the Inspector General's report. Attachment G shows all employee types (job titles) who gave info to reporters on a diagram. Attachment H shows the frequency of contacts.
11. Kadzik - Podesta and appearance of objectivity: I didn't know anything about this before the hearing so I withhold any comments until I do some research.
12. Does Senator Blumenthal have Parkinson's? His hands were really shaking. I'm only asking because I saw the hearing when it was obvious there was something wrong with McCain.
13. House hearing with Wray and Horowitz is today.
The IG Report:
https://www.justice.gov/file/1071991/download
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