" No, no, no, no, no, no, no! No! No!"
That was the sound of Don Lemon on CNN attempting to blot out criticism by a guest of the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton on Thursday. Will Lemon also try to blot out the same criticism by CNN's own legal analyst, Paul Callan? As chronicled by NewsBusters writer Alex Xenos, Callan on Wednesday questioned the objectivity of the FBI and the Department of Justice in their investigations of President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as you can see in the in the video below. It wouldn't have been too surprising if Callan had backtracked a bit and claimed that he had "misspoke" or something of that nature. Instead he doubled down in a December 29 column and went into greater detail as to why Trump is right about the FBI.
What distinguishes Callan from most commentators in the mainstream media was his willingness to actually investigate the facts of this matter as you can see in his following statement:
You know I started writing this piece about the whole situation that was raised by Grassley. And originally, I was angered at the President's attacks on the FBI. I thought they were unjustified. But when I started to delve into the facts, boy, there's some really disturbing stuff here.
As could be expected, Callan's observations went viral on the Web. And rather than backing away from his Wednesday criticisms, he has now doubled down on them in a column proclaiming Trump to be right in the matter.
The ferocity of President Donald Trump's recent attacks on the integrity of the FBI has sent shock waves through an agency accustomed to public adulation in recent years. Sadly, much of the presidential criticism of the bureau may be entirely legitimate.
These criticisms focus largely on FBI fumbles and missteps in the Hillary Clinton and Trump/Russia investigations, which the President suggests were deliberate attempts to sabotage his election and administration. Trump supporters and possibly the President himself say they see the workings of a conspiratorial "deep state" liberal-embedded bureaucracy fiercely resisting any conservative change.
Is that Don Lemon screeching " No, no, no, no, no, no, no! No! No!" in the background?
Some of Trump's recent criticisms of the agency relate to the alleged activities of FBI special agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. An investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general revealed that the two exchanged text messages strongly indicative of anti-Trump and pro-Clinton bias while Strzok played a critical role in the Clinton investigation and a subsequent lesser role in Mueller's Trump/Russia probe.
...In addition, the President continues to call the Russia investigation a "witch hunt" and to castigate the agency's deputy director, Andrew McCabe, for alleged "bias" and incompetence.
Last Saturday, the President tweeted that former FBI Director James Comey, whom he fired, is a "liar" and called him "leakin' James Comey." Trump also issued a clearly derogatory "Wow" comment regarding the unexplained reassignment of the FBI's general counsel, James Baker, reportedly a close friend of Comey's.
...When news of the text messages between Strzok and Page came to light against the backdrop of claimed McCabe improprieties, it became harder to just dismiss all of Trump's FBI conspiracy claims as delusional -- though many of his critics do.
Including CNN's own Dr. No! No!
Why didn't McCabe warn Mueller of Strzok's likely bias, which he should have known from his own day-to-day conversations with Page and Strzok at FBI headquarters? Page reportedly worked for McCabe, who certainly also had frequent contact with Strzok -- again, the FBI's No. 2 counterintelligence agent.
Callan provides a possible answer further down the column:
Causing further headaches for FBI brass, we now know that Deputy Director McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, an unsuccessful Democratic 2015 candidate for the state senate in Virginia, had received approximately $700,000 in campaign contributions from then-Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's political action committee and the state's Democratic Party. While this didn't violate any laws or FBI protocols, the association looks unseemly for an agency conducting an investigation with potentially historic implications.
McAuliffe had been the campaign chairman of Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and has been described by onlookers as being "as close as family" to the Clintons.
While McCabe's wife certainly has a right to run for office, her acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from sources with clear links to the Clintons was a red-flag warning that should have caused McCabe to recuse himself from any involvement in any Trump/Hillary related investigations. He had no business calling any of the shots in these sensitive probes that would likely influence the outcome of the presidential election. The FBI has stated that that McCabe acted in accordance with stated agency protocols while his wife was running for office.
And now Callan's conclusion which is sure to cause much agony among the MSM gatekeepers way beyond even Dr. No! No! at CNN.
While I rarely agree with much of what the President does or says regarding legal issues, this time he's got it right. The FBI's reputation has been severely damaged not by the President's criticism but by a systematic failure of the bureau's leadership.
The field agents of the FBI should still retain the trust of the American people. Their honor and dignity has not been compromised; but the bureau's leadership ranks require a prompt and thorough house cleaning by the new director, Christopher Wray. The bureau's leadership has forfeited the reputation of a cherished American institution.
As could be expected many of the liberal readers of Callan's column objected vociferously with their own version of "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! No! No!"
This opinion piece would look better on Breitbart.
...trump is using the nazi playbook to take your country away...
Think about how many ultra conservative Republican appointed Federal Judges there are subverting Justice.
Another day, another round of lies from white supremacist Ku Klux Kallan...
Wow! A ridiculous CNN opinion piece. Say it ain't so!
It is so and if anybody can give a rational objection to what Paul Callan has written in his column, I will send you an oatmeal cookie. As to the crazed objections, it wouldn't surprise me if Dr. No! No! & co. are taking notes as to how to respond.
