Carol Leonnig’s official job title at the Washington Post claims she is an investigative reporter, but based on her Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, she is more like the FBI’s official stenographer as she attacked Republicans for criticizing the “hallowed” institution during the day's House Judiciary Committee hearing despite the fact “there were mistakes made” during Crossfire Hurricane
Ruhle led Leonnig by referencing some Republicans blaming the FBI for January 6, “Okay, that’s what I wanted to follow up on. Nuttiness, Carol, is almost, you know, it’s funny, it’s goofy, it’s silly. It’s something much more serious than that. I, mean it’s dubious, it’s devious, wouldn't you say? No one’s making this argument about FBI and January 6 by accident. It's a defined conspiracy theory.”
Leonning, however, didn’t want to talk about January 6, instead choosing to focus on other matters, “Well, you know, I’m glad that you raised that on the follow-up, because I heard both Frank [Figliuzzi] and Joyce [Vance] making the very cogent point about an attack on a democratic institution.”
She also claimed that, “The FBI is the investigative arm of the Department of Justice, a hallowed institution that is supposed to be above fear, above favor, they investigate a crime, they investigate the facts. They don't target people willy-nilly.”
Leonning further theorized that “I think really what we are hearing from conservative Republicans it's that they want to defang this institution. They want to be sure that it's not coming after them again.”
If Leonnig was trying to defend the FBI and the Justice Department, she didn’t do a very good job, because she proceeded to boast about how there hasn’t been much of a cultural change, “You know, there is an off putting gallows humor joke inside the Department of Justice about the lessons of Crossfire Hurricane.”
After recapping that Crossfire Hurricane was “the code name for the investigation into Russian interference in our 2017 [sic] presidential election. And also, derivatively, into the Trump campaign and their contacts, they’re clear evidence of contacts with the Russians operatives,” Leonnig finally got around to explaining that "gallows humor":
Sometimes people being attacked and bloodied and sullied because they exchanged texts where it looked like, you know, they didn't trust Donald Trump, well they had some good reasons not to trust candidate Donald Trump. There were mistakes made by the FBI, but the lessons of Crossfire Hurricane have been watch your back, what your career. Don't go too hard, because these politicians know no bounds when it comes to trying to bring you down and bring down this agency.
If mistakes were made, maybe the institution isn’t “hallowed.” Ultimately Leonning unwittingly proved why the hearing with Director Christopher Wray was necessary because only the government and a reporter covering the government could be upset at actions having consequences.
This segment was sponsored by Chase.
Here is a transcript for the July 12 show:
MSNBC The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
7/12/2023
11:12 PM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: Okay, that’s what I wanted to follow up on. Nuttiness, Carol, is almost, you know, it’s funny, it’s goofy, it’s silly. It’s something much more serious than that. I, mean it’s dubious, it’s devious, wouldn't you say?
CAROL LEONNIG: You know, I'm glad--
RUHLE: No one’s making this argument about FBI and January 6 by accident. It's a defined conspiracy theory.
CAROL LEONNIG: Well, you know, I’m glad that you raised that on the follow-up, because I heard both Frank and Joyce making the very cogent point about an attack on a democratic institution.
The FBI is the investigative arm of the Department of Justice, a hallowed institution that is supposed to be above fear, above favor, they investigate a crime, they investigate the facts. They don't target people willy-nilly.
But when they talked a little bit about this idea of attacking and basically ruining that hesitation, I think really what we are hearing from conservative Republicans it's that they want to defang this institution. They want to be sure that it's not coming after them again. You know, there is an off putting gallows humor joke inside the Department of Justice about the lessons of Crossfire Hurricane.
And the lessons of Crossfire Hurricane have been taken different ways by different people. As you all know, that's the code name for the investigation into Russian interference in our 2017 presidential election. And also, derivatively, into the Trump campaign and their contacts, they’re clear evidence of contacts with the Russians operatives.
Maybe willy-nilly, maybe unwittingly, maybe stupidly, but they had plenty of contacts with those individuals. Crossfire Hurricane resulted in a director of the FBI being fired. The deputy—the acting director of the FBI being targeted by Donald Trump for an IRS audit according to reports, it resulted in careers being ruined.
Sometimes people being attacked and bloodied and sullied because they exchanged texts where it looked like, you know, they didn't trust Donald Trump, well they had some good reasons not to trust candidate Donald Trump.
There were mistakes made by the FBI, but the lessons of Crossfire Hurricane have been watch your back, what your career. Don't go too hard, because these politicians know no bounds when it comes to trying to bring you down and bring down this agency.
