IG Report Shows Mueller Treating Trump Far Differently Than FBI Did In Clinton Email Probe
A former deputy independent counsel on the Clinton Whitewater investigation in the 1990s argued that the Department of Justice’s inspector general report illustrates the uneven treatment between the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s email server vis-a-vis special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which has focused heavily on the Trump presidential campaign.
Appearing on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Thursday night, Sol Wisenberg zeroed in on the example of Hillary Clinton IT specialist Paul Combetta, who is mentioned in the report, under the heading “Use Immunity Agreements” by the FBI.
Combetta reportedly oversaw the deletion of tens of thousands emails from the former secretary of state’s unsecured, unauthorized server, many of which were subject to congressional subpoena.
“This is absolutely sickening how they handled this person Combetta,” Wisenberg said.
“Here he lies to (FBI investigators) twice, and they give him immunity,” the attorney stated. “He then comes in and finally admits that he obstructed justice.”
The IG reported stated that FBI agents “attempted to ask Combetta about documents related to a conference call with (Clinton lawyers David) Kendall and (Sheryl) Mills on March 25, 2015, just before the deletions and use of BleachBit, but his attorney advised him not to answer based on the Fifth Amendment.”
Wisenberg contended there was enough evidence to indict him but the FBI and the DOJ chose not to do so.
“If this had been Bob Mueller or any other aggressive special counsel,” he said. “They would have indicted him and put the fear of God into him and then tried to flip him.”
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said of Combetta on Fox News on Friday, “One IT official lied to (FBI investigators) at least twice, but said it was okay because he told the truth the third time.”
“Can you imagine anyone in Trump world getting such deference?” Fitton asked.
Mueller has in fact indicted and obtained guilty pleas from former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos for making false statements to federal investigators.
Further, the Mueller team has aggressively targeted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
On Friday, federal prosecutors succeeded in getting him thrown in jail to await a September trial date on charges ranging from alleged witness tampering to not being registered to lobby on behalf of foreign governments in the U.S.
Manafort not only faces charges in D.C., but Mueller’s lawyers filed a multi-count indictment against him in the Eastern District Court of Virginia.
The judge in that case, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, upbraided federal prosecutors last month, suggesting they lied to the court about the scope of the Russia investigation, as well as the true purpose of the case, which the judge argued is to bring down President Donald Trump.
“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” Ellis said. “You really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment, or whatever.”
The judge stated the 18-count indictment in the case, stemming from alleged both bank fraud and tax offenses against Manafort dating back to 2005 and 2007, seems to have nothing to do with the Russia collusion investigation.
Clearly, Ellis contended, the charges are meant to assert leverage over Manafort in order to get him to “sing.”
Trump told reporters on Friday that he feels “badly” for his once campaign chair.
“I think a lot of it is very unfair,” he said. “Some (of the charges) go back 12 years.”
President Trump on Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn: "I feel badly for some people."
Full video here: https://t.co/WMzF4SAYvu pic.twitter.com/q28IGLwuIH
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 15, 2018
The president also tweeted, “Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns.”
He added, “What about Comey and Crooked Hillary and all of the others? Very unfair!”
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