*'''29 March.''' Sen. Grassley inquires of Dir. Comey about the status of Deputy Dir. Andrew McCabe in relation to the Russia investigation. According to public reports, the FBI agreed to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between Trump associates and the Russians. It reportedly agreed to pay the author, Christopher Steele, to continue investigating Mr. Trump. The Clinton campaign paid Steele to create this political opposition research dossier against Mr. Trump. The FBI has not yet responded go Sen. Grassley's March 6 inquiry on the reports. McCabe is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General to examine whether the political and financial connections between his wife’s Democratic political campaign and Clinton associates warranted his recusal in the FBI’s Clinton email investigation. While McCabe recused himself from public corruption cases in Virginia—presumably including the reportedly ongoing investigation of McAuliffe regarding illegal campaign contributions—he failed to recuse himself from the Clinton email investigation, despite the appearance of a conflict of interest created by his wife’s campaign accepting $700,000 from a close Clinton associate during the email investigation. The fact is that McCabe participated in the controversial, high-profile Clinton investigation even though his wife took money from McAuliffe. FBI’s senior leadership should never have allowed that appearance of a conflict to undermine the Bureau’s important work. The Senate Committee wises to know if McCabe was involved in approving or establishing the FBI’s reported arrangement with Christopher Steele, or if McCabe vouched for or otherwise relied on the politically-funded dossier in the course of the investigation. Simply put, the American people should know if the FBI’s second-in-command relied on Democrat-funded opposition research to justify an investigation of the Republican presidential campaign.<ref>https://nobsopus.blogspot.com/2017/04/grassley-examines-potential-conflicts.html</ref> | *'''29 March.''' Sen. Grassley inquires of Dir. Comey about the status of Deputy Dir. Andrew McCabe in relation to the Russia investigation. According to public reports, the FBI agreed to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a conspiracy between Trump associates and the Russians. It reportedly agreed to pay the author, Christopher Steele, to continue investigating Mr. Trump. The Clinton campaign paid Steele to create this political opposition research dossier against Mr. Trump. The FBI has not yet responded go Sen. Grassley's March 6 inquiry on the reports. McCabe is currently under investigation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General to examine whether the political and financial connections between his wife’s Democratic political campaign and Clinton associates warranted his recusal in the FBI’s Clinton email investigation. While McCabe recused himself from public corruption cases in Virginia—presumably including the reportedly ongoing investigation of McAuliffe regarding illegal campaign contributions—he failed to recuse himself from the Clinton email investigation, despite the appearance of a conflict of interest created by his wife’s campaign accepting $700,000 from a close Clinton associate during the email investigation. The fact is that McCabe participated in the controversial, high-profile Clinton investigation even though his wife took money from McAuliffe. FBI’s senior leadership should never have allowed that appearance of a conflict to undermine the Bureau’s important work. The Senate Committee wises to know if McCabe was involved in approving or establishing the FBI’s reported arrangement with Christopher Steele, or if McCabe vouched for or otherwise relied on the politically-funded dossier in the course of the investigation. Simply put, the American people should know if the FBI’s second-in-command relied on Democrat-funded opposition research to justify an investigation of the Republican presidential campaign.<ref>https://nobsopus.blogspot.com/2017/04/grassley-examines-potential-conflicts.html</ref> |