Meadows: FBI May Have Manipulated Witness
Reports in Clinton/Russia Investigation
New Evidence Could Have Major Implications for Michael Flynn
Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) revealed Tuesday during the House Judiciary and Oversight committee’s hearing regarding the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton investigation that the FBI may have altered or manipulated the witness interviews compiled by investigators during both the Clinton and Russia investigations. The information, if proven true, could have significant implications in the case brought against against former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office, where conflicting testimony and statements made by Former FBI Director James Comey, would call into question whether the agents who interviewed Flynn believed he was either lying or telling the truth.
Meadows was questioning Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, saying “there is growing evidence that 302s [FBI interview reports] were edited and changed. Those 302s, it is suggested that they were changed to either prosecute or not prosecute individuals. And that is very troubling.”
“It is suggested that [the 302s] they were changed to either prosecute or not prosecute individuals. And that is very troubling…”
Behind closed doors, in March 2017 Comey told Congress that the agents who interviewed Flynn on Jan. 24, 2017 did not believe that Flynn was lying. Comey later appeared to walk back his statement during an interview with Brett Baier on Fox News, suggesting that he didn’t recall making those statements to Congress, as previously reported. However, an unreacted section of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia report specifically stated, “Director Comey testified to the committee that ‘the agents…discerned no physical indications of deception. They didn’t see any change in posture, in tone, in inflection, in eye contact. They saw nothing that indicated to them that he knew he was lying to them.”
If Flynn’s 302s were altered, or if the information in them was manipulated, that would be significant. For some time, several SaraACarter.com sources have made that suggestion. They also stated that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was irate and wanted to find some way to prove Flynn lied to them during the interview. Ironically, McCabe was fired this year days before his official retirement and is now facing possible charges for lying under oath based on evidence discovered by Horowitz.
Meadows did not say which interviews may have been tampered with or which agents may have been involved.
Meadows also suggested that the FBI was not forthright with Horowitz, whose office released a scathing 568-page report on the bureau’s handling of the Clinton matter last week. He said the FBI’s reasons for redacting the names of two anonymous FBI employees identified in the report were based on the false premise that they were working in the counterintelligence division of the bureau.
“They don’t work in counterintelligence,” Meadows told Horowitz. “If that’s the reason the FBI is giving, they’re giving you false information, because they work for the [FBI] general counsel.”
Meadows named FBI attorneys, Kevin Clinesmith and Sally Moyer during the hearing and asked Horowitz if he could confirm that they were two of the unnamed agents in the report. Horowitz declined to confirm or deny the names out of concern and at the request of the bureau.
Want to know more about 302s and the FBI’s interviewing process? Tomorrow, I speak exclusively with a former Senior FBI official who will break it all down.
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