Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email "matter" (and other things, no doubt) has been completed for weeks. Nevertheless, you and I, the taxpayers who paid for it, have not been permitted to see it. Only the "elect" -- those in that American nomenklatura composed of upper echelons of the DOJ, FBI and intelligence agencies -- have been given the privilege of perusing the roughly 500 pages in their pristine form.
We, the poor citizens, will probably never get that chance -- and even that slim likelihood diminishes the longer this seemingly interminable process takes, increasing the opportunity to exercise the red pen.
Why has this happened? Nothing, I'm afraid, could be more obvious. Those same privileged elites in our government are being given or are taking the time themselves to sanitize the report, to bowdlerize the contents in order not to offend (or worse) certain parties.
This is only fair, they would say. If people are being accused, they should have a chance to defend themselves.
Indeed. But not before they are accused. After. The IG's report is merely a report. It can recommend prosecution but it cannot go forward with it. It also can be wrong. You just have to prove it. But you should do so in public, not in the modern equivalent of some Star Chamber.
No, what we are witnessing in this slow-walk is what we can legitimately call an American nomenklatura digging in mightily to protect itself. No doubt, once the edited report is published, they can depend on their friends in the mainstream media doing their best to ignore, downplay or obfuscate its conclusions and significance. But this is no moment to relax or depend on third parties, even those as reliable as the MSM. The stakes are huge. People can go to jail. Reputations can be ruined and -- this is the most intriguing though least likely part -- politics could be realigned.
They are busy trying to do to the report what they had previously done to almost all emails, texts and documents requested by congressional committees and other interested parties in their investigations -- turn them into black holes of unintelligible redaction. In other words, blot out the truth.
For all of that, there is an air of panic. Andrew McCabe, through his lawyer, is asking for "use immunity" before he testifies before Congress. This is a man whose innocence was asserted by Democrats for months. Now, if he doesn't get the immunity, he may end up pleading the Fifth. The media will to try to spin this somehow, but it's going to be tricky. If McCabe does get the immunity, it could be even worse.
What we do know -- and this is my intention here -- is that we must do our best not to allow the IG report to be sanitized out of existence. An immediate and public outcry is necessary, as obvious as "We want the report! We want the report now!" with fists banging on the table. At least that will set up an atmosphere of warning. We know what you're up to. You're being watched. It may not be enough -- it' worked only intermittently so far -- but it's something. As the zen master says, "You can't get there by trying. But you won't get there if you don't try."
What we are embroiled in here with this IG report and the ones to follow about the FISA court are the principle battles of the War against the Deep State. Will we be able to keep, tenuous as it is, a government of, by and for the people? Or will we drift off into a world of high-tech bureaucratic socialist autocracy under the control of an elitist cabal, a nomenklatura?
My use of the Soviet term nomenklatura was not accidental because there is nothing the Deep State resembles so much as that construct. When the word came into currency in the USSR of the thirties and forties, they called Stalin "Comrade Filing Cabinet" for his constant desire to keep detailed tabs on everybody. Our nomenklatura/Deep State, though thankfully less violent, is far more capable and detailed in that department than the murderous General Secretary of the Communist Party. They've got all our numbers -- until now. They're so successful they don't even know they're doing it. I'm sure Robert Mueller thinks he's a good man.
Roger L. Simon is the co-founder and CEO Emeritus of PJ Media.
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