In my earlier analysis of the latest dossier/collusion developments — which have taken an abrupt turn in the last week, to the dismay of many liberals — I wrote that newly-revealed and -confirmed details raise serious and uncomfortable questions for both the Democratic Party and the FBI. In a house editorial published today, the Wall Street Journal’s editors explicate several of those questions that demand a full accounting. First, on the Democrats:
The Washington Post revealed Tuesday that the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee jointly paid for that infamous “dossier” full of Russian disinformation against Donald Trump. They filtered the payments through a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie), which hired the opposition-research hit men at Fusion GPS. Fusion in turn tapped a former British spook, Christopher Steele, to compile the allegations, which are based largely on anonymous, Kremlin-connected sources. Strip out the middlemen, and it appears that Democrats paid for Russians to compile wild allegations about a U.S. presidential candidate. Did someone say “collusion”? This news is all the more explosive because the DNC and Clinton campaign hid their role, even amid the media furor after BuzzFeed published the Steele dossier in January. Reporters are now saying that Clinton campaign officials lied to them about their role in the dossier. Current DNC Chair Tom Perez and former Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz deny knowing about the dossier arrangement, but someone must have known. Perhaps this explains why Congressional Democrats have been keen to protect Fusion from answering dossier questions—disrupting hearings, protesting subpoenas and deriding Republican investigators.
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Mr. Comey should already be asked to return to Capitol Hill to testify on his premature decision to draft a memo (controversially) exonerating Hillary Clinton of legal wrongdoing in connection with her email scandal — which he reportedly wrote prior to key witnesses being interviewed, including Clinton herself. He should be compelled to answer questions on this subject, too. Also, if anything, this editorial understates the strangeness of the FBI’s activity here; the Washington Post story confirmed that the Bureau went beyond merely “debating” whether to pay Steele to continue his Democrat-initiated, anti-Trump opposition research. They actually did it. And they only stopped when the media reported this information publicly. In what way was that a sound, politics-free investigative practice? Because these loaded questions are now a major focus of the Russia interference matter, the FBI itself is now a subject of important scrutiny. For that reason, the editorial concludes, Robert Mueller must go:
The Fusion news means the FBI’s role in Russia’s election interference must now be investigated—even as the FBI and Justice insist that Mr. Mueller’s probe prevents them from cooperating with Congressional investigators. Mr. Mueller is a former FBI director, and for years he worked closely with Mr. Comey. It is no slur against Mr. Mueller’s integrity to say that he lacks the critical distance to conduct a credible probe of the bureau he ran for a dozen years. He could best serve the country by resigning to prevent further political turmoil over that conflict of interest.
