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Earlier today, I reported and opined on a briefing that had been requested by the State Dept. Inspector General. It was described as “urgent,” which means it’s supposed to mean certain criteria to bypass the relevant executive offices overseeing the agency.

This led to rampant speculation that a bomb was about to be dropped. Perhaps it had to do with Rudy Giuliani? Maybe it was proof Sec. of State Mike Pompeo had tried to cover something up? The media were practically salivating.

Confirmed: A source familiar tells me the State Department IG briefing on the Hill is about retaliation against State Department officials who are trying to cooperate with House Democrats. — Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 2, 2019

Welp, precious spittle was wasted, because it looks like it was a flop.

Raskin tells @GeoffRBennett the purpose of this briefing was NOT about recent instances of potential political retaliation by agency leaders against career officials over Ukrainian https://t.co/Dwiq8bhj1N — Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) October 2, 2019

Raskin on the State Dept IG briefing: -Involves a "packet of information" given to Pompeo

-From May

-Says the packet has a "curious history"

-Pompeo staff was involved

-"Not sure that it's necessarily an urgent thing" https://t.co/8iMmz8JBtm — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) October 2, 2019

A packet of information given to Pompeo is the big news here? That seems underwhelming. But perhaps there was something major inside this packet of information though? That seems like a big nope as well because even Rep. Raskin, a left-wing Democrat from Maryland, found it to be mostly nothing and said as much. He claims it “raises more questions than it answers,” which is code for “there’s nothing here but we need to try to keep the narrative alive.”

He does claim the packet has a “curious history,” which again probably means it shows nothing on the surface worthwhile but that they’ll try twist and stretch it into looking like something that might be useful to Adam Schiff. Worse for the State Dept. IG though is that this Democrat also wonders why it was even urgent, and if it wasn’t urgent, the IG abused protocol here.

What’s all this add up to? An Obama appointed IG, which Steven Linick is, broke normal procedure and rushed to Congress, misusing regulations designed to protect urgent information sharing with Congress, in order to push a narrative. The current impeachment fever is highly dependent on giving the impression of an avalanche of material being revealed and pointing to more and more scandal. Apparently this IG just wanted to play his part because there appears to be no actual justification for what he did.

President Trump made a big mistake in not cleaning house the moment he took office. All of these career, Democrat appointed officials should have been removed on day one, before he made any other official acts as President they could point too. He’s paying the price for not doing that. These careerist operatives are not going to stop. They are going to keep leaking and keep treating normal activities as scandalous until they get the outcome they want.

UPDATE:

After I originally wrote this article to publish a few hours later, more information has come out. It seems like this was even more of a joke than I could have imagined.

Per The Daily Caller.

Sources familiar with the meeting said the IG handed over a packet containing, among other old materials, news articles written this past spring by The Hill’s John Solomon about Democratic ties to Ukraine. The packet was allegedly given to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in May and was intended to smear the former US ambassador to Ukraine. An administration official noted to the Caller that the packet was properly dealt with at the time, and questioned the “urgent” nature of the briefing. The IG announced the “urgent” meeting after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused House Democrats of trying to “bully” the State Department by requesting impeachment-related interviews with various officials… …One GOP aide celebrated the fact that the briefing didn’t involve any new bombshells, asserting that Raskin “imploded” in his press briefing. “The packet is a big nothing burger,” the aide declared. “Amazing. We’re relieved. Actually thrilled.”

In other words, this was a total fail. This IG abused the system, set off a media firestorm, and fed into a rabidly partisan narrative over a packet of…news articles. Just unbelievable.

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