RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week 
June 10 to June 16

Featured Investigation

A long-awaited Justice Department internal watchdog report rebuked FBI Director James Comey for being "insubordinate" and flouting bureau norms in publicizing details about the politically charged investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. But oddly, the report concluded there was no "documentary or testimonial" evidence that the probe was affected by political bias -- a finding that clashed jarringly with many damning details within its 500-plus pages.

It augurs an FBI shakeup, a summer of hearings and scrutiny reminiscent of Washington scandals past, and political fallout in midterm elections this fall.

Highlights:

• Many instances of leniency and deference toward Hillary Clinton, evidence that stoked protests about unequal application of the rule of law, especially when contrasted with FBI agents’ hostility-tinged attitude toward the Trump campaign. For example, the report found agents prioritized the Russia investigation above reviving the Clinton investigation when more of her unexamined emails were found. Paradoxically, this instance of pro-Clinton favoritism was behind the delayed public reopening of the email probe close to Election Day -- that is, the episode Democrats blame for losing Clinton the election.
• Five agents sent pro-Clinton, anti-Trump texts, some of which suggested using official authority to thwart Donald Trump. In a message withheld from previous Justice Department disclosures, FBI Peter Strzok texted his paramour, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, “We’ll stop it” – “it” meaning Trump’s election. After the election, another FBI attorney, who went on to work for special counsel Robert Mueller, texted, “Vive le resistance.”
• Comey, Strzok, and Page used personal email to conduct FBI business — an irony not lost on Clinton, who noted it in a snarky tweet.
• FBI officials at "all levels of the organization" leaked information to reporters without authorization. The revelation came just a week after the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee was indicted for lying in an FBI leak investigation.
• Numerous FBI employees accepted inappropriate gifts from reporters "including tickets to sporting events, golfing outings, drinks and meals, and admittance to nonpublic social events." 

In reaction, President Trump claimed vindication over “the scum on top” of the FBI. Speaking more moderately, Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said: “This is not the FBI our country needs. This is not the FBI citizens and suspects alike deserve.” 

Read Here,  Here, Here and Here.

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Texas School Supers Behaving Badly, but Mum's the Word
RealClearInvestigations
Scholars and pundits argue that privacy has all but disappeared in the age of Facebook and Google. Those experts are seemingly unaware of something called the government, which uses an array of privacy laws to control the flow of information. Steve Miller reports for RealClearInvestigations on one such example in Texas. There officials are able to hide the records of public-school superintendents who've been quietly disciplined, dismissed or allowed to retire for misdeeds ranging from embezzlement to sexual misconduct. The silence is often reinforced by formal nondisclosure agreements, contract stipulations and other roadblocks to scrutiny that make superintendents - among the highest paid officials in the state - seem like a protected class.

Longshoreman Washes Trucks for $466K a Year
NJ.com
Looks like Marlon Brando's Terry Malloy coulda been a contender for beaucoup bucks if he played ball with the union in the 21st century. On the New Jersey waterfront, there’s a longshoreman on the books who washes trucks for $465,981 a year. That's sure no one-way ticket to Palooka-ville. Fired when his bosses discovered he wasn’t actually showing up when he claimed to be working, he nevertheless regained his job—after an arbitrator concluded it was not unusual in the industry for employees to be paid “without being expected to work all the hours for which they are being paid.” That is one reason the Port of New York Harbor has the highest labor costs in the nation, making consumer goods more expensive. Johnny Friendly lives.

'Restorative' (Lenient) Discipline Behind Stab Death at NYC School
The 74
When an 18-year-old Bronx high school sophomore stabbed a fellow student for allegedly bullying him for his sexuality, most news coverage focused on homophobia. But there was more to the story than that. Echoing coverage by RealClearInvestigations of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, this article reports that the incident reflected a broader deterioration of school order following Mayor Bill de Blasio’s effort to unwind traditional discipline in favor of a new progressive, or restorative, approach. At the Bronx school, meaningful consequences for misbehavior were eliminated, alternative approaches failed, and administrators responded to a rising tide of disorder and violence by sweeping the evidence under the rug, students and teachers said.

McCaskill's Private Plane Used on Her Campaign's RV Tour
Washington Free Beacon
Traversing Missouri in a luxury RV was evidently too much of a hardship for Sen. Claire McCaskill. Much easier to hop onto the $1 million private plane. Although the Democratic senator told voters she was “very excited to hit the road" in the RV, she did not indicate it was often an airport shuttle. This report used radar tracking information to document McCaskill’s travel arrangements.  “I was on the RV so much that the broken door drove me crazy," McCaskill explained to Politico.

Commerce Sec'y Wilbur Ross' Conflicts of Interest
Government Accountability Institute
When billionaire businessman Wilbur Ross became Commerce Secretary, government ethics officials allowed him to maintain investments and ties to a group of shipping firms, many of whose clients specialize in industries impacted by the Commerce Department’s policies – especially the new steel tariffs. Without alleging any wrongdoing, this report highlights these ties to argue that those who enter “government service with substantial commercial interests must either divest themselves, place their assets in a blind trust, or recuse themselves from participating in negotiations where their personal interests are obviously at stake.” It does not address whether this would discourage successful business owners from serving in government.

Blurred Vision, Burning Eyes Follow Lasik Procedures
New York Times
Roughly 9.5 million Americans have had laser eye surgery, a procedure that is perceived by patients and touted by doctors as virtually foolproof. But a recent clinical trial by the Food and Drug Administration found that nearly half of all people who had healthy eyes before Lasik developed visual aberrations for the first time after the procedure. Nearly one-third for the first time developed dry eyes, a complication that can cause serious discomfort.

Famed Stanford Prison Experiment Was a Lie
Medium
Along with Hannah Arendt’s book, “The Banality of Evil,” the Stanford Prison Experiment is exhibit A for those who want to argue that there is a little sadist inside everyone. This article draws on documents and interviews to argue that the 1971 study – one of the most famous in the history of psychology – was a sham. Instead of revealing human nature, the study showed people playing roles, as prisoners and guards, who were frequently encouraged to engage in pathological behavior.

Nigerian Scam Victim Getting His $110K Back
Kansas City Star
A decade ago, Fred Haines was wandering the Wichita airport looking for a Nigerian man hauling two chests full of cash. After an hour of waiting and asking around, he finally realized that he would not be inheriting a $65 million Nigerian fortune. The real shock is that Haines – who had mortgaged his house three times – will be getting back the $110,000 he’d been conned out of, after Western Union admitted that it had failed to act against employees who had conspired with the scammers.

Year Later, 60,000-Word Exposé on Grenfell Fire
London Review of Books
Seventy-two people died and another 70 were injured after a massive fire broke out in the 24-story Grenfell Towers public housing project in West London a year ago. This epic-length article provides draws on interviews from dozens of survivors to describe the human toll of the blaze. Investigators have identified a malfunctioning freezer-refrigerator as the initial cause of the blaze, writer Andrew O’Hagan says the disaster was compounded by cheaply done building renovations and deadly advice to residents to “stay put” until help arrived.

How Houston Lost Its Mind Over a Trump T-Shirt
Texas Monthly
Outside a cookie shop in one of Houston’s most idyllic neighborhoods, a West University Place council member spied the name Trump on a 14-year-old girl’s shirt and yelled a few of the President’s worst words ["grab ‘em by the …"] at her. Then the internet found out. It’s springtime in the age of hysteria.