Michael Steinbach, Getty Images
Another one.
A senior FBI official assigned to the Trump-Russia investigation had unauthorized contacts with the media – then retired in 2017 before ethics investigators could interview him.
According to a new Justice Department Inspector General report obtained by the New York Post, Michael Steinbach, a senior FBI official, “had numerous unauthorized contacts with the media” in 2016.
Steinbach also oversaw the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server.
Recall, Hillary Clinton used a private server with a personal Gmail account in order to evade FOIA requests while she was the head of the Department of State.
The same FBI official who protected Hillary Clinton, had numerous unauthorized contacts with media as the Bureau was harassing President Trump.
Steinbach was able to deploy a golden parachute and retire with a pension and benefits.
The New York Post reported:
A top FBI official repeatedly violated bureau policy by hobnobbing with journalists while overseeing the controversial investigation into Donald Trump’s suspected ties to Russia — and then retired before he could be interviewed by ethics probers, a newly released Justice Department report revealed.
Michael Steinbach “had numerous unauthorized contacts with the media” that began when he was the bureau’s assistant counterterrorism director and continued after he was named executive assistant director of its National Security Bureau in February 2016, according to the heavily redacted DOJ Inspector General report obtained by The Post through a freedom of information act request.
The “hundreds of contacts” included “soliciting” an unidentified reporter for a $300 ticket to the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Association gala after earlier getting invited by a different reporter to the 2015 Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“Lots of [redacted] reporters here. May have to branch out!” Steinbach wrote to the unidentified reporter in a text message on the night of the 2015 dinner.
“Absolutely not!!! But curious to know who you’ve met so far?” the reporter responded, adding: “well they will never be as good as me! and don’t you get the big head! ;)”
“But they are promising the WH Correspondents dinner,” Steinbach responded.
The following year, Steinbach attended the White House Correspondents’ dinner and a reception party as a guest of a reporter — and boasted about it in a text to an unidentified CNN reporter.
“I put you on the map and now you’re cheating on me with [redacted],” the CNN reporter wrote in a text message to Steinbach.
Read the rest here.
