With the release of the Inspector General report on the Trump-Russia investigation, an amazing thing happened.

Prior to the release, the self-described smartest among us assured the country for the last three years that the FBI are the best and brightest available. In fact, you were never allowed to question their ability and integrity. To do so was to question the very core of our being as a nation or something.

But when the avalanche of “mistakes” laid out in the IG report became known, things suddenly changed. Now, the clear bias and extensive misconduct was just the work of incompetence that just so happened to always only go in one direction. The FBI and those who lauded them now want you to believe they are just morons.

That’s nonsense.

Take this latest report from The Daily Caller, which lays out the idea that the FBI was simply unaware of that Christopher Steele was working for a Russian oligarch at the same time he was shoveling Russian misinformation to the bureau.

NEW: Crossfire Hurricane team, which kicked over every rock to find evidence of Trump campaign links to Russia, didn't know that Chris Steele was himself working for a Russian oligarch. https://t.co/YzzotVnPGx

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) December 13, 2019

The FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team turned over every rock to find out whether members of the Trump campaign were working with Russians in 2016, but failed to discover that Christopher Steele, the FBI’s primary source for claims of a Trump-Russia conspiracy, was himself working for a Russian oligarch, according to the Justice Department inspector general’s report.

FBI and Justice Department officials told the inspector general (IG) that investigators would have wanted to assess Steele’s link to the oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, in order to determine if it had an impact on Steele’s dossier.

Bull.

The FBI has nearly unlimited intelligence resources. The idea that they just didn’t know any better doesn’t pass the smell test. The much more likely happening is that they ignored the links because it would undermine their narrative and ability to go after the Trump campaign. Steele had been working with U.S. intel agencies for a very long time. It was also known that Fusion GPS, who contracted Steele, was doing side work for the Russians as well.

And I’m supposed to believe the “best and brightest” at the FBI didn’t know? Come on.

Further, the FBI knew that Carter Page wasn’t a Russian agent, yet they targeted him anyway. This wasn’t a case of morons going wild. It was a case of blatant abuse of power in order to try to provide an insurance policy in case Donald Trump got elected. They did so knowing there would be no consequences and so far they’ve been correct.

Earlier today, James Comey did an interview on Fox News in which he was asked if he would have resigned had he still been FBI Director when this IG report came out detailing the misconduct. Comey’s answer? Nah, much worse things happened on his watch so he’d have stayed on. That’s the level of arrogance and unaccountably that permeates our bureaucracies.

These people aren’t stupid, they are malicious and entitled. They may want to play dumb now that it’s convenient, but the political targeting of Trump and the lengths to which they were willing to go to do so are crystal clear. Enough with the clown nose on, clown nose off routine.