Senior FBI Official Who Took Illegal Gifts From CNN and Lied to Investigators Was Not Prosecuted and Allowed to Retire With Full Benefits


Back in early 2018, as the text messages between adulterous FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page became the stuff of late night television gags (or would have been had late night comedy not been suffering from Stage 5 TDS and only capable of chanting “OrangeManBad”) several senior FBI personnel bailed out or were defenestrated:

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Two more senior government officials who were prominently discussed in text messages exchanged by FBI personnel formerly assigned to the Trump-Russia investigation are leaving their positions.

Mike Kortan, FBI assistant director for public affairs, is set to retire next week, an FBI spokeswoman confirmed. In addition, the chief of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, David Laufman, resigned this week, a department spokesman said.

The list of officials frequently discussed in the texts who are no longer in their jobs seems to grow by the day. It includes former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump; former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe; Comey’s chief of staff, James Rybicki; FBI General Counsel James Baker; as well as Strzok, who was booted off the special counsel investigation and sent to a job in the FBI’s personnel division.

At the time, this was all hinted at being the move of men with “muh principles” of the highest order refusing to serve the lawless Trump.

Now some more light has been shined upon at least one of the cases.

The FBI’s top press officer during the Hillary Clinton and Trump-Russia investigations accepted tickets to a Washington Nationals game from a CNN correspondent and lied about it repeatedly during interviews with the Justice Department’s inspector general, according to a report obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Kortan accepted Nationals tickets from the reporter at least twice, for a May 9, 2016 game and another on Sept. 30, 2016. He also accepted tickets from a New York Times reporter in either 2014 or 2016.

The OIG report cites text messages which indicate that the FBI official attended the May 9, 2016 game with the reporter. The reporter contacted Kortan on Sept. 27, 2016, offering up four tickets.

“Nats v Marlins Friday night. I have to be away,” the reporter wrote on Sept. 27, 2016. “Can you use four tix?”

“I’m good for 2 tix if that’s OK,” replied Kortan.

Kortan initially told investigators with the OIG in a March 29, 2017 interview, that he reimbursed the reporter for the tickets, and denied accepting any gifts from members of the press.

“Kortan described the CNN correspondent as one of his ‘top five’ contacts with the press as part of his job,” the report says. Kortan denied having a personal relationship with any of the reporters, saying that he didn’t “consider anybody a friend.” (RELATED: Strzok Text Messages Shed Light On FBI Interactions With The Media)

He also said that he had “probably daily contact” with the CNN reporter to discuss “the news of the day.”

When asked whether he paid for the tickets, Kortan was initially adamant that he did.

“I have never accepted them without reimbursement,” he said in the March 29, 2017 interview, referring to the tickets. “I always reimburse the amount of the ticket as a routine, just because I do.”

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But he was actually a lying sack of ordure which the IG discovered by observing that his lips were moving actually visiting the ball park and finding the tickets were in a reserved section.

Like with McCabe, this simply underscores the two-tiered justice system in this country. The elites can break laws with impunity in regards to the handling of classified information or taking bribes and nothing happens. But if you, Joe Citizen, does the same you will be hammered and DOJ will issue a press release spelling out your crimes against the Republic. In this case, despite (or because) of the fact that he was a senior executive who knew better, and who lied on multiple occasions, Kortan was allowed to retire with full benefits. The case was referred to Department of Justice Criminal Division and they declined to prosecute.

At some point, someone needs to remind these people that they are servants, not masters, of the people and the weight of the judicial system should fall much more heavily upon an FBI agent who tells multiple lies to investigators to cover up illegal acts than it should on some run of the mill street criminal.

DOJ OIG report on Michael K… by Chuck Ross on Scribd

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