The IG’s report on FISA abuse is due to be released any time. Attorney General Bill Barr said the release was “imminent” two days ago. We don’t know what’s in it, but what we do know is that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz is taking his responsibility damned seriously and the fact that he is taking it seriously has the Russia Hoaxers and their fluffers scrambling for super-sized Depends®.

The Justice Department inspector general’s office told witnesses set to review draft sections of its long-awaited report on the FBI investigation of President Trump’s 2016 campaign that they would not be allowed to submit written feedback, but later asserted that was not their intention after a Washington Post report disclosing the unusual restriction.

The Post’s report, first published early Thursday evening, detailed a series of parameters that some feared could make the final document less accurate. At the time, the Justice Department inspector general’s office declined to comment. But late Thursday night, Stephanie Logan, a spokeswoman, said the office would clarify to witnesses that they could submit written feedback “consistent with rules to protect classified information.”

“As part of our factual accuracy review, and consistent with our usual practice, we are providing witnesses with the opportunity to review portions of the report that relate to them,” Logan said. “Also consistent with our practice, we undertake every effort to ensure witnesses can provide their comments and we are clarifying to witnesses that they will be able to provide written comments, consistent with rules to protect classified information.”

The Post had reported hours earlier that — as is the case in most inspector general probes — witnesses were being invited to review draft sections of the report and offer comments and corrections. But — unlike most cases — they were told those comments must be conveyed only verbally, people familiar with the matter said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political and legal sensitivity of the matter.

It remains unclear why witnesses were given that instruction initially.

The other fact to consider here is that the entire document, not just selected paragraphs, is labeled Top Secret and coup plotters — I mean people named in the report and their lawyers — must sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of viewing their “mentions” in the document. This makes leaking the contents of the document to the press a far more risky business as doing so would be a violation of the Espionage Act and, as the coup plotters…I mean, people mentioned in the report…would be the only people to have access to the sections about them, it would not be hard to find out who was the culprit.

With their ability to attack the report before its release effectively shut down, one of the leading purveyors of the Russia Hoax from a blog which, next to the New York Times, was THE leading purveyor of the Russia Hoax, has taken to attacking the integrity of the IG.

This is extremely irregular. There are growing signs that there are serious problems with the IG report and questions as to whether this is designed to be an honest accounting of the views of the IG or a political document driven by Barr’s conspiracy theories. https://t.co/GOH0gM26e7

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) November 15, 2019

This, as we’ve seen over the past three years, is pretty much the way the coup plotters have worked with their co-conspirators. Whenever the walls begin closing in on them, you can count on a volley of personal attacks from the same handful of acolytes on the integrity of the people trying to get to the truth of the matter. Note the glib way Hennessey accuses Barr of pursuing “conspiracy theories” to her credulous, and mostly feckless, followers. It will never occur to them that Barr has access to a lot more information than Hennessy now that Comey and McCabe and Strzok and Rosenstein and Weissmann have been turfed out of the sinecures. It will never dawn on them that the reason that she’s calling a process “irregular” is because she probably knows, from leaks to her from people who are violating their NDAs, that this report is damning. The only way she and her fellow travelers can minimize the impact is to create a narrative that Horowitz is deeply corrupt, Barr is nuts, and the process has been preordained by Trump’s tweets.

Shameful. But that is how these people have operated for years.