FBI probing new Clinton emails

late said:

I think of this election as one long WTF moment, and this fits into that thought.

My first impulse was to think Comey was being Republican. One of my experiences as a teen was Watergate.

But I have a rule, 'never attribute malice when simple incompetence will suffice'. I hope it was simply a mistake of omission. All he had to do was explain what this meant, and didn't mean, and there's very little blowback on Hillary. The FBI has looked at these emails on Hillary's side. There is a small chance there are a few she deleted that Huma did not, and an even smaller chance there is something controversial in those emails. My 2 cents is there's nothing there.

I don't know if he talked with Obama first, he should have, but in this crazy year, who knows.

And I don't think anyone thought the election was rigged except for Trump's fanatical followers. There are a number of problems with elections, and there have always been people trying to influence elections ( I am astonished that Republicans are not outraged by Putin, they used to say things like "Better dead than Red") but I think this game makes fools of us all. I worry a lot about Koch's power grab, but this election cycle has not gone well for them, either.

Lastly two things: I am surprised Comey hasn't put out a correction, and again, for what seems like the 100th time over the last year... WTF?

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Nope. Koch interests do not seem to have gone well the season. But we do not really know for sure. What is clear is that populism has become major danger to the country.

I think it is all show to try and show that they will investigate any new information and I have the sneaky suspicion in the end the FBI can say we looked and found nothing new and that will be that, see, face saved. Anyone actually believing something major is going to come of this are simply fooling themselves.

Here are some articles for consideration: Bernstein: FBI Would Not Reopen Case Unless New Evidence Was "A Real Bombshell" | Video | RealClearPolitics

From NRO and Andrew McCarthy on Comey's "legerdemain" in recommending that Clinton not be prosecuted and the invented higher mens rea required :

This is a specious argument. It is, to begin with, a red herring: an attempt — which has been wildly successful, by the way — to minimize Clinton’s misconduct in the public mind, as if it were indisputably nothing worse than unintentional recklessness. In point of fact, there is substantial evidence that Clinton’s mishandling of classified information was willful. A secretary of state’s stock-in-trade is classified information. By setting up an unauthorized, non-secure e-mail system, she rendered it inevitable that classified information would be disseminated through and stored on that system. This brute fact cannot be dismissed, as the FBI dismissed it, by pretending that mishandling classified information was not the purpose of the homebrew server system. It was an easily predictable effect — and, again, people are deemed to intend the foreseeable consequences of their actions.

Read more at: https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2016-10-24-0100/

This excerpt doesn't do justice to an article that should be read in its entirety.

Casper said:

I think it is all show to try and show that they will investigate any new information and I have the sneaky suspicion in the end the FBI can say we looked and found nothing new and that will be that, see, face saved. Anyone actually believing something major is going to come of this are simply fooling themselves.

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Huh ? The FBI already found something and in the process exposed Hillary as a near complusive liar.

And no, Comey's not doing this to save face,his credibillity is beyond repair.

BrewerBob said:

I have a strong suspicion that the next President is going to be impeached, be it Hillary OR Trump.

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I can think of a number of reasons that Hillary should be impeached. He's an egomaniac who really needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut and when it's okay to say what he's thinking, but I can't think of a single reason Trump should or might be impeached.

joG said:

If anything this defuses accusations of the election's being rigged pro Clinton. I mean, do you think Comey did this without talking with Obama?

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Actually I think he might have. He was under such heavy criticism for what was clearly seen as putting Hillary Clinton above the law not only from her opponents but within the FBI itself, he might feel compelled to do his job and attempt to salvage something of his reputation. And because Obama certainly would have instructed him not to release this new information or reopen the investigation, I think he did it without consulting Obama. I think at this point he thought he had little to lose.

Fenton said:

Huh ? The FBI already found something and in the process exposed Hillary as a near complusive liar.

And no, Comey's not doing this to save face,his credibillity is beyond repair.

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It was already known as that, this is news for you?

AlbqOwl said:

Actually I think he might have. He was under such heavy criticism for what was clearly seen as putting Hillary Clinton above the law not only from her opponents but within the FBI itself, he might feel compelled to do his job and attempt to salvage something of his reputation. And because Obama certainly would have instructed him not to release this new information or reopen the investigation, I think he did it without consulting Obama. I think at this point he thought he had little to lose.

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I would suspect that when asked Obama might have said something like, "You know, what you have to do" and started talking of other things. What surprises me, now that I have thought about it longer, is the Department of Justice indicating he should have held it back. That means that Justice really would have kept mumm and tried to do the equivalent of what in banking would be insider trading, which is punishable with lengthy jail sentences. It would be really nasty stuff for knowledge of criminal behavior of a candidate for the Presidency to be kept secret till they were CIC.

Head of the IRS takes the fifth on every question- Billy Bob Clinton has a meeting with the attorney general and all of the sudden Hillary is clear the FBI director declares no prosecution, then out of investigating Antony Weiner the FBI guy shouts "WAIT"! This is a Woody Allen script for a very corrupt America we have all come to know and love. Don't vote until the deadline.

joG said:

I would suspect that when asked Obama might have said something like, "You know, what you have to do" and started talking of other things. What surprises me, now that I have thought about it longer, is the Department of Justice indicating he should have held it back. That means that Justice really would have kept mumm and tried to do the equivalent of what in banking would be insider trading, which is punishable with lengthy jail sentences. It would be really nasty stuff for knowledge of criminal behavior of a candidate for the Presidency to be kept secret till they were CIC.

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No, Not at all like that.

Especially the way it was done.

A scathing piece by Comey's predecessor as Deputy Attorney General under George W. Bush, that adrresses this:


"The Justice Department has a proud history of enforcing the federal criminal law without fear or favor, and especially without regard to politics. It operates under long-standing and well-established traditions limiting disclosure of ongoing investigations to the public and even to Congress, especially in a way that might be seen as influencing an election.

These traditions protect the integrity of the department and the public’s confidence in its mission to take care that the laws are faithfully and impartially executed. They reflect an institutional balancing of interests, delaying disclosure and public knowledge to avoid misuse of prosecutorial power by creating unfair innuendo to which an accused party cannot properly respond.

Decades ago, the department decided.... <snip>

There must be some recognition that it is important not to allow an investigation to become hijacked by the red-hot passions of a political contest.
As it stands, we now have real-time, raw-take transparency taken to its illogical limit, a kind of reality TV of federal criminal investigation. Perhaps worst of all, it is happening on the eve of a presidential election. It is antithetical to the interests of justice, putting a thumb on the scale of this election and damaging our democracy."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...b0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.8a61b0b58322

joG said:

I would suspect that when asked Obama might have said something like, "You know, what you have to do" and started talking of other things. What surprises me, now that I have thought about it longer, is the Department of Justice indicating he should have held it back. That means that Justice really would have kept mumm and tried to do the equivalent of what in banking would be insider trading, which is punishable with lengthy jail sentences. It would be really nasty stuff for knowledge of criminal behavior of a candidate for the Presidency to be kept secret till they were CIC.

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Maybe. But with the depths of the corruption I have witnessed with this administration, the rampant dishonesty, and the skirting of protocol and the law that has been legion, I rather believe this President and the people around them consider themselves immune from any consequences of the law.

I don't know if anyone has posted this, but former Assistant Director of the FBI Tom Fuentes appeared on CNN with information about how all this went down at the FBI, from sources he has within the bureau.

Skip to the 2 minute mark:

PerfectStorm said:

Wrong, Lynch said she would abide whatever recommendation Comey came up with so, in effect, she deferred to him.

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Yet months before she said she wouldn't do a bloody thing no matter what.
The reason she changed her mind in the last minute that the fix to let Clinton go was in.