James Comey Must Go
Sari Horwitz and Ellen Nakashima at the Washington Post report
Senior FBI officials were informed about the discovery of new emails potentially relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server at least two weeks before Director James B. Comey notified Congress, according to federal officials familiar with the investigation.
The officials said that Comey was told that there were new emails before he received a formal briefing last Thursday, although the precise timing is unclear.
The information goes beyond the details provided in the letter that Comey sent to lawmakers last week declaring that he was restarting the inquiry into whether Clinton mishandled classified material during her tenure as secretary of state. He wrote in the Friday letter that “the investigative team briefed me yesterday” about the additional emails.
Almost everyone who read Comey’s letter was mislead because “briefed me yesterday” is truth and nothing but the truth, but not the whole relevant truth. The word “yesterday” is accurate, but its only effect is to mislead. The statement “I was told something about the e-mails yesterday” is not logically inconsistent with “and also weeks ago,” but the normal rules for understanding ordinary English imply an interpretation inconsistent with the facts. James Comey is a very skilled lawyer. He knew what he was doing. He deliberately mislead Congress.
More importantly, the anonymous FBI personal talking to the Post can’t get their story straight.
Comey did not notify Congress as soon as he learned about the emails because officials wanted additional information before proceeding, the officials said.
If they were willing to follow proper Justice Department procedures, they would have also wanted, indeed insisted, that the election pass before proceeding.
But now everything is different because metadata.
Even after Comey received the desired information, major questions still remain — for instance, how many emails are related to Clinton or contain classified information.
[skip]
It is unclear what FBI agents have learned since discovering the emails in early October. But officials say they gained enough information from the email metadata to take the next step, seeking a warrant to review the actual emails.
Comey also needed to get out of the period of 60 days before an election to take the next step. I assume that it was legal for the FBI to look at meta data. But it sure doesn’t seem that they have at least 2s weeks looking at metadata. it is clear what FBI agents haven’t learned since discovdring the e-mails. The sender and recipient of an e-mail are metadata. They should know if any of the e-mails were sent to or received from Hillary Clinton.
The current FBI position is that they learned something in the last two weeks of October *and* that they know nothing nothing. The anonymous source is taking advantage of the facts that he or she is anonymous (and not under oath). The explanation of the delay of over two weeks but not 11 days more is plainly false. Horwitz and Nakashima pretty much write this. In Postspeak “It is unclear” means “he’s lying” (or “she’s lying” but certainly not “s/he’s lying” because the “s/he” is even more unacceptable than the “lying”).
The utter contempt for Justice Department rules is underlined by this quote from the liar
“He needed to make an informed decision, knowing that once he made that decision, he was taking it to another level,” an official with knowledge of the decision-making process said.”
He absolutely did not need to make a decision about whether to seek a warrant until next Wednesday. After making that decision, he was forbidden by department rules to take it to another level.
I’m shifting to wild speculation after the jump.
So why did Comey wait 2 weeks but not 2 weeks + 11 days ? The most natural explanation is that his aim was to get Donald Trump elected. This explanation fits the facts. I don’t think it is correct mainly because I doubt that Comey will personally vote for Trump (he doesn’t seem to me to be the type). In the past, I would also have thought that such an abuse of office was inconsistent with what I imagined was Comey’s integrity. I now believe in Comey’s integrity no more than I believe in the tooth fairy.
I’d guess he felt his hand was forced by his subordinates who were about to leak the (trivial) news (whether or not he authorized seeking a warrant).
I also think he felt forced to write a letter designed to hurt Clinton. I can see no other explanation for failing to mention that fact that the FBI did not have a warrant and (presumably) knew nothing about the content of the e-mails. The deliberately deceptive “yesterday” is an explanation of the sudden rush. He couldn’t write “because I feared a leak by out of control FBI agents”.
As I type this feels like special pleading. I clearly didn’t understand Comey. For all I know he supports Trump.
Are all these posts some sort of elaborate comedy bit?
The end game is that the Clintons are both going to prison maybe Huma goes , cheryl goes, Podesta goes who knows. I’m sure they will all turn on each other at some point it should be pretty exciting after the dust settles .
It has to be now because the fix is in at DOJ . If Clinton wins the whole corrupt machine, both democrat and republican , will close ranks and protect her. The only chance to put the Clintons in prison is if she loses. The beauty of it is that no one has to fabricate dirt to bury them they just need to publicize what they have been doing on a daily basis.
I’d take a flyer that the wikileaks emails came from Weiner’s laptop , maybe the FBI forwarded them to Assange maybe the NSA did it who knows. It doesn’t matter , the level of disgust for the Clintons within these different agencies is most likely off the charts.
Amazing – I read the WAPO story (twice) and concluded that the new information was largely supportive of Comey. Robert sees it exactly the opposite way. Go figure.
Based on this WAPO article is Comey guilty of violating the Hatch Act (as per Reid)?? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Hatch requires intent. Comey knew about the Weiner/HRC connection for 3 weeks. He consulted with dozens of lawyers at DOJ and waited 24 hours after he was briefed to inform Congress. He knew that if he sat on the Weiner information it was likely that it would have been leaked. There were dozens in DOJ/FBI that new of the Weiner/HRC connection. Someone would have talked. So the info re the investigation would have come out either way.
Robert has this to say by way of condemning Comey:
“They should know if any of the
e-mails were sent to or received
from Hillary Clinton.”
Robert – THEY DID KNOW. They did the meta data review and it was clear that there were thousands (possibly 30,000) emails from HRC on the Weiner laptop. This is a huge breakdown in security. This breach is reason, by itself, to look again at HRC’s emails.
Why is the belief that the information would be leaked a concern?
Leaking is currently quite illegal, except when it’s not.
Well Friday Clinton demanded that the FBI release everything
I guess that they are going to begin doing that
There is a huge difference between massive leaking and releasing everything. When one leaks one releases information which supports the conclusion you want people to reach. Everything means everything.
Your first comment is without content. Also you mispelled “Democratic”. I hope you understand that using “democrat” for “Democratic” is considered by many (including me) to be proof of such extreme partisanship that there is no point in reading further (as I did).
Also when accusing people of being criminals, it is customary to at least hint which alleged crimes you have in mind.
BKrasting. Search my post for the word “Hatch”. You won’t find it. My concern was that Comey deliberately mislead Congress. That is not a Hatch act violation.
This demonstrates your lack of reading comprehension “I read the WAPO story (twice) and concluded that the new information was largely supportive of Comey. Robert sees it exactly the opposite way. Go figure.
Based on this WAPO article is Comey guilty of violating the Hatch Act (as per Reid)?? ABSOLUTELY NOT. ” it is the first appearance of “hatch” on this page.
I think the guy who noted that this is the first presidential election where the KKK, the KGB and the FBI all support the same candidate had it right. And of course they are all dominated by white men with an authoritarian streak. For the life of me, Hillary’s alleged “crimes” other than being a woman and a Democrat–pale in comparison to Trumps. So she mishandled classified information. Was it to benefit herself or a foreign power? I have seen no evidence of either and neither did Comey. It could still be a crime I guess, but hardly in the same category as Trumps assaulting women, discriminating against people of color, urging Russia to interfere in our electoral process (and presumably having business dealings with Russia although that seems to be shifting sands), and threatening an opposing political candidate with jail. That is besides appealing to the worst of human beings, cheating people in his business dealings, being a genuinely creepy person and a bullying as#@ole. I mean really, do any of you want a guy as president who as a middle aged man got off on seeing naked teenagers? Or a guy who thinks that the rules of civilized society do not apply to him because he has money? Or a guy who cheats small businesses because he decides how much if anything they should be paid? Or a guy who channels white supremacists and wants to deport (or worse) 12 million people? Because his opponent was careless or even extremely careless with classified information? Really?If so I can assure you that the United States best days are behind it.
Terry,
One more addition to a fine post.
The “classified information” actually found on Clinton’s server was “classified” in name only. There were absolutely no secrets released to the public.
– The DOJ warned her ahead of interviews
– The DOJ has obstructed the FBI at every turn in its investigations
– The State Department massaged the messages to the media in collaboration with Clinton’s help
– The State Department made deals with the FBI to declassify classified Clinton emails
– CNN provided Clinton with the primary debate questions ahead of time (but not Bernie, of course)
– The DNC favored Clinton to the detriment of Bernie at every opportunity, including paying consultants to cause violence at Trump rallies but put the blame on Bernie supporters.
Em shows the depth of ignorance over “classified information” by the series of smoke screen threads recently printed since Friday: “The “classified information” actually found on Clinton’s server was “classified” in name only. There were absolutely no secrets released to the public.”
It is so ignorant as EM thinks that the “classified” material was made PUBLIC.
Yes, public.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/07/hillary_s_email_scandal_was_overhyped.html
It sounds like rogue agents in the New York office were threatening to leak the information, forcing Comey to defy departmental rules restricting interference in an election.
Seems that Comey should be spending more time investigating and prosecuting his own agents rather than wasting more time on Clinton.
EM again strike out. He claims: “Yes, public.”, but show ZERO evidence. All he needed to do was show a PUBLIC copy of the classified material. Not another load of tripe and innuendo.
OOH Look SSHHIINNEE!
No, I don’t need to show a public copy, I just need to show that the public knows what was in the e mails.
Terry,
Excellent review of the situation. You left out tax fraud, which is becoming clearer each passing day. The innuendo that has been swirling around HRC for years now has never produced a significant bit of evidence that she has, or has ever, committed any crime. It’s taking the IRS a very long time to “audit” Trump’s taxes. What’s up with that? Is the IRS being discrete with what they have found? Shouldn’t the IRS inform the Congress that they’ve uncovered a tax cheat and he is a candidate for the Presidency?
In other news, Cubs win world series after an extremely timely rain delay allows them to regain composure as Indians threaten. James Comey, FBI Director announces new review of Clinton emails with National Weather Service.
Terry
i think you hurt your cause by using the term “white men” the way someone on the other side might use the “n word.”
try to identify and get control of the bigotry in your own heart, and just possibly we can begin to teach those evil “white men” to stop voting against their own interests.
EM, more typical smoke and mirrors. Show us anything but a redacted copy of any emails to explain to show us how the “public knows what was in the e mails.” You haven’t even done that. Innuendo and speculation are not knowledge.
Bronco,
Probably none of the people you say are going to jail will even be in court. OTOH, Trump will be in court definitely several times in coming months, although this is not in the media accounts.
As for this business of Comey had to release it because there would be leaks is not an excuse. Leaks get discounted. We are having a whole bunch of leaks now about supposed investigations of the Clinton Foundation and other things, but none of it is making much of an impact except in Trump ads. But when Comey sends a letter to Congress, well, that gets taken seriously, and that is what has been dominating media discussions in this psychologically salient final two week period.
Coberly, I am an old white guy who knows and understands the benefits of white privilege and the general misogyny among young white men in the 50’s and 60’s. I have worked with guys like Trump and know the elite white men who are drawn to his “alpha male” and racist schtick. I know white men of all classes who are racist to the core and have been coming out from under their rocks emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric. I will admit that there are white men who are neither racists nor misogynists but feel betrayed by their elected officials. Their sense of betrayal and anger may be genuine but if they think a Trump presidency would improve their lives, they are morons. And if they think Hillary’s alleged “crimes” and character flaws are worse than Trump’s admitted crimes and character flaws they really need professional help
Terry
you missed the point. maybe something to do with being an old white male.
the point is, and you endorse it here, that you think of “white males” as a group of evil racist and misogynist and reactionary and authoritarian morons.
the repetition of that characterization by “liberals” has something to do with why some — not all — of those white men vote for people who tell them they are smart and brave and hardworking and moral.
the fact that your mouth is bigoted makes me fairly sure your heart is bigoted. more’s the pity, so is your brain.
maybe start with a good mouthwash and see if you can learn to say what you mean without resort to language that stupidly condemns whole classes of people.
A just system would have indicted Clinton 6 months ago.
Comey’s problem is he did not push back against the DoJ hacks in May!
A jury with DoD security clearances so the ‘information’ can be thoroughly discussed would find Clinton GUILTY.
The reason there has been no acknowledged classified e-mails is the admission would have made the breaches even more damaging.
Barkley,
I have had a clearance since 1970, continuous.
I believe that congress will get the evidence and that ot will be sufficient.
Comey is late to getting religion.
Clinton losing the election would avoid a serious crisis in tryst when congress gets their hands on the evidence.
Orwell said if the electorate votes for the corrupt they are accomplices or lead by hacks………
There are two criminal statutes violated (I allege) by Clinton.
One concerning losing data the breach would cause severe damage to national security (National Security and so forth act).
The second is the federal records act, that she evaded storing records that good governance [much less the opposition] need to secure our republic.
Diminishing either statute the way the democratic partisans continue is a threat to the nation of laws.
Hackers are journalists and journalists hacks………..
Bombshell!
CBS just reported that there are Clinton State Dept emails on Weiner’s computer…. AND… The emails have never been seen before by the FBI.
OOps!
“The FBI has found emails related
to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary
of state on the laptop belonging to the
estranged husband of Huma Abedin,
Anthony Weiner, according to a
U.S. official.”
These emails, CBS News’ Andres Triay
reports, are not duplicates of emails
found on Secretary Clinton’s
private server.”
” related
to Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary
of state ”
Could mean anything at all – like telling her private secretary that she will be in the office today. Sounds like spin to me.
RE the OP – Robert, I don’t think we need to push him out, I’m pretty sure he is prepared to jump.
The real issue: “As CBS2’s Brian Conybeare reported, CBS News has learned that some messages discovered on Anthony Weiner’s laptop are new. They are related to Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state and they are not duplicates of emails found on Clinton’s private server, CBS News’ Andres Triay reported.”
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/11/03/clinton-new-emails/
If any are classified Huma and Hillary are cooked.
CoRev
As I commented before the word RELATED is really an odd choice here. If they were emails directly from Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State why wouldn’t they have said so. This looks very much like spin to me (it was leaked to the press, so if they know more they could have said so). And anyway, they have gone through enormous numbers of emails and found nothing, so what is the probability that they here will find something – next to 0.
Somebody just wants to keep the story in the press.
Reason,
The single most amazing thing is that they want to keep a story alive that is not a story.
It is just garbage. It is another Vince Foster thing.
There is no violation of any law involved. Why people refuse to understand that is as mystifying as why people refuse to believe that man made global warming is real.
And the vast majority of those people are on the wrong side of both of these things.
“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.
In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.”
James Comey
Yeah, I am sure it was Clinton’s intention to hide classified information on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.
But, Benghazi!
Reason that’s a weak semantical argument. Would you be satisfied had they used created/sent/originated…? I doubt it. I would expect just another weak, ill-informed and nonsensical argument
EM claims: “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information..”.
trumps
“Yeah, I am sure it was Clinton’s- (no Huma’s) intention to hide- (no back up her emails which may include) classified information on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.
HRC is such a damaged candidate she may not win a shoe-in election. If elected the damage will almost surely result in ongoing continuing investigations, probable indictments, and perhaps even an impeachment. Nothing appears positive for her and Dems with her candidacy.
Going back to the title of your article, the only ones that need to “go” are Obama, Clinton and Lynch. It is my opinion that all three have run the largest most corrupt government scam of a shadow government in our nations history. The facts speak plainly for themselves and if not for Wikileaks we would not know anything about just how deep the corruption runs. I think that many will realize by next Tuesday the gravity and seriousness of these crimes and deceptions as they continue to scape goat Mr. Comey. The voters will decide if you want more of the same sham government or a government with a true, honest and sincere leader that follows the rule of law…
J. Edgar Hoover lives in the continuing right wing politization of the FBI. Just ask Rudy Giuliani.
So let me do the math.
The Rep Party is full of gowdys, Issas, and other assorted deplorables who will waste countless hours and money chasing rainbows using any information they want to use regardless of facts to harass Clinton and that will result in government being at a standstill, so people should elect Trump.
In my entire life I have never heard anything so stupid.
That is easily proven in that the last six years have been filled with the same bs. Not to mention the 90s.
These people will all go down with the ship, and our government and country will move on when demographics bury these racist ahs in 2020 and beyond.
We just nee to make sure the USSC is not made up of people who will stop this country moving forward this election.
CoRev,
so you are going to apologise now?
EMichael,
CoRev is the example of why they are trying to keep this story in the press. There are gullible people out there with no head for details who think no smoke without fire, and ignore the big smoke machine.