Despite senior Justice Department officials telling FBI Director James Comey not to notify Congress about renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server (because it was not consistent with long-standing practices of the department) he did it anyway.
And what a circus it has created just 10 days before the election.
Republicans rejoiced, convinced Comey was sending them a signal that he had found more evidence of “crooked Hillary” that would “lock her up” once and for all.
Democrats, meanwhile, groaned because it is the one issue that can slow down Hillary Clinton’s momentum with undecided voters in battleground states, and perhaps hand control of the US Senate to Republicans.
Comey had told Congress back in July that he had concluded his investigation into Clinton’s private email server, and recommended she not be indicted. His letter to Congress yesterday left it to the imagination on whether newly discovered emails, found randomly during another investigation, would change his view.
Donald Trump pounced on the news telling supporters, “I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the DOJ are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made.”
Trump is comparing the emails to Watergate and connecting dots that certainly do not exist – at least not yet.
For her part, Clinton found rare agreement with Trump and demanded the FBI immediately release the specific details about what they are looking at.
“The FBI needs to explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay,” said Clinton. “Voting is under way, so the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately.”
Regardless of where this new investigation takes us, Clinton’s reputation as a dishonest and untrustworthy politician is likely to only get worse.
All of this back-and-forth leaves undecided and independent voters asking, “what should we take from all this?” Let’s try to answer that.
WHAT WE KNOW FROM SOURCES WITHIN THE FBI:
- The emails were found by FBI agents during their investigation into disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, who is the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
- Comey sent a letter to a small group of congressmen “out of an abundance of caution” and not necessarily because he had already reviewed all the emails.
- The emails in question are unrelated to the WikiLeaks dump of messages and documents hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s account.
- None of the emails had been sent by Hillary Clinton, but to Clinton by Abedin who had previously told the FBI that she would forward the emails to her home so she could print them for Clinton there.
- The emails could be duplicates of those reviewed earlier by the FBI.
- None of the emails had been withheld from the FBI by the Clintons, the Clinton campaign, or the State Department.
- NBC’s Pete Williams reports that his sources don’t think the new emails are a “game changer” as far as the decision not to recommend prosecuting Clinton goes.
- FOX News is reporting no classified emails have yet been found.
WHAT WE STILL DON’T KNOW:
- Whether there are any classified emails previously unreported.
- How many emails are directly related to the Clinton email server investigation. (Many of the reported thousands of emails found on Abedin’s electronic devices could be personal in nature.)
- How long it will take for Comey to make a statement or how long the investigation will last.
One this is certain: The American people deserve to know quickly whether there is anything criminal in these emails. So far there is no indication that is the case.
The FBI cannot float this news, impact the presidential election, and leave voters hanging. That would be the ultimate interference in an election from our top law enforcement agency.
Regardless of your political leanings, nothing should be more alarming than that.