FBI reopens Clinton's email probe

[Dancing Fire]

I do not think that Comey willy nilly made this decision. He cannot be applauded for finding in a way helps your candidate and then bashed because more has come to light. I would respect him much less if he did this after the election. Of course the liberal press and Clinton's campaign does not feel this way but it would have been much worse for the country if it comes out after she were elected that she is then indicted. It should be about the law and not the election.

That would be impossible if she was elected as POTUS, b/c she can pardon herself....

By that reasoning then Nixon could have pardoned himself also?

Of course not, but Ford did pardoned Nixon. I was J/K about HC pardoning herself..

 

[redwood66]

I do not think that Comey willy nilly made this decision. He cannot be applauded for finding in a way helps your candidate and then bashed because more has come to light. I would respect him much less if he did this after the election. Of course the liberal press and Clinton's campaign does not feel this way but it would have been much worse for the country if it comes out after she were elected that she is then indicted. It should be about the law and not the election.

That would be impossible if she was elected as POTUS, b/c she can pardon herself....

By that reasoning then Nixon could have pardoned himself also?

Of course not, but Ford did pardoned Nixon. I was J/K about HC pardoning herself..

I was kidding too.

But do we want Tim Kaine to have to pardon her?

 

[Dancing Fire]

All the PSer liberals will pardon HC...

 

[AGBF]

The FBI may only have duplicates of e-mails they have already gone through. The e-mails Huma Abedin sent may have all been among the ones the FBI read when they read the ones received by Secretary Clinton. There may be no new e-mails at all. They just do not know yet. The FBI is going over everything with a fine-toothed comb which shows there is no partiality towards Secretary Clinton.

AGBF

 

[Tekate]

I watched Clinton's 30 second "press conference" this afternoon telling Comey to release the information that they have. She knows he cannot so this is disingenuous. If it is related to Weiner and Abedin she has Abedin on her plane and I am sure she could tell/has told Clinton exactly what the FBI has. Clinton could speak up right now if she asked her assistant what did they find.

He should and why can't he? Are you kidding about Abedin knowing? if I went through my laptop from 2 years ago I wouldn't have a clue what is on there. The FBI has stated it could all be information already covered.. If one is accused, then one should be allowed to see all
information concerning said case. He needs to dump the emails a la wiki dumps and let everyone read them, I mean really if he's not partisan then he needs to dump it.. Clinton has asked him to release all information, she's not worried.. he's trying to influence the presidential race. shame on him.

 

[redwood66]

T she isn't accused and as Deb said they are going through everything. I want him to do his job and he cannot release info to the public that is being reviewed in an investigation.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

My understanding is that Huma moved some e-mails from a personal e-mail account at the State DEpt to her personal account with A.Weiner in order to print out these emails because the state dep't printer didn't work well. The FBI is looking to see if any Confidential, Secret ect. was transferred to that joint laptop Huma had with her husband. The e-mails were not sent to or from HRC. They are looking to see if they are of the secret variety and that Anthony Weiner had access to them. He has no clearance.

A few days ago I wanted post information like this. Even in the case of the missing e-mails, they may still be out there for there are always two: one from someone going to someone. So there are other emails out there. Whether they are of any significance, we can't tell. But they are out there.

I don't think Comey could have done anything else. He's doing his job. Terrible timing for sure, but I don't think HRC is involved personally at all.


Annette

 

[tyty333]

Hi,

My understanding is that Huma moved some e-mails from a personal e-mail account at the State DEpt to her personal account with A.Weiner in order to print out these emails because the state dep't printer didn't work well. The FBI is looking to see if any Confidential, Secret ect. was transferred to that joint laptop Huma had with her husband. The e-mails were not sent to or from HRC. They are looking to see if they are of the secret variety and that Anthony Weiner had access to them. He has no clearance.

A few days ago I wanted post information like this. Even in the case of the missing e-mails, they may still be out there for there are always two: one from someone going to someone. So there are other emails out there. Whether they are of any significance, we can't tell. But they are out there.

I don't think Comey could have done anything else. He's doing his job. Terrible timing for sure, but I don't think HRC is involved personally at all.


Annette

It seems like if this is the case than it shouldnt be that the HRC email case has been reopened. They should say that a Huma/Weiner
email case has been opened because they, actually Huma, would be the one mishandling email.

 

[smitcompton]

HI,

But, Huma worked for the State Dept. If something is wrong it will still reflect on the State Dept. In any case, the discussion I heard, from a former FBI agent,(Frm Asst Director) was that the intent of the person who did the wrong is the salient factor. Its hard to prove intent. Its one of the reasons Hillary was exonerated.(Comey made other comments as in "Carelessness", which I think could apply to this situation as well. Just my two cents.

Annette

 

[Tekate]

HI,

But, Huma worked for the State Dept. If something is wrong it will still reflect on the State Dept. In any case, the discussion I heard, from a former FBI agent,(Frm Asst Director) was that the intent of the person who did the wrong is the salient factor. Its hard to prove intent. Its one of the reasons Hillary was exonerated.(Comey made other comments as in "Carelessness", which I think could apply to this situation as well. Just my two cents.

Annette

Glass house going here.. Carlessness, yet she wasn't hacked, and if she were we would know it now.. He should be censured, he has broken with protocol, he annointed himself in charge, went against his own manager.. If one thinks Hillary Clinton thinks she is above the law (I dont think that), then this guy thinks he's godlike and should be fired.. In my life I have NEVER seen such horrible partisianship.. I blame Obama for appointing this guy.. No one should influence an election above all this is our democracy. He doesn't even know what is in the emails, it could be some overzealous noob lawyer who saw Hillary's name or it could be she admitted that she lied lied lied and is above the law (of course these emails are from Huma and somehow ended up on a personal laptop of her husbands - all snarky here).. He should do what is right, I hate when people make remarks about others and then say, I can't say where I got my info, bullshit. So I hope this galvanized Clinton should she be elected to work more with republicans (normal ones, not zealots like Cruz).. and get's more done than Obama.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/comey-attorney-general-email_us_5814cff1e4b0390e69d094e3

 

[redwood66]

T my concern with him not saying anything is that this is not normal circumstance. We are electing a president. She is already not the best candidate in the opinion of many democrats so would you rather something come to light after she is elected that is damning enough to indict her? Maybe he should release whatever it is and maybe she is asking him to give her a grenade with the pin pulled or maybe its nothing more than they already have. Comey cannot be great for deciding there was not enough evidence the first time and then damned for doing his job. Maybe he should have done it all along and you might have Biden or Sanders as the nominee.

 

[katharath]

Tekate - agreed. What he is doing is ridiculous. A last ditch effort from an anti Clinton, Republican, former Bush staffer to create an "October surprise". Multiple actions of his reek of partisanship. He has completely ignored policy (which is written) that tells the FBI to avoid this exact type of scenario.

And for what? Emails that HRC didn't write and are not on one of her devices. They still don't know what is in these emails that everyone is freaking out about, bc the FBI still doesn't have a warrant to read them!!! This is true. So it's incredible to see how willing people are to join the latest witch hunt when there is no evidence of ANYTHING done wrong by HRC. Just the vaguest suggestion sends people into a tailspin.

It's also funny that Trump has repeatedly said that the FBI was "rigged" against him, how "wrong" they were, etc - but now he's said that they're doing a wonderful, YUUUGELY good job, lol.

Well, there's now an official complaint filed against Comey for violating protocol, so we will see - he is more likely to end up in jail before Clinton does.

 

[katharath]

Snip (definitely read the last paragraph):


https://www.yahoo.com/news/comey-wrote-bombshell-letter-to-congress-before-fbi-had-reviewed-new-emails-220219586.html


When FBI Director James Comey wrote his bombshell letter to Congress on Friday about newly discovered emails that were potentially “pertinent” to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, agents had not been able to review any of the material, because the bureau had not yet gotten a search warrant to read them, three government officials who have been briefed on the probe told Yahoo News.

At the time Comey wrote the letter, “he had no idea what was in the content of the emails,” one of the officials said, referring to recently discovered emails that were found on the laptop of disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is under investigation for allegedly sending illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl.


As of Saturday night, the FBI was still in talks with the Justice Department about obtaining a warrant that would allow agency officials to read any of the newly discovered Abedin emails, and therefore was still in the dark about whether they include any classified material that the bureau has not already seen.
“We do not have a warrant,” a senior law enforcement official said. “Discussions are under way [between the FBI and the Justice Department] as to the best way to move forward.”

That Comey and other senior FBI officials were not aware of what was in the emails — and whether they contained any material the FBI had not already obtained — is important because Donald Trump’s campaign and Republicans in Congress have suggested that the FBI director would not have written his letter unless he had been made aware of significant new emails that might justify reopening the investigation into the Clinton server.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi All,

I want to amend my previous post where I repeated a explanation given Friday evening regarding why the e-mails were on Anthony Weiners laptop. The new info that is out is saying Huma A has no idea how these emails got on her husbands computer. I am a person, like many of you, that likes a reason for things happening. Here we have a woman who tells us she has no idea how those emails got there. That disturbs me even more. Seems pretty incompetent to me. I have already voted for HRC, and this wouldn't change my mind, but its pretty weird.

I think Comey did the right thing With all this talk of election rigging I think this announcement made after the election would be very problematic.

I guess I am becoming less anxious. I have done my part and will watch the election result with great interest.

 

[AGBF]

The most recent speculation is that Congressional aide Jason Chaffetz was involved in the dissemination of Comey's letter. This article (excerpt below) does not mention the matter. It is two days old. But it shows how outrageous Comey's action was, how clearly meant to harm Secretary Clinton. It violated the practice of the 60 day silence about candidates before elections from the DOJ and FBI. In addition, Comey's role is not to hold press conferences. He also went against the advice of his colleagues and superiors and may have violated The Hatch Act.

"Nick Akerman, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, was more critical: 'Director Comey acted totally inappropriately. He had no business writing to Congress about supposed new emails that neither he nor anyone in the FBI has ever reviewed.'

'It is not the function of the FBI director to be making public pronouncements about an investigation, never mind about an investigation based on evidence that he acknowledges may not be significant,' Akerman added. 'The job of the FBI is simply to investigate and to provide the results of its investigation to the prosecutorial arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. His job is not to give a running commentary about any investigation or his opinion about any investigation. This is particularly egregious since Secretary Clinton has no way to respond to what amounts to nebulous and speculative innuendo.'

That was also a theme of a former Justice Department and former Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matthew Miller.

'The Justice Department’s longstanding practice is don’t do anything seen as trying to influence an election. That’s usually interpreted as 60 days, let alone 11. ... It’s completely unfair to Secretary Clinton and it’s really unfair to the voters. There’s no reason he had to send this letter,' Miller told POLITICO.

Comey's July "press conference was the original sin, & it begat the rest," Miller added on Twitter."

Link...http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/hillary-clinton-fbi-james-comey-disclosure-prosecutors-230467

Comey is the problem here, not Clinton. He is the rogue agent. No one should be above the law in a democracy.

AGBF

 

[Tekate]

T my concern with him not saying anything is that this is not normal circumstance. We are electing a president. She is already not the best candidate in the opinion of many democrats so would you rather something come to light after she is elected that is damning enough to indict her? Maybe he should release whatever it is and maybe she is asking him to give her a grenade with the pin pulled or maybe its nothing more than they already have. Comey cannot be great for deciding there was not enough evidence the first time and then damned for doing his job. Maybe he should have done it all along and you might have Biden or Sanders as the nominee.

R - it wasn't his call, he broke protocol, he's done. He should not have said anything until the email were processed to ensure they were not duplicates. There is no reason to think Sanders would ever had been the nominee. His agenda wasn't electable, he was never a democrat - always an independent till he wanted to run for president, yes he caucused with the democrats but he wasn't one. Biden, don't think he would have gotten the nomination as he wasn't even interested in running.

I don't know what you mean about Comey cannot be great for deciding there was not enough evidence the first time, he wasn't the only one who viewed the emails, she was never hacked (as the DNC and Podesta were and I'm sure those Russky's tried).. if you have a job and protocol states you do 'this' and you break protocol then you will be fired, if I were your manager - bye! We have protocol and we have chain of command in our jobs for a reason, he's not god, he obviously is trying to influence the election, when Clinton comes in, he's gone.

 

[AGBF]

T she isn't accused and as Deb said they are going through everything. I want him to do his job and he cannot release info to the public that is being reviewed in an investigation.

I have no problem with the FBI reviewing e-mails. Their job is investigation. I have a huge problem with their holding press conferences, especially before elections. A huge problem. I believe The Hatch Act has been violated.

Deb/AGBF

 

[kenny]

From the BBC: "The FBI was advised by the US justice department not to inform Congress of a new inquiry into Hillary Clinton's email use, officials say.
Justice department officials said the move would be inconsistent with rules designed to avoid the appearance of interference in an election.
FBI Director James Comey acted independently when he briefed lawmakers in a letter on Friday."
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37815558

You don't suppose men would pull this as their last-ditch effort to prevent a woman becoming president?
I'm sure the Republican party would never pull strings in the background to steal an election ... oh wait ... Remember Gore?

The timing of this is just too perfect and the substance is too weak.
I smell a rat.

Hmm.

 

[redwood66]

Who knows how this will turn out but I have already voted and this would not have mattered to me anyway.

Deb no one but Republicans seemed to have a problem with a press conference by Comey in July and he did not hold a press conference on Friday. The committee leaked the letter, although he knew they would I am sure. I cannot imagine them not leaking such a gift. I don't agree on the Hatch Act violation because the AG removed herself from the issue due to the visit on the tarmac with BC and I could say that was a violation on her part. He did what he did and I can only hope that no politics played into his decision.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/lynch-remove-clinton-email/2016/07/01/id/736610/

 

[AGBF]

Below are excerpts from an article in "The New York Times" that argues, eloquently, far better than I ever could have, why Director Comey violated The Hatch Act with his letter (not press conference, thank you redwood).

"On Clinton Emails, Did the F.B.I. Director Abuse His Power?"

"THE F.B.I. is currently investigating the hacking of Americans’ computers by foreign governments. Russia is a prime suspect.

Imagine a possible connection between a candidate for president in the United States and the Russian computer hacking. Imagine the candidate has business dealings in Russia, and has publicly encouraged the Russians to hack the email of his opponent. It would not be surprising for the F.B.I. to include this candidate and his campaign staff in its confidential investigation of Russian computer hacking.

But it would be highly improper, and an abuse of power, for the F.B.I. to conduct such an investigation in the public eye, particularly on the eve of the election. It would be an abuse of power for the director of the F.B.I., absent compelling circumstances, to notify members of Congress that the candidate was under investigation. It would be an abuse of power if F.B.I. agents went so far as to obtain a search warrant and raid the candidate’s office tower, hauling out boxes of documents and computers in front of television cameras.

The F.B.I.’s job is to investigate, not to influence the outcome of an election.

Such acts could also be prohibited under the Hatch Act, which bars the use of an official position to influence an election. That is why the F.B.I. presumably would keep those aspects of an investigation confidential until after the election. The usual penalty for a violation is termination of federal employment.

That is why, on Saturday, I filed a complaint against the F.B.I. with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, and with the Office of Government Ethics. I spent much of my career working on government and lawyers’ ethics, including as the chief White House ethics lawyer for George W. Bush. I never thought that the F.B.I. could be dragged into a political circus surrounding one of its investigations. Until this week.

(For the sake of full disclosure, in this election I have supported Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Hillary Clinton for president, in that order.)

On Friday, the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, sent members of Congress a letter about developments in the agency’s investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s emails, an investigation which supposedly was closed months ago. This letter, which was quickly posted on the internet, made highly unusual public statements about an F.B.I. investigation concerning a candidate in the election. The letter was sent in violation of a longstanding Justice Department policy of not discussing specifics about pending investigations with others, including members of Congress. According to some news reports, the letter was sent before the F.B.I. had even obtained the search warrant that it needed to look at the newly discovered emails. And it was sent days before the election, when many Americans are already voting.

Violations of the Hatch Act and of government ethics rules on misuse of official positions are not permissible in any circumstances, including in the case of an executive branch official acting under pressure from politically motivated members of Congress. Violations are of even greater concern when the agency is the F.B.I.

It is not clear whether Mr. Comey personally wanted to influence the outcome of the election, although his letter — which cast suspicion on Mrs. Clinton without revealing specifics — was concerning. Also concerning is the fact that Mr. Comey already made unusual public statements expressing his opinion about Mrs. Clinton’s actions, calling her handling of classified information 'extremely careless,' when he announced this summer that the F.B.I. was concluding its investigation of her email without filing any charges.

But an official doesn’t need to have a specific intent — or desire — to influence an election to be in violation of the Hatch Act or government ethics rules. The rules are violated if it is obvious that the official’s actions could influence the election, there is no other good reason for taking those actions, and the official is acting under pressure from persons who obviously do want to influence the election."


Link...http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/opinion/on-clinton-emails-did-the-fbi-director-abuse-his-power.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-top-region&region=opinion-c-col-top-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-top-region&_r=0

AGBF

 

[Dancing Fire]

If Comey was doing his job HC would be indicted by now.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Comey is the problem here, not Clinton. He is the rogue agent. No one should be above the law in a democracy.

AGBF

Only if your last name isn't Clinton...

 

[kenny]

... a new important piece from the WSJ on all this ...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=FBI+in+Internal+Feud+Over+Hillary+Clinton+Probe

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

Good piece from the Wall Street Journal. I can't believe 650,000 e-mails on Weiners computer. They just appeared by the fairies.
Here's where I am this day. I hope she wins the election. Then if they find anything, they can indict her or impeach her , and we can have Tim Kaine as our President, which I'd like better anyway.

I'm laughing because I can think of a conspiracy theory myself on all this. The Russian put it on A. Weiners laptop, right?

I DOUBT hUMA a WILL BE GOING TO, THE wHITE House with Hillary. Certainly appears careless.

Annette

 

[AGBF]

I like this piece by Paul Krugman in "The New York Times" (excerpted).

"The cryptic letter James Comey, the F.B.I. director, sent to Congress on Friday looked bizarre at the time — seeming to hint at a major new Clinton scandal, but offering no substance. Given what we know now, however, it was worse than bizarre, it was outrageous. Mr. Comey apparently had no evidence suggesting any wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton; he violated longstanding rules about commenting on politically sensitive investigations close to an election; and he did so despite being warned by other officials that he was doing something terribly wrong.

So what happened? We may never know the full story, but the best guess is that Mr. Comey, like many others — media organizations, would-be nonpartisan advocacy groups, and more — let himself be bullied by the usual suspects. Working the refs — screaming about bias and unfair treatment, no matter how favorable the treatment actually is — has been a consistent, long-term political strategy on the right. And the reason it keeps happening is because it so often works.

(snip)​

Part of this effectiveness comes through false equivalence: news organizations, afraid of being attacked for bias, give evenhanded treatment to lies and truth. Way back in 2000 I suggested that if a Republican candidate said that the earth was flat, headlines would read, “Views differ on shape of planet.” That still happens.

The desire to get right-wing critics off one’s back may also explain why the news media keep falling for fake scandals. There’s a straight line from the Whitewater investigation — which ran for seven years, was endlessly hyped in the press, but never found any wrongdoing on the part of the Clintons — to the catastrophically bad coverage of the Clinton Foundation a couple of months ago. Remember when The Associated Press suggested scandalous undue influence based on a meeting between Hillary Clinton and a donor who just happened to be both a Nobel Prize winner and an old personal friend?

Sure enough, much of the initial coverage of the Comey letter was based not on what the letter said, which was very little, but on a false, malicious characterization of the letter by Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. You might think reporters would have learned by now not to take what people like Mr. Chaffetz say at face value. Apparently not.

...​

"


Link...http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/opinion/working-the-refs.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

 

[sstephensid]

Hi,

Good piece from the Wall Street Journal. I can't believe 650,000 e-mails on Weiners computer. They just appeared by the fairies.
Here's where I am this day. I hope she wins the election. Then if they find anything, they can indict her or impeach her , and we can have Tim Kaine as our President, which I'd like better anyway.

I'm laughing because I can think of a conspiracy theory myself on all this. The Russian put it on A. Weiners laptop, right?

I DOUBT hUMA a WILL BE GOING TO, THE wHITE House with Hillary. Certainly appears careless.

Annette

I think you are mistaken. 650k is not the number of her government emails, but rather 650,000 emails total. So 649,999 could be her husbands or her personal emails. - no further information had been given. She is not claiming six hundred and fifty thousand emails just appeared.

 

[redwood66]

Deb in your scouring can you find "news" pieces instead of "opinion" pieces please? A conservative might like opinion pieces too but that is not what I am wanting to read. We don't know enough of anything yet. FBI is fighting according to "unnamed sources" they said this and they said that.

650,000 emails is 178 a day over 10 years. Quite a proliferation of email activity. How did they get anything else done?

 

[AGBF]

Deb in your scouring can you find "news" pieces instead of "opinion" pieces please? A conservative might like opinion pieces too but that is not what I am wanting to read. We don't know enough of anything yet. FBI is fighting according to "unnamed sources" they said this and they said that.

It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read this last post of yours, redwood, or i would have spit it on my computer screen. I trust you know that I am not on this earth to please you?

Deb

 

[redwood66]

Deb in your scouring can you find "news" pieces instead of "opinion" pieces please? A conservative might like opinion pieces too but that is not what I am wanting to read. We don't know enough of anything yet. FBI is fighting according to "unnamed sources" they said this and they said that.

It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything when I read this last post of yours, redwood, or i would have spit it on my computer screen. I trust you know that I am not on this earth to please you?

Deb

Yes you are. LOL. When we (collective we) choose opinion pieces they are slanted toward our view. I am trying to stay away from that and thought since you were looking anyway.

Muah!

 

[monarch64]

Deb in your scouring can you find "news" pieces instead of "opinion" pieces please? A conservative might like opinion pieces too but that is not what I am wanting to read. We don't know enough of anything yet. FBI is fighting according to "unnamed sources" they said this and they said that.

650,000 emails is 178 a day over 10 years. Quite a proliferation of email activity. How did they get anything else done?

If they were using emails like text messaging and there were a ton of one-liners it's pretty easy to rack up a couple hundred a day while doing all sorts of other things. I have texts and emails and chats and messages going 16 hours a day at least, in addition to phone calls, online activity, actual work, events, and raising a kid. And I don't even have aides!