A Justice Department official said the attorney general will accept the “determinations and findings of career prosecutors and lawyers as well as FBI investigators and director [James B.] Comey.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in advance of Lynch’s remarks.It's that "as well as" that's the problem. She'd already said that the decision would be made by Justice Department officials. The problem is that top Justice Department officials are just as unreliable, having donated $75,000 to Clinton's campaign in this cycle.
Meanwhile, it turns out the FBI was present at the plane meeting, and ordered journalists not to record it.
Is it possible that the FBI is going to drop the hammer on Clinton, and the real purpose of the meeting was to give Bill Clinton a 'professional courtesy' heads up so they could have time to prepare? I would love to believe that was the case.
12 comments:
Here is what is going to happen.
Whatever decision is made, it will be based on who has the most political power, and their desires, and any concerns over criminal behavior or national security will be totally irrelevant.
These people are sociopath thugs with fancy clothes.
Are we sure that the reported "FBI" people weren't simply the usual and customary Secret Service personnel guarding the plane? That is, nothing at all unusual and certainly no indication of anything beyond personal protection.
Dunno where the "no recording" etc. might play into it, but maybe that's also not unusual?
What's funny to me is how so many Americans thought justice existed in DC, absent a war.
Funny that one. Lerner and Plame, all were going to get some justice, right. Like that ever happened. An alliance and regime that could bury millions of Vietnamese under the power of evil, is only bothered by local politics because they allow themselves to be bothered by it, for fear of being exposed. Now that they don't fear exposure, what are people going to do them?
Dunno where the "no recording" etc. might play into it, but maybe that's also not unusual?
The tarmac, along with much of the rest of airport, is public, at least to the extent of photography from the terminal windows overlooking the area. If the reporters were not allowed into the meeting on board Lynch's plane, there'd be nothing to record, and so no need to bar it. If the reporters were allowed into the meeting, a bar of recording would be entirely inappropriate: reporters (plural) would not have been allowed into a meeting of this nature, even were it as innocent as Lynch is pretending it to have been, solely on a "background" basis.
Is it possible that the FBI is going to drop the hammer on Clinton, and the real purpose of the meeting was to give Bill Clinton a 'professional courtesy' heads up so they could have time to prepare?
With all due respect, and even leaving aside the blatant inappropriateness of such "professional courtesy," if you believe that hammer drop potential, I may know of some beachfront property north of Santa Fe in which you might be interested. [g]
I'll be amazed if Comey comes to Lynch's supposed stand-in with a recommendation to indict. I'll be even more amazed if her stand-in were to proceed with indictment and prosecution. Keep in mind: Lynch did not recuse herself (a useless move, anyway, for the reasons below), she only says she deferred. And, the folks to whom she says deferred still work for her, both during that deferral and afterward. Unless they act against her wishes and Obama's instructions during her...deferral.
Eric Hines
It's being reported now, according to a link I found on Instapundit, that this whole meeting was 100% Bill Clinton. This story is allegedly from a 'conservative' member of her security team, who wants you to know that Lynch had nothing to do with it and was caught completely off guard.
If that's true -- and nothing I see from this group do I accept as true on their word -- it may come back to bite Clinton in the butt. It could be Lynch had every intention of shooting down the FBI, but now has been embarrassed in public by Bill Clinton personally. That might be just enough, if she has any sense of shame, to cause her to go along with the indictment for real.
A low percentage hope, I suppose, but one must find reasons to hope. Despair is a mortal sin.
Lynch is Machiavellian enough to plant such an idea.
She's also an experienced prosecutor, and she's an even more experienced lawyer. She knew the inappropriateness, to say nothing of the unethicalness, of accepting such a meeting, yet she did so.
This is also the same lawyer, ex-prosecutor, who tried to censor the Orlando 911 transcripts.
She may well have had every intention of shooting down the FBI. She still does. It's also coming out that she has reserved to herself the final decision concerning the recommendations of those to whom she's deferred.
Eric Hines
This kind of case is exactly what special prosecutors are for. No special prosecutor, no credibility. Period.
Valerie
Re: "no recording" etc. See here:
"The meeting took place on a private tarmac at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport, near where private aircraft take off and land."
http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/07/01/how-was-local-reporter-tipped-clinton-lynch-meeting
If the meeting plane was parked at a FBO at Sky Harbor, it may have been perfectly appropriate for the FBI/secret service to prohibit videos, recordings, etc. See this Google map of Sky Harbor & the location of one of the FBOs - quite a ways away from the main terminal area.
http://tinyurl.com/z3ad2s9
Anyway, based on the last 7+ years, I suppose that we shouldn't expect much different in the way of ethical behavior: can you think of any federal agency and/or agency head that has not, at some point in Obama's two terms, indulged in questionable legal or ethical activity? At DOJ, AG Holder was bad; Lynch is either stupid or has deliberately offended the lawyer's code of ethics. In either case, she is not worthy of her position.
And, I agree with Eric H.: her whole staff/department is tainted with the suspicion of undue influence and political pressure. Her assertion of handing off decision responsibility* resolves nothing.
* and then claiming it back? What a farce.
Long gone are the days when an AG would resign rather than compromise his ethics and position.
If the meeting plane was parked at a FBO at Sky Harbor, it may have been perfectly appropriate for the FBI/secret service to prohibit videos, recordings, etc.
Certainly. But surely someone would have pointed that out. In the event, Lynch elided the minor point of no photos, videos, recordings, etc in her subsequent press conference, and I haven't seen any reporters pointing even to the fact that Lynch's plane was at a private area (vis., an FBO) and not on the commercial part.
It even seems likely that her private plane (because it was a government ride?) would be not at a commercial terminal. But....
On fact, according to the Observer (about which I know nothing), Lynch's aircraft was at the executive terminal area of Sky Harbor.
Eric Hines
Just stumbled over this in an Althouse post on the same Observer article:
"That's the inside picture as portrayed by an unnamed security person quoted in The New York Observer. (The principal owner of the Observer is Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law.)
Hmmmm. :-)
Who knew Sky Harbor had one? Heh.
Executive terminal: click on directions to get map.
https://foursquare.com/v/lincoln-j-ragsdale-executive-terminal/4e8a8ab2b803fd0aa05e7f64
Apparently CNN has been told/leaked/informed that the FBI won't prosecute.
LittleRed1
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