What is known, based on press leaks and a letter Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley sent Lynch, is that in March 2016, the FBI received a batch of hacked documents from U.S. intelligence agencies that had access to stolen emails stored on Russian networks. One of the intercepted documents revealed an alleged email from then-DNC Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz to an operative working for billionaire Democratic fundraiser George Soros. It claimed Lynch had assured the Clinton campaign that investigators and prosecutors would go easy on the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee regarding her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state. Lynch allegedly made the promise directly to Clinton political director Amanda Renteria.
The FBI apparently took the document seriously but never interviewed anyone named in it until Clinton’s case was closed by Comey in July 2016. The next month, the FBI quizzed Lynch informally about the allegations. Comey reportedly also confronted the attorney general with the sensitive document and was told to leave her office after getting a frosty reception. No other parties mentioned in the document have been interviewed by the FBI.The current theory is that it was this intercepted transmission, rather than the tarmac meeting, that led Comey to go off the reservation and cut Lynch out of the loop in his decision to go public with investigations of Clinton. He claims to have begun worrying about Lynch in September 2015, when she asked him not to refer publicly to an "investigation" of Clinton but instead to call it a "matter." Comey presumably didn't know any more than we now know whether the intercepted message was real or a fabricated Russian ruse, but he obviously found it credible enough to support his pre-existing doubts about Lynch.
I don't know quite what to think of Comey. The man blew his ethical obligations six ways from Sunday, but he does not seem to have been operating as a straightforward Clinton or even Democratic operative. I wonder if even he knows exactly what he was up to. My guess is Lynch did, though.
but he does not seem to have been operating as a straightforward Clinton or even Democratic operative.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the term "DEEP STATE" do you not yet understand?
Comey is (albeit somewhat stupid) a good representative of the Deep State: beholden to none except the Deep State, which is the occupying army in FBI, CIA, EPA, DOJ, and State, not to mention IRS and HHS.
I think about Comey that he believed himself to be the Last Honest Man in Washington. He's probably not far wrong about the total numbers of honest men in DC (or among DC women like Lynch, for that matter). Whether or not he was really among them is unclear; but even if he had been, he let his conviction that he was cause him to substitute his judgment for the law on many occasions.
ReplyDelete...the occupying army in FBI, CIA, EPA, DOJ, and State, not to mention IRS and HHS.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm happy to Hasthtag-ABOLISH most of those agencies, and seriously reduce the others, I'm not as convinced as I was a few weeks ago that there's a giant Deep State. HHS has rolled over on doing what Trump asks with regard to child separation; even their social workers, whom I'd expect to be "Resistance" if anyone was, have been providing their interviews to ICE to be used against the children interviewed.
I think we should expect to see a layer of political appointees at the top of some agencies that have held over from Obama and, some, even from the Establishment GOP Bush era. Some, like Mueller, have ties back to the Clinton administration. But the run-of-the-mill government employee, however much I'd be happy to put them back in the private sector, looks more and more like go-along-with-power types rather than political actors.
I find Comey too flaky, self-involved, inconsistent, and impulsive to be a truly effective acolyte of the Deep State.
ReplyDeleteflaky, self-involved, inconsistent, and impulsive
ReplyDelete(Don't forget that he's also stupid.)
Which is exactly why Brennan and Clapper were happy to have him on The Team. Why is that? Because Comey could be shoved overboard if the boat began to sink. He IS the sacrificial lamb.
However, the boat didn't develop a leak (as it certainly would have had HRC been elected.) It was blown out of the water with the election of Trump. And when Mike Rogers spilled the beans, Brennan and Clapper were forcibly ejected. Comey was too damn dumb to take the hint and resign....so he's fired.
(McCabe thought he was too smart and too well-connected to get fired and he, too, was wrong.)
He claims to have begun worrying about Lynch in September 2015, when she asked him not to refer publicly to an "investigation" of Clinton but instead to call it a "matter." << He was told to publicly be dishonest about Clinton.
ReplyDeleteAnd he obeyed - he WAS dishonest.
I think Trump tweeted that he was a sleazeball (?? -- no good DB of Trump tweets for searching? other than twitter?).
Trump was right. Surprisingly, (not!) he's far more often factually correct than those who quickly claim he's wrong.