I’ve written how Andrew McCabe the second in charge of the Fumbling Bumbling Incompetents (FBI) oversaw for at least five months the investigation into the Hillary Clinton emails as the number two man in the FBI. I pointed out that he never should have done that because his wife had run for public office at the request of Virginia Governor McAuliffe and had received 2/3rds of a million dollars from him and every Tom, Dick and Andrew knew McAuliffe and Hillary were as close as brother and sister.
No wonder then the investigation got messed up. You cannot serve two masters. Now I don’t know that the blame for this totally goes to the FBI. That is because the Hillary email matter should have called for a grand jury investigation. The grand jury is controlled by the Attorney General so James Comey, he’s the FBI director, may have asked for a grand jury and have been turned down by Loretta Lynch the new attorney general. (Lynch by the way won’t provide Congress with anything her office has on the money paid to Iran during the prisoner release.)
If the FBI was prevented from doing a proper investigation by Lynch (or her predecessor Holder) then the FBI should note that and should not have cleared Hillary of any wrongdoing. Obviously you do not conduct an investigation into a serious matter without a grand jury. Why a grand jury? Because that is the only way you can get to the bottom of an issue because only with a grand jury you can bring people in with all their records and have them testify.
I did not know that no grand jury had been used until I read this here. I guess I had not put on my old investigative hat until now. Although I should have recognized something was wrong when I read reports that the FBI was negotiating with attorneys over having their client’s interviewed. The normal process is for the FBI to ask you if you want to give them a statement. If you say no you get hit with a subpoena to go before a grand jury.
I confess I missed it. What should definitely have called it to my attention to the unusual way it was being handled was the deal made with two of Hillary’s aides.“Mills and Samuelson receiving immunity with the agreement their laptops would be destroyed by the FBI afterward.”
The original investigation of the emails was fake because it was done without subpoenas, search warrants and no grand jury. What is also strange is handing out immunity to people before they talk. Think of that – the Department of Justice was giving immunity to witnesses before they talked to the FBI. Isn’t that something Whitey Bulger said happened to him and the court said those things don’t happen.
I know, I am a Johnny-come-lately to the matter and never focused on what was going on. How was I to know Comey was not doing the job right; or that he was taking directions from Obama’s – yes Obama is up to his eyeballs in this also – attorney general Loretta Lynch who had that corrupt meeting with Bill Clinton at the tarmac.
What opened my eyes is Comey’s letter. The letter is shocking coming at the penultimate hour. I’ve got to believe if he had a choice he never would have sent it. He was forced to by the discovery his agents made. He knew he could not duck the knowledge of what they showed him so he tried to weasel out of it by sending a letter to Congress to cover his butt. Yes, he thought he was on easy street with the Clintons having gone into the tank for them but there was no way he could now ignore what stared him straight in the face.
It had to be damning. Any tried and true prosecutor knows if you don’t do an investigation right from the git go it may come back and take a big bite out of your back side. To do the Clinton email investigation right Comey should have seized the computers of all her top people to see what communications they had with Hillary and whipped them into the grand jury.
He only relied on what Hillary turned over choosing to look at half of the evidence available. We all know that emails are a two way street; if I clean mine off my computer those people who I sent them to will still have them. Comey should have been looking for Clinton’s emails in other places. He failed to do it. Of course, Comey’s second in command Andrew McCabe also should have been doing this.
What then happened. In chasing down Weiner they ended up where they should have gone in the first place. They found on Weiner’s computer emails of Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin. Those must contradict everything she, those other top aides of Hillary, and what Hillary had previously told them.
Neither Comey or McCabe could hide that. Nothing else explains the panic letter to Congress. He is stalling for time. The FBI must have the goods on Hillary and her staff which it should have had back in July. No matter how you look at it Comey and McCabe are finished since they broke the FBI’s most sacred commandment by embarrassing the FBI. Time will tell if Hillary is also finished.
Matt, Great “Alliteration,” I’ll have to remember it. Keep posting.
One thing the Dems have never been good at and that is fighting back. I’d like to see the emails by this Chavez to the FBI Coming at the 11th hour is certainly suspect and seems more likely as a last GOP diversion off Trump’s fiasco. Considering all the deleted emails by everyone (Bush 22 million unreported and no investigation) also we know nothing about the RNC which is why this is just another GOP attack on Clinton is seemingly possible as if he had something real he would have released more information and not have done this in a Friday afternoon again
Skye:
I guess your argument comes down to it is “the great right wing conspiracy” at work again. That’s what Hill and Bill alleged when those women who were abused by Bill made their accusations and (speaking of Dems not fighting back) all the Democrats rushed to defend Bill saying his abuse of women were personal matters and did not affect his ability to govern (unlike today when now apparently they do when they relate to another person.)
I gather that by you bringing up all those other things which really do not seem applicable to the matter you don’t mind if a crook gets in the White House. I never knew Bush set up a computer in his home so to hide from public view the emails he was sending and receiving.
Here’s the bottom line. Hillary tried to hide her doings. This was disclosed. She said nothing involving classified material was on them. That was a lie. She agreed to turn over all the emails on her computer. She lied about doing that. None of this would have happened if she did things the right way. The problem is she finds it impossible to do things on the level. That is what this is all about. If you want to have someone like that in the White House close your eyes to all this. I knew a guy once who could do things the right way or the wrong way; you might have known people like that too. Even when doing it the right way was easier he would do it the wrong way. He had what you would agree is larceny in his heart. That is what Hillary has and that is the last thing you want in a president.
Matt, great post. Just stating the obvious so I can get notifications of follow-up comments.
Comey disturbs me…Matt Connolly just says FBI stands for Fumbling Bumbling Incompetents and I do believe THAT!
Matt also points out Comey should have assessed and reviewed the new stuff BEFORE writing the letter to Congress
I have ZERO faith in him
The whole thing stinks to high heavens and Comey is a creep of the first order and the FBI needs to be ended…
The real corruption is obvious and overwhelming….and the Bureau didn’t WANT to find it….the depositions that
Judicial Watch has held ( more effective than Bureau AND CONGRESS) are damning…my favorite is one of the
most recent ones….Bentel……as I read the 302’s about whether Bentel warned employees NOT to explore the server
I think the FBI determined claims of employees were not supported but I only saw them interview Bentel, NOT the employees!
So THIS is very telling…and represented by private and GOVERNMENT lawyers it STINKS
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that another witness in the Clinton email matter asserted his Fifth Amendment rights during a Judicial Watch deposition today. The deposition of John Bentel, the State Department’s former Director of Information Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat (“S/ES-IRM”), was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. S/ES-IRM is the office that handles information technology for the Office of the Secretary. Mr. Bentel answered over 90 questions with “On advice from my legal counsel, I decline to answer the question and I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights.”
Mr. Bentel, on advice of Obama Justice Department and personal counsel, refused to answer any questions about whether Hillary Clinton was paying his legal fees, offered him employment, or other financial incentives. There were three government attorneys and two personal attorneys present for the deposition.
Bill:
It is worse than that. People were getting immunity during the investigation without having to go before a grand jury and testify. I know you know how to conduct investigations and you know without subpoena power you have very little in your bag of tricks to find out what happened. If you rely upon defense lawyers to voluntarily turn over evidence that will hurt their client or client’s boss then you’ll die waiting.
Comey played politics in his first investigation by running it to please Hillary. He trusted her and now something has shown him that she has been playing him and the FBI for dupes. It will be fun seeing how all the characters try to extricate themselves from this quandary. There will be a lot of finger pointing.
In total agreement, Matt….and to think he tried to finesse the whole thing and make it appear as if all leads were followed…if you even take a peek at the manner in which the many sites holding her emails were identified but never searched puts the lie to that. This is a sad, sad situation for all of us. To think that an election could ever hinge of federal incompetence…or worse…and THEN on Carlos Danger!!
Bill:
Carlos Danger’s Happenings Horribly Humiliated Hillary’s Huma Having Hurt Her Hearth and Home. It was a mystery why Huma stood by Danger. To think at one point even after Danger stepped down from his Congressional seat he was leading the pact to become mayor of the big apple tells alot about American voters. It was not until Carlos went back into the Danger zone-iness that he fell in the polls. But looking at it objectively – Huma is Hillary’s closest adviser and she has been involved with Carlos for many years. What does that tell us about her judgment.Scary stuff!
And….Bill Clinton MARRIED them!!!!!
By his own words Comey determined that a crime was committed.
His decision backfired when he learned that McCabe took the bribe.
[email protected]