2016 Presidential Race

NotSatoshiNakamoto · Oct 29, 2016

On Friday, James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, acting independently of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, sent a letter to Congress saying that the F.B.I. had discovered e-mails that were potentially relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server. Coming less than two weeks before the Presidential election, Comey’s decision to make public new evidence that may raise additional legal questions about Clinton was contrary to the views of the Attorney General, according to a well-informed Administration official. Lynch expressed her preference that Comey follow the department’s longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election, but he said that he felt compelled to do otherwise.

Comey’s decision is a striking break with the policies of the Department of Justice, according to current and former federal legal officials. Comey, who is a Republican appointee of President Obama, has a reputation for integrity and independence, but his latest action is stirring an extraordinary level of concern among legal authorities, who see it as potentially affecting the outcome of the Presidential and congressional elections.

“You don’t do this,” one former senior Justice Department official exclaimed. “It’s aberrational. It violates decades of practice.” The reason, according to the former official, who asked not to be identified because of ongoing cases involving the department, “is because it impugns the integrity and reputation of the candidate, even though there’s no finding by a court, or in this instance even an indictment.”

Traditionally, the Justice Department has advised prosecutors and law enforcement to avoid any appearance of meddling in the outcome of elections, even if it means holding off on pressing cases. One former senior official recalled that Janet Reno, the Attorney General under Bill Clinton, “completely shut down” the prosecution of a politically sensitive criminal target prior to an election. “She was adamant—anything that could influence the election had to go dark,” the former official said.

Four years ago, then Attorney General Eric Holder formalized this practice in a memo to all Justice Department employees. The memo warned that, when handling political cases, officials “must be particularly sensitive to safeguarding the Department’s reputation for fairness, neutrality, and nonpartisanship.” To guard against unfair conduct, Holder wrote, employees facing questions about “the timing of charges or overt investigative steps near the time of a primary or general election” should consult with the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division.

The F.B.I. director is an employee of the Justice Department, and is covered by its policies. But when asked whether Comey had followed these guidelines and consulted with the Public Integrity Section, or with any other department officials, Kevin Lewis, a deputy director of public affairs for the Justice Department, said, “We have no comment on the matter.”

According to the Administration official, Lynch asked Comey to follow Justice Department policies, but he said that he was obliged to break with them because he had promised to inform members of Congress if there were further developments in the case. He also felt that the impending election created a compelling need to inform the public, despite the tradition of acting with added discretion around elections. The Administration official said that Lynch and Justice Department officials are studying the situation, which he called unprecedented.

Matthew Miller, a Democrat who served as the public-affairs director at the Justice Department under Holder, recalled that, in one case, the department waited until after an election to send out subpoenas. “They didn’t want to influence the election—even though the subpoenas weren’t public,” he said. “People may think that the public needs to have this information before voting, but the thing is the public doesn’t really get the information. What it gets is an impression that may be false, because they have no way to evaluate it. The public always assumes when it hears that the F.B.I. is investigating that there must be something amiss. But there may be nothing here at all. That’s why you don’t do this.”

“Comey is an outstanding law-enforcement officer,” Miller said, “but he mistakenly thinks that the rules don’t apply to him. But there are a host of reasons for these rules.”

As Miller sees it, Comey’s “original sin” was the press conference he held in July regarding the Clinton e-mail investigation. At that press conference, Comey stated that the F.B.I. had found no reason to bring criminal charges against Clinton for using a private e-mail server to handle much of her State Department business, but that Clinton and her staff had been “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, extremely classified information.” Comey made clear that he had decided to make this comment without any sign-off from the Justice Department. Ordinarily, when no charges are brought, such matters are not exposed to public view, let alone addressed at press conferences.

Washington Post, he acknowledged, “Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season,” he noted, “there is significant risk of being misunderstood.”

“I don’t really blame Comey,” another former Justice Department official said. “But it’s troubling.” This official thought that Comey “didn’t want to look tainted. This new information comes to him, and he’s afraid if he doesn’t make it public until after the election he’ll be impeached. People will say he lied to Congress. But in the end he did the self-protective thing. Was it the right thing? Put it this way: it isn’t what previous Administrations have done.”
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http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-...oretta-lynch-and-justice-department-tradition

NotSatoshiNakamoto · Oct 29, 2016

Comey is really sticking his neck out there with this one.

HomeoftheJets · Oct 29, 2016

VOTER FRAUD!!!!!!
(By a Trump supporter. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...r-fraud-suspect-arrested-des-moines/92892042/)

HomeoftheJets · Oct 29, 2016

NotSatoshiNakamoto said: ↑

Comey is really sticking his neck out there with this one.
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Does this put to rest Trump's claims that the election process is rigged against him? Because I can guarantee if it were rigged, there's no way the riggers would allow Comey to do what he did.

NotSatoshiNakamoto · Oct 29, 2016

HomeoftheJets said: ↑

Does this put to rest Trump's claims that the election process is rigged against him? Because I can guarantee if it were rigged, there's no way the riggers would allow Comey to do what he did.
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HomeoftheJets · Oct 29, 2016

NotSatoshiNakamoto said: ↑

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Weiner-Comey 2020.

NotSatoshiNakamoto · Oct 29, 2016

So now Clinton, who did everything in her power to hide the facts, is demanding transparency out of Comey. Lmao

HomeoftheJets · Oct 29, 2016

NotSatoshiNakamoto said: ↑

So now Clinton, who did everything in her power to hide the facts, is demanding transparency out of Comey. Lmao
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If people can demand Hillary be transparent, she reserves the same right to make demands.

Petrozza · Oct 29, 2016

Dean: 'Comey put himself on the same side as Putin'

This clown should be put away. He's obviously deranged.

Satan · Oct 29, 2016

Petrozza said: ↑

Dean: 'Comey put himself on the same side as Putin'

This clown should be put away. He's obviously deranged.
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Putin definitely

NotSatoshiNakamoto · Oct 29, 2016

HomeoftheJets said: ↑

If people can demand Hillary be transparent, she reserves the same right to make demands.
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I'm guessing you're joking but do you think she's actually been transparent?

Hillary repeatedly went out of her way to hide the contents of her emails from the American public. She used a private server to avoid foil requests. After being subpoenaed for the emails on that server she continued the ruse. She used bleach bit to permanently destroy 33k emails in a manner that even the FBI could not recover them from disk, then physically destroyed devices that were used to transmit those emails with a hammer. Her IT staff pleaded the fifth and Hillary repeatedly answered that she did not remember when being questioned by the FBI regarding the emails.

But NOW that the FBI has finally managed to get there hands on some of the emails she so desperately tried to hide from the public she is DEMANDING that they share what they have found because the American people deserve to know.

It's lunacy.

NotSatoshiNakamoto · Oct 29, 2016

Petrozza said: ↑

Dean: 'Comey put himself on the same side as Putin'

This clown should be put away. He's obviously deranged.
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lol - Russia hacked Comey!

nyjetsmets89 · Oct 29, 2016

Comey went rogue. He probably wanted her indicted the first time. Not looking good for Clint

JetBlue · Oct 29, 2016

HomeoftheJets said: ↑

If people can demand Hillary be transparent, she reserves the same right to make demands.
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Not the issue. when you refuse transparency but deman it from others that's called hypocrisy. defending her on an irrelevant point doesn't negate the hypocrisy. The question is why are you avoiding the hypocrisy?

HomeoftheJets · Oct 29, 2016

JetBlue said: ↑

Not the issue. when you refuse transparency but deman it from others that's called hypocrisy. defending her on an irrelevant point doesn't negate the hypocrisy. The question is why are you avoiding the hypocrisy?
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Of course Hillary's being hypocritical. I'm pointing out that it's equally hypocritical to criticize Hillary for demanding transparency if you didn't have a problem with others demanding transparency from her.

HomeoftheJets · Oct 29, 2016

NotSatoshiNakamoto said: ↑

I'm guessing you're joking but do you think she's actually been transparent?

Hillary repeatedly went out of her way to hide the contents of her emails from the American public. She used a private server to avoid foil requests. After being subpoenaed for the emails on that server she continued the ruse. She used bleach bit to permanently destroy 33k emails in a manner that even the FBI could not recover them from disk, then physically destroyed devices that were used to transmit those emails with a hammer. Her IT staff pleaded the fifth and Hillary repeatedly answered that she did not remember when being questioned by the FBI regarding the emails.

But NOW that the FBI has finally managed to get there hands on some of the emails she so desperately tried to hide from the public she is DEMANDING that they share what they have found because the American people deserve to know.

It's lunacy.
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Not a chance. But just as others should ask Hillary to be transparent, she should ask the FBI to be transparent.

HomeoftheJets · Oct 29, 2016

Petrozza said: ↑

Dean: 'Comey put himself on the same side as Putin'

This clown should be put away. He's obviously deranged.
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I agree. Everyone who writes provocative tweets should be locked up. Now where does that leave Trump....

JetBlue · Oct 29, 2016

HomeoftheJets said: ↑

Of course Hillary's being hypocritical. I'm pointing out that it's equally hypocritical to criticize Hillary for demanding transparency if you didn't have a problem with others demanding transparency from her.
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No it isn't. What were the issues facing those demanding transparency from Hillary that equal transparency from them is needed? Please explain.

FJF · Oct 29, 2016

FJF · Oct 29, 2016

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