The Director of the FBI, James Comey, dropped a political bombshell of tsunami proportions by defying the time tested policies of the Justice department. He achieved this by making an unprecedented announcement about a pending investigation of a Presidential nominee eleven days before the election. The Federal policy specifically states that no such statement should be made within sixty days of any election. Comey reportedly ignored the Justice Department’s advice not to go ahead and defy policy.
The immediate impact was to stop Hillary Clinton's march to an ever increasing majority of electoral votes and to lift Trump’s campaign from the doldrums. This action of an unelected civil servant was more in line with the politics of a banana Republic than with Jeffersonian democracy. It comes at a time when Trump has shown scant respect for the rule of law and democracy. His main thrust at present is the thinly veiled promotion of a vigilante force at the polls to intimidate voters.
COMEY’S ANNOUNCEMENT
Comey, a Republican, with a ten year appointment as FBI head, broke the news in a letter to six Republican Congressional leaders. The same Republican leadership had mercilessly attacked him at a Congressional hearing on his decision, in his initial prolonged inquiry, not to indict Clinton. Comey had exonerated Clinton on using private e mail facilities. He had found that she had no intent to risk American security and that everyone she communicated with had security clearance. He stated in no certain terms that his decision not to recommend an indictment was “not even close”. He made it quite clear that it would be, legal malpractice. He further implied that if he handed the docket over to prosecutors he would have at best be regarded as incompetent.
What rankled the Democrats and Clinton as well as bringing an avalanche of criticism from pundits and legal experts, was that the gist of the FBI Director’s disclosure was strong on innuendo and bereft on facts. He maintained that e mails had been uncovered in another inquiry that might be relevant to the Clinton case. He had no idea whether they were pertinent or not. In this explanation he contravened yet another cardinal prosecutorial procedure, namely not to comment on an going investigation and even worse he named a potential “target” the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States, Hillary Clinton.
The story unfolded rapidly and what was learned made the Head of The FBI’s decision even more inexplicable. Within twenty four hours Comey’s rush to public announcement was really not standing up to scrutiny as leak after leak hit the news waves.
An investigation of Anthony Weiner’s e mails had established that he had shared a laptop with Huma Abedin, his now estranged wife. Abedin, an important Hillary Clinton aide, had a large number of her work e mails on the computer. This should have not have been a surprise to the FBI as this information had been shared in the initial Clinton probe. The apparent explanation for the presence of the Ms. Abedin’s e mails was that the State Department’s printing facilities were such that Ms. Abedin would print relevant e mails at home, having transferred these to her computer. So why this was triggering an enquiry, eleven days before the election is incomprehensible. This turn of events was made even more remarkable when it was leaked that the FBI had the computer in question for five weeks. Also within less than a day the fact emerged that the bulk of these e mails may well be duplicates of those already reviewed in detail by the FBI.
So this is about Abedin’s e mails not Clintons. Whatever this is about how the legal tenets of “intent” and security clearance of the recipients will change as a result of this latest “discovery” is beyond the bounds of reason.
In short it stinks.
In short it stinks.
IMMEDIATE POLITICAL IMPACT
The impact of all this was humongous. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s silver tongued Campaign Manager, said that the enquiry was a big deal. It could lead to Clinton’s indictment, being found guilty or being impeached. She said it had to impact the electorate because very few citizens knew any people that were being investigated by the FBI. All this fitted in with Hillary Clinton’s profile.
As might be expected Donald Trump went onto the offensive. He at last had some concrete validation of his characterization of Hillary as being the most “crooked” and corrupt candidate in history. He hailed this as an exceptional news development akin to the Watergate investigations. He had the very day before chastised the FBI for rigging their first enquiry. He maintained that this had been the worst example of the rigged system. More so than the election rigging and that perpetuated by the Republican and Democratic establishments.
The Clinton camp started off relatively circumspectly demanding the immediate release of more information and explanation from Comey, which is still their main message. However as the story unfolded Clinton become emboldened at what appeared to be flagrant and inexcusable incompetence at best, labelling it “unprecedented and deeply troubling”.
The TV pundits that normally are circumspect like David Gergen, former advisor to four American Presidents, exhorted the embattled FBI Director to resolve this problem immediately as the consensus was that his statement had definitely tipped the balance in Trump’s favor. There were very few legal consultants that approved Comey’s decision.
The most depressing comments came from the Republican leadership who had at last found common cause with their nominee. They greeted the news with glee. They too have plenty to answer for as the population slips away from them they have moved to level the playing field by voter suppression laws such as reversing the Civil Rights Voting Laws.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
The prognosis for the next four years is grim. The Republicans instead of showing some internal reflection have served notice that they plan to investigate and thwart Clinton from proceeding with furthering any agenda. They will thus continue their key policy of the past eight years by handcuffing the Democratic President and stultify any legislation. If they do they will be beating to death what is left of the life of the moribund Republican Party. They then will act bewildered when their presidential candidate for 2020 will be from the Klu Klux Klan.
The more “moderate” Republican leadership like Ryan will need to take a tough line if they don’t wish to be the mid wives of the GOP descent into the dustbin of history. If they buy Trump’s narrative that the problem is not them but everyone elses they will share his fate.
Trump media will swamp the waves and attempt to move America back into the Dark Ages.
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