FBI Reopens Inquiry into Clinton Emails

Mr. Comey and his FBI have been under criticism for his announcement last July that, while there were clearly irregularities in Mrs. Clinton’s handling of sensitive documents during her tenure as secretary of state, that the evidence was such that no prosecutor would bring charges in such a case.  Thus, the case was closed with no criminal proceedings initiated agasint Clinton.

Now Mr. Comey has made the stunning revelation that new evidence has triggered the FBI to reopen the case.  That decision has been met with predictable fury from the Clinton campaign, and has been used by Mr. Trump as evidence that he was right all along about the alleged criminal nature of Mrs. Clinton’s email communications.

FBI Director James B. Comey decided to inform Congress that he would look again into Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails during her time as secretary of state for two main reasons: a sense of obligation to lawmakers and a concern that word of the new email discovery would leak to the media and raise questions of a coverup.

The rationale, described by officials close to Comey’s decision-making on the condition of anonymity, prompted the FBI director to release his brief letter to Congress on Friday and upset a presidential race less than two weeks before Election Day. It placed Comey again at the center of a highly partisan argument over whether the nation’s top law enforcement agency was unfairly influencing the campaign.

In a memo explaining his decision to FBI employees soon after he sent his letter to Congress, Comey said he felt “an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed.”

“Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record,” Comey wrote to his employees.

To say the announcement stirred up the presidential campaigns is quite an understatement, with both campaigns weighing in strongly on the decision to reopen the email case.  It is reported that one factor prompting Comey’s decision is the discovery of Clinton material on a computer used by former Congressman Weiner, who himself is under investigation for an unrelated matter.  Oddly enough, Weiner is the estranged husband of Hillary confidant Huma Abedin.

This time the loudest criticism has come from Clinton and her supporters, who said Friday that Comey had provided too little information about the nature of the new line of investigation and allowed Republicans to seize political ground as a result. The inquiry focuses on Clinton emails found on a computer used by former U.S. congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), now under investigation for sending sexually explicit messages to a minor, and top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who is Weiner’s wife. The couple have since separated.

Mr. Comey apparently felt he had no good options at this point, and chose the one with the least negative implications.

Comey had just been briefed by a team of investigators who were seeking access to the emails. The director knew he had to move quickly because the information could leak out.

The next day, Comey informed Congress that he would take additional “investigative steps” to evaluate the emails after deciding the emails were pertinent to the Clinton email investigation and that the FBI should take steps to obtain and review them.

An official familiar with Comey’s thinking said that “he felt he had no choice.”

“What would it look like if the FBI inadvertently came across additional emails that appear to be relevant to the Clinton investigation and not at least inform the Oversight Committee that this occurred?” the official said. “What would be the criticism then? That the FBI hid it? That the FBI purposely kept this information to themselves?”

The official said the decision came down to which choice “was not as bad as the others.”

Comey clearly knows that he’s right in the middle of a political storm, evidenced by these comments:

In Comey’s note to employees, he seemed to anticipate that his decision would be controversial.

“In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood,” Comey wrote.

What is controversial, of course, is Mrs. Clinton’s handling of what has turned out to be classified material in a non-secure manner.  Had she not engaged in what are criminal activities, none of this controversy would be happening.

To blame everyone else, in this case the FBI, conservatives, Mr. Comey, and the Trump campaign, for her own self-inflicted wounds is just typical Clinton behavior.  Perhaps, for once, she won’t get away with it.

Here’s Comey’s full letter:

To all:

This morning I sent a letter to Congress in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation.  Yesterday, the investigative team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case.  Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them.

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, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.

Jim Comey

Source:  Washington Post

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