It is now clear that Comey’s FBI never took the Clinton server scandal seriously. The “investigation” was apparently just for show, despite all the resources wasted on it. And it should have been clear over the past weeks, when her aides were interviewed sequentially, so they could go back and tell the boss what they’d told the FBI, and coordinate stories to avoid perjury traps when in later interviews, most particularly the one with Hillary this weekend.
Ken Starr’s investigation into the Clintons in the 90s was similarly unserious, which was why he was unsuccessful. He was the wrong man for the job (which he showed abundantly in the botched investigation of the death of Vince Foster). To go after the Arkansas Mafia in the 90s required a prosecutor with RICO experience in going after other crime families, not a distinguished judge with no investigative or prosecutorial experience.
Similarly, a serious investigation into the server would have involved giving immunity to some key player (in this case, Pagliano, which they did), and then interviewing everyone simultaneously, in separate rooms, so they couldn’t know what the others were saying. Inevitably, some of the stories would be different, either from each other, or from Pagliano’s sworn account, and the aides would then be pressured to become state’s evidence against the ringleader (in this case, Hillary). That they interviewed her last, after everyone had told her what they’d told the FBI, and that they didn’t record the interview meant that they never had any intention of charging her, or even attempting to catch her in a lie. They were not serious.
They didn’t bother to look at what she had said under oath to Congress as part of their investigation. They were not serious.
Comey didn’t participate in the interview, and couldn’t even say whether or not she had contradicted herself, something that one would look for to determine guilt and truth. He was not serious.
Of course, the FBI has demonstrated its lack of seriousness quite a bit, lately, as Glenn Reynolds has documented.
Taxpayers should be outraged. Those concerned about national security should be outraged. But most of all, those concerned about the rule of law should be outraged. And while no doubt the Democrats in the Senate will protect their own (as Comey has become), I don’t think, at this point, that it would be inappropriate to impeach him.
[Update a while later]
And now the State Department is re-opening the investigation.
The whitewash was so pathetically embarrassing they actually want to go back and whitewash the whitewashhttps://t.co/TyBkAvJi76
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 7, 2016
[Update a few minutes later]
According to Andy McCarthy, like it or not, the FBI does not record interviews.
No. The FBI does not record interviews. Can debate whether it's good policy, but it IS policy. https://t.co/IrYo1l2Bao
— Andrew C. McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) July 7, 2016
You expect them to over play their hands and they are doing it to the extreme. What we need to fully realize is that there are no longer any good guys.
Charles Manson couldn’t be convicted today.
“The FBI doesn’t record interviews.”
That’s something Congress could fix.
They seem to be distinguishing between ‘interviews’ and ‘interrogations’.
Perjury must not be a crime any more.
Oh, they took it seriously all right.
Thinking a lot about this, I have come to believe the outcome is as good as could have been expected.
If charges had been recommended, what would be the possible outcomes?
-Hillary would have gotten a huge boost in support, enough to ensure her victory in November and setting up another “can a sitting President be indicted” Constitutional crisis like we dealt with in Bill Clinton’s case.
-If the Dems replaced her with Biden or Warren, well, they’d be harder to beat, frankly. Especially given the already strong anti-Trump animus from many in the GOPe and much of the “conservative” commentariat. Take away the visceral disgust with Hillary felt by many on the right, and the willingness to vote for Trump would decrease.
-And let’s be honest. There’d be a Jim on the jury who would drink razor blade-laced Kool-Aid and vote to acquit. The likelihood of a conviction was so close to 0 as to make no difference. My gut tells me that was the origin of the “no prosecutor would press charges” thing. Why go through a kabuki trial when the outcome was known?
What we got out of it was a laundry list of details about her incompetence and lack of veracity. I’m afraid it’s up to the voters to decide if they’re good with those attributes. For the “Never Trump” crowd: you have your choice before you.
Agent J, I’ve heard this all over and there is a case that this was worse politically for Democrats. But that amounts to sophistry. The right thing to do was to gather evidence seriously and recommend indictment. It’s not up to Jim Comey to decide for the jury. The damage this does to several of our government institutions is real and palpable. I figured Comey would recommend a token misdemeanor charge of some sort, which honestly would have probably been the best out for Dems – Hillary would have announced her no contest plea in a heartfelt “I don’t agree with the charge, but I think we all need to move on” press conference, paid her fine, maybe done some community service that the media would have slurped up like the lapdogs they are. At least he threw out the pretense along with the case.
That said, I find it hard to believe that a single news conference looks worse politically for Hillary than a protracted felony trial with discovery, witnesses, and cross examinations. Especially in light of how the media prepped this announcement with some manufactured Star of David “controversy” – Trump could literally recite Comey’s presser verbatim 3 times a night for the rest of the campaign and the apparatchiks will make sure no one hears it. The media would have been pretty much forced to at least admit the trial was going on and report on a few details, and those details would not be coming from the mouth of Donald Trump. As for Warren and Biden, they would not be auto-elects at this point. The Dem bench is pathetic, and both candidates have treasure troves of gaffes and far-left policy histories. It would take them at least a month or two to get funded and running at full speed, with Bernie and Trump taking shots the whole time. And that’s assuming Hillary gave up and returned the war chest to the donors immediately.
Word on the street is the FBI is about to indict a politician, but I can’t find stories on who. Whoever they are, they must not have the affluence of Hillary Clinton.