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How Comey Wound Up Dropping His Ambiguous Clinton Email Bomb
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Nov 3, 2016
Modified Nov 3, 2016
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Justin Sullivan/Getty
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Nov 3, 2016
Modified Nov 3, 2016
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Former Mayor of 9/11 Town and Current Mayor Of Loud Screaming Rudy Giuliani has not made for a very effective Trump surrogate, though he did blessedly elicit Jake Tapper's smokeshow death stare on multiple occasions. But it appears Giuliani has, in a way, managed to hand Trump's campaign a big gift—according to a new report by Wayne Barrett in the Daily Beast, his FBI connections pressured FBI director James Comey to authorize and announce the review of Hillary Clinton-related emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop. Now Clinton's lead has shrunk and the election hangs in the balance like a fucking fiery chad.
In the days leading up to Comey's explosive letter to Congress last Friday, Giuliani had been telling outlets that Trump had "a surprise or two" up his sleeve—which, obviously, turned out to be true. The Daily Beast sketched out Giuliani's FBI connections—he worked closely with the New York FBI office both as a U.S. Attorney and as NYC's mayor—and it was that very office that urged Comey to authorize the investigation into the hundreds of thousands of emails found on Weiner's shared laptop with Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Post-Comey letter, Giuliani told a radio program that both former and active FBI agents alerted him to some of the internal strife at the bureau—he also discussed that alleged strife back in August, citing FBI sources who wished to remain anonymous after bucking bureau guidelines. The July decision to close the investigation into Clinton's emails "embarrasses some FBI agents," he said back then.
Now here we are. Giuliani's not the only FBI connected-Trump supporter with a dubious hand in, or at least pre-knowledge of, the Comey letter—James Kallstrom, a former head of the New York FBI Office, is a major Trump supporter and has called Clinton a "pathological liar" and a member of a "crime family." He "predicted" that more about the Clinton emails would leak out in the days leading up to the election, and has touted active FBI agents who also circumvented bureau policy to hand information to a partisan (it's also noteworthy that in addition to being a vocal Trump supporter, Kallstrom is the founder of the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, to which Trump gave a million-dollar donation in the spring.)
Kallstrom told the Daily Beast he didn't know the names of the active agents involved in the Clinton case and hadn't communicated with them, though he'd made previous statements to the contrary. Though he slammed Comey in July, he's now supporting Comey, even though he claims "the FBI can’t say anything without having all the information," which Comey, in his letter to Congress, already did.
There's much, much more to dig into—Barrett, an award-winning investigative reporter, points out that though the FBI is allegedly nonpartisan, there's never been a Democrat FBI director, and most of the FBI's body is made up of white male Republicans:
Giuliani and Kallstrom claim that the agents revolting against Comey’s handling of Hillary Clinton were doing it because they want apoltical investigations, with all targets treated the same. But neither of them, much less FBI brass or agents, were publicly upset when the worst Justice Department scandal in modern history exploded in 2007, with Karl Rove, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and the Bush White House swamped by allegations that they’d tried to force out nine U.S. attorneys and replace them with “loyal Bushies,” as Gonzales’s chief of staff put it. Democratic officials, candidates and fundraisers were five times as likely to be prosecuted by Bush’s justice than Republicans.
So, there's that. As for that aforementioned internal FBI feud, the WSJ reports that FBI agents have been battling over whether or not to investigate the Clinton Foundation since February, and that it's possible that feud might be relevant to the investigation into Clinton's emails—more importantly, it seems battling agents were angry enough they might have leaked the new email development to the press before Comey announced the investigation, which would have made things even worse for the Clinton campaign.
Meanwhile, the Times points out that Comey only had bad options when it came to handling the new email search, and he took the best bad option available. It's not clear what he'll do if the FBI doesn't conclude the search by Election Day—and they probably won't. He's screwed no matter what, and maybe so are we.
Update 2:14 p.m.: A new piece in The Guardian reports that the FBI is so heavily anti-Clinton, one agent described the bureau as "Trumpland."
The agent told the publication that Clinton is considered "the antichrist personified;" more chillingly, "[T]he reason why they’re leaking is they’re pro-Trump."
Tagged
donald trump
election 2016
hillary clinton
rudy giuliani
who will come kill us
Rebecca Fishbein
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