The Hillary Clinton email scandal has been kicking around since March 2015.
There has been a drip, drip, drip of inconsistencies in her story and justifications for creating a shadow electronic government controlled by Hillary and her operatives. The slow flow of identification of classified information on emails, including those sent by her, now has become a flood.
The FBI probe, so frequently dismissed by Hillary as a non-event and nothing to worry about, now has become worrisome.
The FBI appears to be rolling up her underlings, including her key technical consultant who was hired by the State Department as a political appointee. And interviews are underway or soon to be underway with key Hillary associates.
Now David Shuster, formerly of MSNBC now with al-Jazeera America (please hold off on the “what’s the difference” jokes), reports that Hillary will be interviewed.
Contrary to some reports, Shuster does not claim that FBI Director Comey himself will conduct the interview.
(Transcript via Mediaite)
While Hillary Clinton fights for the Democratic presidential nomination, law enforcement officials tell Al Jazeera America the Federal Investigation into her personal email system while she was Secretary of State has reached a critical stage.The FBI, led by Director James Comey, has now finished examining Clinton’s private emails and home server. And the sources add that Comey’s FBI team has been joined by the Justice Department prosecutors. Together, they are now examining the evidence, analyzing relevant laws, and attempting to arrange interviews with key figures in the investigation.Those interviews, according to attorneys, will include former State Department aides Philippe Reines, Former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Clinton herself.Soon after those interviews — in the next few days and weeks — officials expect Director Comey to make his recommendation to Attorney General Loretta Lynch about potential criminal charges.
NBC News reports that 12 FBI agents are on the case, though I’ve seen higher estimates elsewhere:
Sources close to the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email are knocking down suggestions that 147 federal agents are working on the case, a figure first reported — and now revised — by the Washington Post, citing a lawmaker.The Post updated the figure on Tuesday, stating that while the “FBI will not provide an exact figure,” there are “fewer than 50″ FBI personnel involved in the case.But a former federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the Clinton investigation tells MSNBC an estimate anywhere near 50 agents is also off base.”There are currently about 12 FBI agents working full-time on the case,” says the source, who would only speak anonymously about an open investigation.
The popular wisdom is that only an indictment of Hillary could take her candidacy down. I’ve long argued that an FBI criminal referral would be enough.
Will Democrats really run a candidate who is facing indictment, or has an indictment quashed by DOJ which will appear to be a political choice? I don’t think so, because of the logic of an author expressed in HuffPo by a Bernie supporter (and also Salon):
When federal prosecutors are interviewing your candidate for president, even Donald Trump has a good chance at the White House….It’s time for Democrats to deal with reality, not just allegiance to a political icon, and rally around the only candidate not linked to an FBI investigation, and other controversies.
Hillary is on the edge of a political cliff – the only issue is whether the FBI will push her over it.
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