Speaker Ryan: FBI’s Announcement ‘Defies Explanation’
“No one should be above the law.”
Despite describing Hillary’s email debacle as “completely careless,” the FBI announced earlier today it would not recommend prosecution. Professor Jacobson covered the decision in more detail here.
Surprising? Not really. Maddening? Hell yes it is.
Responses across the political spectrum are trickling in and Speaker Ryan minced no words, rejecting Clinton’s “pattern of dishonesty and poor judgement”:
“While I respect the law enforcement professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation. No one should be above the law. But based upon the director’s own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law. Declining to prosecute Secretary Clinton for recklessly mishandling and transmitting national security information will set a terrible precedent. The findings of this investigation also make clear that Secretary Clinton misled the American people when she was confronted with her criminal actions. While we need more information about how the Bureau came to this recommendation, the American people will reject this troubling pattern of dishonesty and poor judgment.”
He tweeted his official response as well.
While I respect the professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation. No one should be above the law. pic.twitter.com/OqctxglquI
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) July 5, 2016
No one should be above the law… unless they’re a privileged member of the upper echelon of political bureaucracy, then to hell with the law. And the political elites are baffled by the latest global populist uprising…
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Comments
Looks like the Democratic Party owns the FBI also. Every pundit that said it was an honest institution was living in the past.
Someone dig up Richard Nixon and apologize. He was just ahead of his time.
Pretty much how I see things.
http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/07/04/you-owe-them-nothing–not-respect-not-loyalty-not-obedience-n2186865
Kurt Schlichter
Posted: Jul 04, 2016 12:01 AM
People assumed that the law mattered, that the same rules applied to everyone. That duly enacted laws would be enforced equally until repealed. That the Constitution set the foundation and that its guarantees would be honored even if we disliked the result in a particular case. But that’s not our country today.
The idea of the rule of law today is a lie. There is no law. There is no justice. There are only lies.
Hillary Clinton is manifestly guilty of multiple felonies. Her fans deny it half-heartedly, but mostly out of habit – in the end, it’s fine with them if she’s a felon. They don’t care. It’s just some law. What’s the big deal? It doesn’t matter that anyone else would be in jail right now for doing a fraction of what she did. But the law is not important. Justice is not important.
Full opinion at link.
this, from the spineless GOPe POS who rolls over and plays dead for Obola at the drop of a hat?
STFU and go away: talk is cheap, and that’s all yer gonna do.
Seems to have derailed him from calling Trump anti-Semitic because of a star, for a few minutes.
Spit on Ryan. He’s an Anti American SOB, just like comey and the rest of the uniparty.
Actually, it doesn’t defy explanation at all. The FBI was told in no uncertain terms to not recommend prosecution. Or else.
Well, as someone else pointed out, today is the day that rule of law in America breathed its last.
I should have added that the FBI report itself contains all the evidence needed to indict and convict.
Question: the FBI does not recommend prosecution. Can she be prosecuted anyway, by a genuinely “reasonable” prosecutor?
Is it too early to impeach?
Yes, but where would that prosecutor get the authority? Prosecutors work for the president (via the DOJ) and are subject to his orders. They have no independent authority to do anything. That’s explicitly in the constitution: “The executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States”.
Good news: if she’s not pardoned, and doesn’t end up being president, the next president can have her prosecuted.
Yes, it hardly “defies explanation.” As Obama’s mentor and ghostwriter Bill Ayers explained years ago, in a slightly different (but no less infuriating) context, “guilty as sin, free as a bird.”
Do those idiot leftists really understand what happens when the rule of law breaks down?
When the ruling class has no legal accountability for their actions, the “little people” take notice and it generally doesn’t end well for anyone.
Many who supported the French Revolution did not see phase two where the utility of the useful idiots was now zero. The current crop of leftists/useful idiots are clueless to the suspension of the rule of law.
I almost posted a question making essentially the same point to the FBI’s Facebook page, but decided I didn’t want them to get the wrong impression and pay me a visit.
But the point still stands — once the public has lost faith that the system can be relied upon to (usually) uphold the laws, they start take it upon themselves to do that personally, and it ain’t pretty.
Damn! Why didn’t I buy a gun store when I had the chance?
No they also don’t understand that if they ever really get what they want they will be some of the first ones to feel the wrath of their new government because the powers that be will realize that they can do the same thing to them.
They need to call it the DDOJ, Democrat Department of Justice and the DBI, Democrat Bureau of Investigation.
Oh there’s an explanation alright. Comey valued his life too much.
Perhaps he was simply paid off. I believe the traditional amount is thirty pieces of silver.
Let them eat cake
“Let them eat Sh#t.”
Hillary Clinton
According to this logic, Al Capone should not have been put in jail as he did not intend to default on his income tax. Also, Petreaus (or however you spell it) should be apologized to and his crime reversed. There is no rule of law in the US.
Yes. Intensions matter. Behavior does not matter. Facts do not matter. We have “Hate” crimes “Gun control” laws.
And, what do we say when our grandchildren as why?
So. What is in the power of Congress at this point?
Laughable.
The republicans in congress got the outcome they desired.
Never listen to what they say, always watch what they do.
The GOPe will do nothing but make some Eunuch noises. They have no souls (they have been sold).
a) What will the remaining honest FBI agents do now?
b) What will the general LE community in the USA do now?
c) What will the citizens do now?
I think this is what is known as an inflection point where a decision is not optional. And, the timing coincides with the EU push for a “united” Europe with a single army. This is serious.
Actually you may be wrong, they will start complaining about Trump and getting in his way.
Let’s continue the trend and vote their asses out.
“No one should be above the law. But based upon the director’s own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law.”
Should? Appears? Could we make a weaker statement?
He tried but was afraid to completely drive away the remaining donors.
2+2=5 Director Comey loves Big Sister
http://mskochin.blogspot.co.il/2016/07/225-director-comey-loves-big-sister.html
How about state laws that require elected party convention delegates to cast their vote for the candidate they were elected to represent? Will Ryan give a wink and a nod to efforts to overturn those state laws? Are the GOP elites “above the law”?
Laws can be changed. If the laws to which you’re referring are overturned by the States, they no longer apply.
Now, IMO if they are changed, the new laws shouldn’t be in effect until the next cycle… but you seem to be talking apples and oranges.
Any such laws are unconstitutional. And in any case, if the state is not Ohio, its laws don’t apply in Cleveland.
This announcement does not defy explanation. This announcement carefully lays out the facts that show that the announcement was not based on the facts or law, but something else.
Translation: “I have been told not to recommend prosecution for this offense. This is me, waving a big, red BS flag, HALP!”
FBI opinion offered, GOPe tsk tsk response given, time to get back to ragging on Trump
The most charitable interpretation is that Bill offered JD a deal in which Hillary withdraws for health reasons.
How can anyone be so mealy mouthed? To say you respect the FBI after this outrageous statement by Comey is ridiculous on it’s face.
Comey has spit in the eye of every honest agent and LEO that has had to enforce the law no matter who the perpetrator.
He even admits in his statement that anyone else would get charged. How does anyone square that other than the government no longer is held accountable by the law.
They now are above the law if they can manage it politically.
The FBI might as well close the doors and go home because their years of integrity just got flushed down the toilet and they pushed the handle themselves.
They have criminalized the innocent and absolved the guilty all in the name of expedience.
We truly are a 3rd world country now.
Huh? If by “he” you mean Comey, he explicitly claimed the opposite, that nobody else would get charged. Which is BS, because the press have already found similar cases where the person was charged, but that is what Comey said.
“Intent” as used here, is proven every day in courts across the land by inference, which is totally within a jury’s purview to use.
In other words, every day across America, juries use “circumstantial evidence” to find the people intended to do what they did do.
You’ll almost never find a case of fraud, for instance, where you find one of the fraudsters saying in any kind of communication, “We are defrauding so-and-so”. But you can easily infer the intent of the actors by what they DO.
So what are you going to do about it?
The collective sanity and cajones left of this country can’t even defend the girls dressing room from these people, let alone take down a pair of career criminals like the Clintons.
He exerts more energy attacking Trump than tsk, tsking this whitewashing of a career liar and criminal.
Paul Ryan is the most worthless turd in the toilet known as D.C..
Latest Wisconsin poll. Nehlen 47% Ryan 41%
Every time I see that widows peak it piss’s me off.
http://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2016/05/08/dear-people-who-hate-paul-ryan-the-poll-with-paul-nehlen-up-48-41-is-from-prntly/
Some people will believe anything…
Ok P-rags, Aka Patterico. For the sake of the discussion I’ll concede your point.
I’ll also note your reference is full of Uniparty, establishment, statist sourcing. Which confirms where you’re coming from. I get it, you like Paul Ryan. You take his side every time it involves “T-rump.” That’s where all of you from southern California are coming from.
Nope, you poor, crazy, lying SOS. I just won’t let you post bullshit here without some reality pushing you back.
I like reality. You can’t stand it!!!
Comey just tanked a long and otherwise reputable career. He used words that I understand meet the legal definition for her to be charged with a felony (regarding her negligence) but said there was not enough “evidence.” So why use those words?
Expect the media to go into full court press to try and remedy her tanking “trustworthy” numbers as this will do them no good. It started already with Politico.
The law relating to the classified data does not take into account intent.
Absolutely true.
The one to which Comey REFERRED certainly DOES. The one he DID NOT MENTION, but which Andy McCarthy DOES MENTION, does NOT.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/437479/fbi-rewrites-federal-law-let-hillary-hook
Comey just handed this case over to the next Administration.
Signed, sealed and delivered with a kiss.
He just made a perfect exit while leaving every possible avenue of prosecution wide open, while wresting the likelihood of a lackluster prosecution under the current Administration away from them.
And, we have a clean slate with no previous actions to overcome.
How so you see that? Lynch will announce next week that after careful review there will be no charges filed and that will be the end of it.
Barry will pardon her, along with every other criminal in his administration.
She can be pardoned for what?
Is there such a thing as a blanket pardon?
Think…Ford/Nixon
Could Ryan’s statement be any more mealy-mouthed?
Clinton “misled the American people”? No, Hillary Clinton LIED to the American people. Knowingly. Deliberately. Repeatedly.
If Ryan had been around during the Revolution, he probably would have said Benedict Arnold “wasn’t entirely truthful” about his plans to surrender West Point to the British.
If Ryan was around during the Revolution, he would have either been helping Arnold, or in the British Parliament funding the payoff they made to Arnold.
Now that the FBI/DoJ will no longer investigate and we all realize the power of crony culture, it’s very simple: this election is about whether we’ll have a buffoon for a president (that being Trump), or an Empress (that being Hillary).
Hillary is now above the law: if elected not only will she be our first female president, she’ll be our last president. Hillary will move, Caesar Augustus style, to gut the government and the law. Oh, it’ll still be there in form, much as the Romans still elected counsels and tribunes and still had a Senate, but it will be a hollow shell. Hillary will be Empress. She’ll either hand it off in the end to Chelsea (there’s a thought) or, like Roman emperors did, she’ll “adopt” her heir. But either way, we’ll be a one-ruler state. We’ll have a “Constitution” but like Star Trek’s ‘Prime Directive’, the only time we’ll pay attention to it is when we’re violating it. The Empress will do whatever she wants to do.
The current “elites” will let this happen. The Democrats will certainly not object as many of them plan to benefit. The elite Pubs in Washington will wring their hands most earnestly and then decide to go along (the horse’s head on their bed will be a useful reminder to the more recalcitrant). The media is already in Hillary’s pocket, and she has, of course, Goldman Sachs.
That’s where we’re headed if Hillary wins in November.
I’ve been told that I’m just being dramatic. I’d like to think I’m wrong about all this but I don’t think so.
The FBI director basically said she did everything she was accused of, but she really didn’t mean to so no charges should be filed, lol. So I guess ignorance of the law is a defense if your last name is Clinton.
Ryan, go back to sleep.
It would benefit everyone if the FBI refocused on vehicle traffic direction. Every time a red light stops traffic when there is no other vehicle in the intersection or a vehicle pulls up to the intersection and turned right but ticked the light to turn it wastes fuel and contributes to global warming.
Post an FBI agent at every intersection and have a human control traffic according to the needs of the traffic instead of some blind computer program.
We need to find something useful for all those FBI agents to do and this would contribute to both the environment and traffic control. If they run short of staff they could always use Republicans in the Senate and the House to help.
Give them all bright orange vests and let’s see if we can get some use out of them.
http://patterico.com/2016/07/05/fbi-director-comey-to-exonerate-hillary-this-morning/
Patterico (who I am not) called it early this morning…
BTW, he’s ALSO a principled constitutional conservative and won’t vote for either stinking, lying, pathological Collectivist thug.
I’m starting to believe Milksops is the brains in your tag-team.
Don’t throw your shoulder out patting yourself on the back Mr. Assistant Prosecutor, government employee!
You poor, stupid, crazy, lying SOS. I’m nothing you hallucinate about.
Though you’re attempting to restart this old Edsel, I don’t have to participate if I so choose.
Frankly you’re boring, tedious & not that smart.
I think by November that Hillary will have made you so fearful and ill that you’ll secretly vote for Trump, warts and all.
BTW, I’d like to steal “You poor, stupid, crazy, lying SOS” and use moving forward in every post I make in some other blogs. I hope that is okay.
With attribution, of course.
Sure, so long as you ALSO include that Der Donald is a stinking, lying, pathological Collectivist thug.
Which nobody can really refute. Because it’s apparent he is.
And it’s also apparent you’ll support this poor tax rebel who broke his life on a lie, and is telling more of them here with your approval.
Ryan will win, and it doesn’t matter one whit whether I like him or not. His district does.
Rags is a wife beater.
“Which nobody can really refute. Because it’s apparent he is.”
This is why every agency in government is arming to the teeth. They are afraid their shenanigans will get called out eventually.
This is clearly a coup on the American rule of law by an outlaw gang.
Up at brightbart …. Clinton can be bagged for perjury …. She testified in front of congress under oath that she turned over all work related emails …. The FBI found thousands she didn’t turn over
I don’t believe she testified under oath. She would never have agreed to that.
We are so screwed…
When the rule of law means nothing, justice will be served from the barrel of a gun. The progs will come to rue this day.
If I’m not already on a list somewhere, giving your comment and “up” vote will likely land me on one.
So we have the Sandy Burger defense once again.
Sloppy, careless……..don’t you know.
I do like that. I’ll try it sometime.
Of course, I’ll have to pretend that I’m a Liberal for it to actually work…
Ryan has no credibility, unless he pushes the House to prosecute Clintons wife for perjury, all he is doing is trying to placate his base. The base he has already lost. Maybe he can attack Trump again, thats always helpful.
The Republicans are too arrogantly stupid to realize they’ll be taken the heat and blame for this – because they’ve essentially been a do-nothing party in stopping any of Obama’s overreach and the lawlessness of this administration and all departments, including the writing of law by the Supreme Court. They ensured that by confirming leftists nominees to the Court.
So, Ryan can put on his pretend scowl face and act like he is fuming or annoyed, but it means absolutely nothing. All playacting – which is exactly what the GOP-Uniparty in DC has been doing for decades.
Having read the FBI report, it appears to boil down to,”Hillary Clinton is an incompetent twit who was too stupid to realize that what she was doing was wrong; furthermore, even when shown the error of her ways, she remained an incompetent twit, too stupid to figure out how to make it right.” What a ringing endorsement.
Or have I read a different report than her apologists have read ?
Sadly all I can say, as a foreign spectator of the American scene, is that Obama did promise to Change America.
America that once was looked upon as an example to be followed by those seeking freedom now appears to be entering the realm of a kakistocracy.*
*For those who don’t know this word means Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.
Get ready for a tidal wave of appeals, from everyone convicted of similar offenses.
Comey just gave everyone a “get-out-of-jail-free” card for espionage/national security convictions.
The “Rule Of Law” is dead.
Back to “Wild West” it seems …