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James Comey Tag

Loretta Lynch's Department of Justice just can't seem to leave alone the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton for her private email server and its ramifications for national security.  The "tarmac summit" between Lynch and Bill Clinton was grossly improper, leading FBI agents to suggest the meeting was to broker "an inside deal."  And now we are learning that "senior Justice officials" warned the FBI against Comey updating Congress regarding an email stash found while investigating Hillary's top aide Huma Abedin's disgraced husband Anthony Weiner. The Washington Post reports:
Senior Justice Department officials warned the FBI that Director James B. Comey’s decision to notify Congress about renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was not consistent with long-standing practices of the department, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

Joy Reid and Kurt Eichenwald are a liberal-media hit team made in heaven—or somewhere else, depending on your perspective. Reid has the habit of rudely cutting off or correcting conservatives brave enough to venture onto her show. Eichenwald's MO is to laugh nastily in the face of conservatives with whom he disagrees. We've documented this before, as here, here and here, and it happened again this morning. On Reid's MSNBC show, AM Joy, when Trump surrogate Steve Cortes suggested that Hillary Clinton has jeopardized national security with her mishandling of emails, Reid shut him down: "you know better than that. I respect you too much to let you go on a rant that is full of unfactual information, sir." Reid then turned it over to Eichenwald to attack Cortes, saying "your witness," as if Cortes were fodder for cross-examination.

The FBI letter to Congress stating that it is reopening the investigation into her handling of classified information set off the expected reaction, documented in our prior post, Mother of all October Surprises – FBI reopening Hillary email case. Ed Morrissey suggested on Twitter that this might be another case Lucy (James Comey) pulling the football away from Charlie Brown (Hillary opponents) once again at the last minute. Hillary and Team Hillary are on the attack, demanding that Comey release everything he has on Hillary:

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) told The Washington Post that his committee has "years" of investigation material on Hillary Clinton, even after the presidential election:
“It’s a target-rich environment,” the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City’s suburbs. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.”

The Wall Street Journal has reported that a PAC associated with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a strong Hillary Clinton ally, handed over almost $500,000 to the 2015 state Senate campaign for Dr. Jill McCabe, wife of now FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. He later became involved with the FBI's investigation into Hillary's email:
Campaign finance records show Mr. McAuliffe’s political-action committee donated $467,500 to the 2015 state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe, who is married to Andrew McCabe, now the deputy director of the FBI.

In the midst of the furor over the Podesta email leaks, Politico finds itself in the middle of the media bias scandal many of the emails have revealed. In 2015 , Glenn Thrush, Politico’s chief White House correspondent, sent an article he was writing at the time to Podesta so that he could approve it. At least Thrush knew he was acting improperly for a supposed "journalist" and recognized himself as a "hack" while begging Podesta not to "share or tell anyone" he "did this." Fox News reports:
A Politico reporter called himself a “hack” when he asked Hillary Clinton’s top campaign aide John Podesta to look over sections of his unpublished report on the Democratic presidential candidate before publication, a recent email revealed by WikiLeaks shows. The May 2015 story, written by Glenn Thrush, Politico’s chief White House correspondent, was titled, “Hillary’s big-money dilemma.” The article focused on early difficulties Clinton's campaign would face to raise money during the 2016 White House run.

The decision by the FBI and the Department of Justice not to pursue charges against Hillary Clinton has thrown both federal agencies into a tailspin. James Comey and Loretta Lynch can spin all they want, but average people know they gave Hillary Clinton special treatment, including those average people who work beneath the directors. FOX News reports:
FBI, DOJ roiled by Comey, Lynch decision to let Clinton slide by on emails, says insider The decision to let Hillary Clinton off the hook for mishandling classified information has roiled the FBI and Department of Justice, with one person closely involved in the year-long probe telling FoxNews.com that career agents and attorneys on the case unanimously believed the Democratic presidential nominee should have been charged.

The State Department caused waves earlier today when it announced it would release the first batch of emails from Hillary Clinton that the FBI discovered AFTER the agents finished their investigation. Turns out its a bunch of almost nothing. On its website, the State Department published 75 emails consisting of 270 pages. The majority belong to previously published email chains, but the new additions are from Hillary asking her aides to print the chains.

As we are learning that the FBI files reveal "missing bankers' boxes filled with the former secretary of state’s emails.," veteran FBI agents are expressing their concern that Comey's approach to the Hillary case has "damaged the reputation" of the FBI due to his insistence that the agency politicize the investigation and its results. Fox News reports:
Buried in the 189 pages of heavily redacted FBI witness interviews from the Hillary Clinton email investigation are details of yet another mystery -- about two missing “bankers boxes” filled with the former secretary of state’s emails. The interviews released earlier this month, known as 302s, also reveal the serious allegation that senior State Department official Patrick Kennedy applied pressure to subordinates to change the classified email codes so they would be shielded from Congress and the public.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) provided a few documents to The Wall Street Journal that shows the White House worked with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign over her private email server when she served as secretary of state:
Their discussion included a request from the White House communications director to her counterpart at the State Department to see if it was possible to arrange for Secretary of State John Kerry to avoid questions during media appearances about Mrs. Clinton’s email arrangement. In another instance, a top State Department official assured an attorney for Mrs. Clinton that, contrary to media reports, a department official hadn’t told Congress that Mrs. Clinton erred in using a private email account.

The Republican National Committee has filed a complaint with the D.C. Bar against Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills due to her connections to Hillary's email scandal:
Ms. Mills – an attorney admitted to the D.C. Bar on October 30, 1991 – has been serving as Secretary Clinton’s attorney in connection to the email investigation. In this capacity, Ms. Mills was present during Secretary Clinton’s interview by F.B.I. agents in July 2016. The District of Columbia’s Rules of Professional Conduct strictly prohibit a lawyer from accepting employment in connection with a matter the lawyer “participated personally and substantially as a public officer or employee.” This is an “absolute disqualification” that “carries forward a policy of avoiding both actual impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.”

It. Never. Ends. Judicial Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch after the committee discovered that a few "side agreements" the FBI gave Hillary Clinton aides during its email investigation included destroying their laptops. Goodlatte asked for in camera reviews of these "side agreements" after the committee discovered them while reviewing the immunity agreements the DOJ gave to a few people, including aides Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson.

FBI Director James Comey has continued to face criticism over his bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's email, including the numerous immunity deals given to her aides. Well, it turns out, the FBI didn't give immunity to Cheryl Mills, a longtime aide:
"Who authorized granting Cheryl Mills immunity?" Rep. John Sensenbrenner asked. "It's a decision made by the Department of Justice, I don't know at what level inside," Comey responded. "In our investigations, any kind of immunity comes from the prosecutors, not the investigators."

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) revealed that the FBI gave Hillary Clinton aide Cheryl Mills immunity as they investigated her private email server.  This kind of news explains why the FBI recommended the DOJ not prosecute Hillary despite overwhelming evidence:
"No wonder they couldn't prosecute a case," Chaffetz said. "They were handing out immunity deals like candy."