Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has made several important mistakes in the last few months regarding the Hillary Clinton email server case that the FBI has been working — and is still working.
Unfortunately, his mistakes may have an impact on the election of the new president of the United States.
First of all, James Comey never should have publicly spoken before television cameras about the findings in the FBI case investigating Clinton’s email server. All of the evidence that was found in the course of the FBI investigation should have been provided only to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the United States Attorney General.
Comey should also never have even thought about publicly stating an opinion about the criminality or lack thereof of Hillary Clinton’s actions or the actions of any others in the State Department with regard to email practices.
Why?
It is the job of the FBI to investigate. That means it is the job of the FBI to talk to people and gather physical evidence and compile facts. It is then the job of the FBI to provide information on federal-level cases it is working to the DOJ.
Separately, it is the job of the DOJ and the Attorney General to examine the evidence that has been found during the FBI investigation and determine whether or not any laws have been broken, or bent. The United States government structure has been specifically set up this way: The FBI investigates, and the DOJ determines whether or not there is any criminality. (Yes, the FBI does sit within the DOJ, so technically, the Attorney General/DOJ manages the FBI.)
With regard to ongoing investigations, such as the Clinton email server case, the case has not been reopened, because it has never been closed. It is still an ongoing investigation, open to any new evidence that may be found.
Comey shared information publicly in July with the DOJ and Congress and the American people about an ongoing investigation and through that communication he very clearly indicated that the FBI’s work in the case at that point had reached completion. However, the case was not closed and his comments and opinions regarding an ongoing investigation should never have been made publicly.
The reason no one who is working in investigation normally ever comments publicly on an ongoing investigation is because new information may surface that renders anything said publicly incorrect or incomplete.
Once the case is no longer open to new information it is then — and only then — appropriate to share the results of the investigation.
Comey has said recently that because he shared information in July with Congress about the FBI findings in the investigation, and because new information (emails from another device) surfaced recently as a result of the Anthony Weiner sexting investigation, he felt it necessary to write this letter to Congress members about the new email messages.
Comey made a huge mistake in July — and he compounded that mistake by making the same mistake AGAIN on Oct. 28.
In his letter he explained that the email messages found recently on a device related to another investigation may or may not be significant, and he explained that the FBI had not yet examined the contents of the email messages that were found on another device.
Comey should have kept his mouth shut and never said anything to Congress or to the general public the emails found on Weiner’s computer in October because he had nothing substantive to say. The emails have not been examined; it is not yet known who wrote the emails, who the recipients were, what the content of the emails is, or whether or not these emails are duplicates of emails that the FBI has already reviewed. It is also not known if there is any classified information in the emails on the Weiner computer, or if any of those emails have already been examined by the FBI when they were turned over from Clinton’s server.
On Oct. 30, it was reported by The Washington Post that the FBI had not yet obtained a warrant to investigate or read the emails with regard to the Clinton email server case, since they were obtained/found as part of the Weiner investigation.
On Sunday it was also reported by the Post that several FBI staffers knew of the existence of these emails for weeks before these staff members informed Comey. This news — of delay and secrecy by members of the FBI — is a major problem.
As Comey said in his letter, it is not known whether there is anything of significance contained in these newly located email messages.
Bottom Line: Comey should not have said anything publicly or even to the DOJ until all of the questions around these emails have been answered.
Unfortunately, and this is where the impact on the election comes in, most people will not hear all of these details about what is not known about the email messages that were found recently.
What the American people will hear is “new emails found — Clinton — FBI” and they will assume that something bad has been uncovered, and that Hillary Clinton did something illegal, when in fact nothing new may have been uncovered and it may be good news, bad news, or neutral for Clinton.
We know very little, almost nothing, about the newly located email messages.
But here’s something that we do know: So little is known about these email messages that announcing their existence — and nothing more — amounts to nothing more than a partisan and political move intended to impact the presidential election.