November 6, 2016
The recent development and announcements made by FBI Director James Comey seems to have put the agency in the middle of a tough political campaign and sounds like FBI is taking sides which is not only against the law, but also against the fabric of what FBI stands for.
On Friday, October 28, 2016 unexpectedly, it was announced that the FBI Director has sent a letter to the leadership of both houses, not surprisingly all Republicans, advising them of new e/mails being found and being reviewed for possible violation by Secretary Hillary Clinton.
This announcement added new fuel to Mr. Trump’s campaign which was considered almost dead. The media grabbed the story and ran with it. What Director Comey has done is historical, never before has an FBI director stepped into the midst of political campaign like Director Comey. His conduct was so outrageous and illegal that many Republicans have condemned his action, that includes past FBI Directors as well as former Attorney Generals.
FBI Director reports to the Attorney General who is in charge of Department of Justice (DOJ). DOJ is the boss of FBI. FBI Director has no business to make public announcement of any kind without first going through DOJ. Furthermore, the announcement made by Director Comey was baseless and without merits. This is because he had not examined the e/mails and did not know the contents of any of the e/mails, but yet he made such an important announcement suggesting that Secretary Clinton was going to be investigated again.
Mr. Comey’s announcement had major impact on the campaign of both candidates. Mr. Trump received a bump in the polls and Secretary Clinton lost points in the polls. The irony is that Mr. Comey who had these e/mails in his possession for several weeks waited until one week before the election to make the announcements. Why didn’t he make this announcement few weeks earlier, one wonders?
Also isn’t the FBI supposed to investigate and make certain that there is some violation and crime committed before make any announcements? It has become quite clear that Mr. Comey’s move was political. This has become more apparent by what former Mayor of New York City, Mr. Rudy Giuliani said just on Wednesday before the Friday’s announcement. Mr. Giuliani told a FOX reporter that wait there is more surprise coming. He kept his statement vague enough, but two days later it become clear what he was referring to. One must ask questions how did Mr. Giuliani knew about FBI’s subsequent announcement, unless Mr. Giuliani was told about it in advance.
Then after one week of commotions, Director Comey sends another letter to the Congress announcing that these e/mails did not shed any lights and would not offer any new evidence and basically closed the investigation. But the damage has already been done to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign as two days before election this announcement could not do much good, especially when about 40 million people have already casted their votes by early voting and by mail ballots.
It is only fitting that Mr. Comey should be investigated for his clear violation of the law and the Hatch Act. Undoubtedly it would take much efforts and some time to undo the damage done by Director Comey. Mr. Comey has also show ungratefulness by trying to hurt the Democrats and trying to tip the balance of election in favor of the Republican candidate. Mr. Comey has forgotten that it was a democratic President who appointed him to his current position. Most likely Mr. Comey’s political aspiration and opportunity has been dashed away with his wishy-washy position on the e/mail. He has turned the Democrats against himself and Republicans have accused him of violating the law and even Mr. Trump would not be happy, as Mr. Comey’s recent announcement of finding nothing in the e/mails and concluding the case against Mrs. Clinton. Last week Mr. Trump was congratulating Mr. Comey and the FBI, but with the recent announcement, it would be very doubtful if Mr. Trump would say anything nice about Mr. Comey or the FBI.
There was a rumor going around that Mr. Comey could have a position in the Trump’s administration, but it seems with the latest announcement by Mr. Comey about the e/mails, that would be a wishful thinking.
