January 12, 2017

The Justice Department inspector general’s office has announced that they will investigate the decision by the FBI's James Comey to send a letter to Congress, informing them of a review of Clinton emails.

The NY Times writes:

Chief among those actions was the decision by Mr. Comey to write two letters on the email matter within 11 days of the election, creating a wave of damaging news stories about the controversy late in the campaign. In the end, the new emails that the F.B.I. reviewed — which came up during an unrelated inquiry into Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin – proved irrelevant.

Comey's actions have cost the reputation of the FBI decades of image building after the reign of J.Edgar Hoover and is the chief factor in Trump's win in November.

I'm surprised Trump hasn't elevated Comey's status in some capacity for his outrageous behavior ten days before the general election took place.

What Comey did was unconscionable in so many ways as Digby writes:

All we can say for sure right now is that this is a perfect illustration of the way Comey improperly inserted himself into the election. These scandalous rumors connecting Trump to the Russian government information are unproven and unverified, and the FBI director was right not to reveal this material prior to the election. He completely ignored that principle when it came to Clinton, and there can be no doubt that it made a difference in the outcome. The fact that Comey clearly knew at the time it was at least possible that Trump had been compromised by a foreign government makes his decision even more shameful.

James Downie writes this piece for the Washington Post: After the Trump dossier, James Comey is running out of excuses

But Comey’s behavior remains inexcusable. It is a shocking and disturbing double standard: staying silent on allegations against one candidate despite reams of new information, while reviving allegations against another candidate despite absolutely no new information. Doing so two weeks before Election Day compounds the terrible error. It is unlikely that a Trump administration will punish Comey for this mistake. History, however, will not judge him so kindly.

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