Let’s just say that ‘the bloom is off the rose’ when it
comes to FBI Director James B. Comey.
I’m
somewhat surprised by the Director’s conclusions regarding the Hillary Clinton email 'issue' (as she, Hillary, had previously and so accurately described, and as it turned out to
be, a “security review”); but I can’t say that I was particularly shocked. I’m sure Director Comey was under tremendous
pressure and his appearance at the podium, as he read from the teleprompter,
reflected that discomfort. This will not
go well with the public. This will not
go well with FBI Agents, current and past.
I think, however, I can explain to you what his possible motivation was,
which has little to do with the case findings or the actual evidence.
But, first, I’d like to discuss some of the specifics of his
statement. I watched on television most
of his remarks. I have read the
transcript several times.
Generally speaking, he gave Hillary Clinton a thorough ‘dressing
down’ for her handling of classified documents.
Also, included in his remarks, was the strong criticism of Hillary
Clinton’s State Department and that Agency’s lack of proper controls covering
classified documents. Unfortunately, the
FBI was unable to quantify the resulting harm to our National security; but the
potential appears to have been considerable.
For the FBI, particularly the Director of the FBI, to formally give a
public recommendation regarding prosecution as put forth to the U.S. Department of
Justice (the Attorney General officially considered to be his boss) is, to my
knowledge, unprecedented in the history of the FBI. Comey’s quote:
“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the
statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring
such a case.”
Prosecutive decisions have always been the assigned authority
of federal prosecutors within the U.S. Department of Justice. Said prosecutors make the decision as to
whether or not prosecution is appropriate based on the evidence provided by the
FBI; and they have a couple ways they can do that: If warranted, they can indict based on an ‘information,’
or they can present the evidence to a Federal Grand Jury to review the
evidence. Comey took it upon himself to circumvent that
long-standing process.
Yes, I understand that the Attorney General’s little chat
with Bill Clinton muddied the waters; but that didn’t require the process to be
‘bagged.’ (And, wasn’t that meeting on
the airplane just a little too convenient and cozy?) That said, the Attorney General’s Office
should have made the decision with (as Attorney General Lynch described it)
Justice Department “career prosecutors.”
Perhaps, Director Comey decided that the U.S. Department of Justice currently has
‘no reasonable prosecutors,’ so he had to, personally, save them the inconvenience
and potential embarrassment in wrongly evaluating a rather complex
investigation.
To be continued…
True Nelson
No comments:
Post a Comment