The Subpoena That Rocked The Election Is Legal Garbage, Legal Experts Say

[deminks]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-subpoena-that-rocked-the-election-is-legal-garbage-attorney-say_us_58597cd9e4b03904470b0633

The warrant assumes that the mere existence of emails from or to Hillary Clinton is probable cause that a crime occurred.

The warrant connected to the FBI search that Hillary Clinton says cost her the election shouldn’t have been granted, three of the nation’s top legal experts, who reviewed the document released on Tuesday, told The Huffington Post.

FBI Director James Comey shook up the presidential race 11 days before the election by telling Congress the agency had discovered new evidence in its previously closed investigation into the email habits of Clinton, who was significantly ahead in the polls at the time.

When Comey made the announcement, the bureau did not have a warrant to search a laptop that agents believed might contain evidence of criminal activity. The FBI set out to rectify that two days later, on October 30th, when agents applied for a warrant to search the laptop, which was already in the FBI’s possession. The FBI had seized the computer as part of an investigation into former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Clinton’s lead in the polls shrank in the wake of the announcement. Then, just days ahead of election, the FBI announced its search was complete, and it had found no evidence of criminal activity. Clinton officials believe that second announcement damaged her as much as, or more than, the first, by enraging Trump supporters who believed the fix was in.

(end snip)

[Captain1way]

1. This isn't on Comey, or the FBI

The squarely lands on the crooked judge that approved the warrant, we are going to need his name

[PoliticAverse]

4. The name of the judge that approved the warrant is on the warrant. n/t

[Captain1way]

6. Then he needs to be held accountable

America has a bad bad habit of hoping people are held accountable, and then just shrugging their shoulders when they are let off the hook

In my opinion, justice should be served, no matter who has to serve it, if the courts are crooked and cover it up, I feel justice should still be served

[uponit7771]

20. +1, or he needs to let us know why he approved it in the first place

[Hortensis]

5. What?! FBI requesting agents aren't responsible

for their own actions?

Btw, we are ALSO going to need the redacted names of the FBI agents involved in this search warrant request.

[Captain1way]

10. Well, their action was ...

Simply requesting a warrant
The judge is the one who approved it

If somebody runs a stop sign, I can ask the judge to issue the death penalty to them, but that doesn't mean that my radical request is illegal, it just means it's radical

Now if the judge approves my radical request, it is squarely on the judge

[Hortensis]

13. Captain, these guys are suspected of plotting subversion

of our election. Very strongly suspected. Experts already suspected the subpoena was requested so that Comey could issue that letter to Congress, and it seems the wording of the request itself supports that, as was believed it would.

[Ilsa]

19. Requesting a radical ruling that you know isn't

supported by evidence was professional misconduct on the part of Comey and his goons. They had motive and means to ruin her candidacy and they took it. Comey absolutely knows better. The fact that he got a judge's permission to ruin her doesn't negate his absolute guilt in damaging the democratic process, IMO.

[Hortensis]

29. Absolutely.

[uponit7771]

40. +1

[rockfordfile]

31. Nobody gets a pass

[napi21]

7. Not really. Comey went to the judge AFTER he botified Congress of his suspicions. If the judge

would have refused the warrant, the Pubs would have claimed the judge of being bribed by the Clinton's and the result would have been worse than it was. IMO it was all Comey & the FBI!

[rzemanfl]

17. Is "botified" what a bot does or is it just that the keys are next to each other? n/t

[napi21]

33. ;o) Naw. It's a new word! Haven't you heard it before? ;o) nt

[Hortensis]

30. That was a Manhattan judge also, almost certainly

very used to working with and friendly to the (as we now know, corrupt and out of control) local FBI branch. I have not checked this out, but I would be very surprised if the FBI didn't routinely get what they requested from this judge.

[rzemanfl]

38. I read it was a magistrate. n/t

[Hortensis]

45. That was a Manhattan magistrate also... :)

[prayin4rain]

9. The warrant allowed her name to be cleared. The problem is Comey making a big public

announcement before even attempting to find out if there was any issue.

[Coyotl]

14. So, explain the timeline then. The warrant is two days after the Comey letter.

[napi21]

36. Time line is:

Agents tell Comey they found some emails on Goofball's laptop that had Hillary's name in/on them. Comey decides he better check it out because he didn't want to upset Congress. He writes a memo to congress right away. Congress, of course HAD to make it PUBLIC! Comey decides he has to get a warrant because they'd be looking at things that weren't listed on the original warrant. FBI requests new warrant, gets it right away and rushes the investigation through. The FBI concludes Hillary is clean and he announces that tto the Congress & the Public.

[still_one]

27. Sure it is, he violated the hatch act

[pnwmom]

43. Not true. THINK. Comey dropped his first letter bomb 2 days before

the FBI even wrote this warrant. And Hillary's support immediately started to plummet.

Then two days before the election, Comey dropped his second bomb containing the words "criminal investigation." This bomb did nothing to mitigate the damage -- only reminded undecided voters why they were worried about Hillary.

Also, Giuliani was chortling about what he knew was going to happen even before Comey dropped his bomb, because his pals at the FBI had leaked to him.

This IS on Comey and the FBI.

[lancelyons]

47. Agreed this is on Comey but Dems seem powerless to do anything about it.

I agree Comey really hurt the democrats and it certainly was a shady under the table deal that probably had republican insider ties.

It was perfect timing for them and if all worked well, and they picked up the presidency, they could just pardon the FBi director if needed. But they would have the house, senate, presidency and supreme courts locked up for years.

Now democrats are butt hurt because they where played again by the dirty GOP. When will we learn.

Moving forward, Republicans also have a lock on fake news. A news channel dedicated to it. They are masters at making certain groups believe what they will even if not founded in factual truth. In fact they are so good at the fake news, they start making our own base of voters start believing false info.

As a result, a lady who spent most of her life helping families and kids and people while serving in public office became a villian, corrupt and lying all the time. This is how she came to be known through constant fake news and constant attack by Republicans.

Us democrats, we dont really believe in lying or cheatin or step on somebody to get ahead.

I guess this is a good thing but seems like good guys finish last in todays world.

[mfcorey1]

2. This has to be the dirtiest election in American History. The things that

have been revealed are mind boggling, and the things that have been covered up are just criminal.

[uponit7771]

21. Amen and Amen, that's bout what I posted this morning; even Twitler defenders say there's something

... wrong here.

They might say it didn't help twitler but they know somethings wrong

[pbmus]

3. Comrade Comey and Giuliani ...

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[Coyotl]

15. and Trump's private platoon of ex-FBI guys.

We need to know what the relationships are between Trump's goon squad and Comey/Giulliani.

[stopbush]

8. We can expect the MSM to ignore this story with the same intensity

that they pushed the lie 11 days before the election.

[Justice]

11. Comey wrote letter before applied for warrant so no, its on Comey and FBI

If magistrate judge had denied warrant, that would have sent shock waves. But the damage was done because Comey acted so badly. Maybe Comey should have sent letter and marked it classified.

[Raster]

18. let's not forget Rep. Jason Chaffetz, -R, Liar/Hypocrite, UT-...

...I'd like to know how he figures into these violations of The Hatch Act.

[uponit7771]

22. +1

[StevieM]

48. Excellent point. Chaffetz is a criminal. So he was right about illegal activity having taken place

in the HRC email server controversy. But he was the one who committed the crimes, not her.

[spanone]

12. K&R...

[Ace Rothstein]

16. The FBI shit was much more destructive to the campaign than anything Russia did.

The sad thing is that this isn't going to be investigated until we regain the Presidency or one of the houses of Congress. Hopefully at that point we don't play nice.

[uponit7771]

23. +1, and more measurable ... 538 has indicated the numbers fell after Comey

[Ilsa]

24. Can the head of the FBI be sued?

I'd love to see the Clintons take him for everything he's got.

[BigDemVoter]

25. WHY is Comey still employed?

[onecaliberal]

28. That is what I want to know

[lastlib]

34. because Der Orangefeuhrer would appoint someone worse.

Obama would never get a replacement installed (Exhibit A: Scalia Supreme Court seat), and if he did, Der Orangefeuhrer would can him and replace with one of his Gestapo goons, followed by Kristallnacht, etc...... You know how that ends.

[Kingofalldems]

26. The new right wing meme from the cave is--- it was the judges fault.

[uponit7771]

41. Yeap, even Twitler defenders know there's something really fucked up with what Comey did and don't..

... want it done to them.

Comey's ass should be in jail, there's no way his actions should be allowed either way

[Skittles]

32. so they were acting as operatives of the REPUBLICAN PARTY, and possibly PUTIN

and yet SHE was called CROOKED?

[lastlib]

35. It's called repuglican Hypocrisy.

[3catwoman3]

37. This whole thing is just so, so...

...soooooooooooooo very wrong in every possible way.

Bush v Gore was horrifying. The swiftboating of John Kerry was despicable.

The blatant stealing of this election defies description.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

39. I don't see how the warrant was illegal

The emails were found during another investigation, and just the fact that these emails were on Weiner's computer was against the law. That should be enough for a warrant.

What was wrong was leaking it to the press, thereby possibly affecting the outcome of the election. "That" was criminal, imo!

[uponit7771]

42. YES !!! That's what Comey can hide behind but he knew or should have known it would be leaked

... in the first place.

He knew it was akin to an announcement, fuck that.

Also, my understanding is 60 days out none of the agency heads are supposed to take action at all... announcements etc... there's no law regarding it but one could make the case of the aforementioned "knew or should have known".

The person who did the leaking is the true offender here, if there's a suspicion of a crime can this person hide behind first amendment?

Either way, this sets a horrible president ( ) where a person can tangibly affect an election with leaks from an agency head regarding a presidential candidate under investigation for something

[pnwmom]

44. The basis for the probable cause was extremely "thin."

They had no knowledge of the content of ANY of these emails, so they couldn't know that any of them being on Weiner's computer was "against the law."

All they knew was that there were some of Huma's emails, and that Huma worked for Hillary. And that no Huma/Hillary emails in the past were discovered to warrant criminal charges.

This was just another giant fishing expedition.

[ehrnst]

46. Was ashamed to see those on the left call for her to step down

and let the person who lost the Dem primaries take her place.