MOTHER Fer!

[boston bean]

How a dubious Russian document influenced the FBI’s handling of the Clinton probe

A secret document that officials say played a key role in then-FBI Director James B. Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation has long been viewed within the FBI as unreliable and possibly a fake, according to people familiar with its contents.

In the midst of the 2016 presidential primary season, the FBI received what was described as a Russian intelligence document claiming a tacit understanding between the Clinton campaign and the Justice Department over the inquiry into whether she intentionally revealed classified information through her use of a private email server.

The Russian document cited a supposed email describing how then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch had privately assured someone in the Clinton campaign that the email investigation would not push too deeply into the matter. If true, the revelation of such an understanding would have undermined the integrity of the FBI’s investigation.

Current and former officials have said that Comey relied on the document in making his July decision to announce on his own, without Justice Department involvement, that the investigation was over. That public announcement — in which he criticized Clinton and made extensive comments about the evidence — set in motion a chain of other FBI moves that Democrats now say helped Trump win the presidential election.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-a-dubious-russian-document-influenced-the-fbis-handling-of-the-clinton-probe/2017/05/24/f375c07c-3a95-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?utm_term=.9714cce12e2c

I want Trump to fire Pence, and be forced to name Hillary as VP, and then to resign himself, so as to avoid a constitutional crisis. Hillary Rodham Clinton is our rightful President and we better start vehemently stating so!! RUSSIA DID MANIPULATE, INFILTRATE, AND SWAY OUR ELECTION!

[Wellstone ruled]

1. This is a whole new

paradigm we have entered today. Comey and Company got duped big time. Mr Obama asked for funding to increase Tech Security,but,Ryan and McConnell killed that idea. Can you imagine the hard feelings now in the House and Senate.

[spanone]

2. K&R...

[NightWatcher]

3. Threaten to jail trump and see if he'd install Hillary if she promised to pardon him (for the good..

..of the country).

I'd like to see the idea get some traction.

[onetexan]

12. I like the idea

How do we get traction for this?

[NightWatcher]

13. Just keep repeating it in as many places as you can.

[boston bean]

4. Kick, this makes me so ANGRY!!!!!!!!

[Ilsa]

5. They should have known that the FSB was

capable of creating fake memos and kompromat. I mean, they KNOW it, but didn't stop to consider that what they were looking at was garbage. They assumed the worst of LL, DWS, and HRC.

[DK504]

6. Un-f'ing-believeable

Comey thought a report like this was 100% valid & reliable? WTF? He couldn't be bothered to go to the AG and maybe spitball on the veracity of the "report". Who the FUCKKKKKK allowed this to happen. It's time to bring them up on charges....I don't care if it's jaywalking...just fucking get these traitors on something!!!!!!

[BigmanPigman]

7. Former DNC chair said a memo/email was fake and she doesn't know if it influenced Comey.

[Honeycombe8]

9. +1. nt

[csziggy]

10. She also said no one from the FBI ever asked about the memo/email

And that she did not know one person in it, not even the person it was addressed to.

So Comey and the FBI accepted the thing as valid without doing even basic checking on it. I've been almost ready to cut Comey some slack but not after this. He fucked up big time.

[Honeycombe8]

8. I'm not buying this yet. The FBI has NOT said that email had anything to do with Comey's press conf.

And Comey has not said that it did.

In fact, I don't see in what way that it would have. What he did was the OPPOSITE of what that email would have caused him to do.

[deurbano]

11. What opposite thing did he do?

[Honeycombe8]

16. The supposedly Russian email.....

The email says that AG Lynch assured Clinton that she'd make sure the FBI investigation into the email thing would go nowhere.

The argument being made is that Comey gave the press conference to show that the FBI is independent, and that Lynch was unable to "fix" the investigation.

Comey gives a press conference, stating that Clinton is cleared in the email investigation. Just the opposite of the argument being made.

(The argument being made is NOT that Comey fixed the investigation. It's that he went the extra mile to show that the FBI did NOT fix it. But his decision was in accordance with the email. In short, it seems likely that Comey didn't pay attention to the substance of that email or give it any weight.)

[deurbano]

18. The only way to show FBI independence would have been to charge Clinton with

a crime she didn't commit? The press conference, itself, and the opinions Comey expressed in that press conference, were designed to demonstrate the "independence" of the FBI. (And 45 is right about Comey's penchant for showboating, so that was probably an equally compelling motivation.) It was an unprecedented move, and especially inappropriate and ill advised during the final days of a presidential election. And he smeared her so much before "clearing" her that some thought he was going to recommend charges.

https://theintercept.com/2016/07/05/fbi-director-comey-preempts-justice-department-by-advising-no-charges-for-hillary-clinton/

<<But Matthew Miller, who was a spokesperson for the Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder, called Comey’s press conference “absolutely unprecedented, appalling, and a flagrant violation of Justice Department regulations.” He told The Intercept: “The thing that’s so damaging about this is that the Department of Justice is supposed to reach conclusions and put them in court filings. There’s a certain amount of due process there.”

Legal experts could not recall another time that the FBI had made its recommendation so publicly.

“It’s not unusual for the FBI to take a strong position on whether charges should be brought in a case,” said University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck. “The unusual part is publicizing it.”>>

Why did Comey have a press conference at all? And it's not really fair to those being investigated to smear them in the court of public opinion even while saying they have committed no crime. That was the point of the investigation: Was a crime committed?

More on Comey:
http://www.salon.com/2016/10/31/so-much-for-the-upstanding-james-comey-the-fbi-directors-long-career-as-preening-partisan-hack/

[Honeycombe8]

20. Exactly. Anything less....

Anything less than recommending some charge (the FBI doesn't charge anyone w/anything; it merely recommends) is doing what the email suggested was being done: Doing what Lynch had persuaded the FBI to do, which is to see that the Clinton email investigation didn't go anywhere. The CHARGE is that Comey was going overboard in PROVING that he was NOT doing what the email says. But what he did was actually in accordance with the substance of the email.

So it doesn't make sense to say that the press conf. shows that the FBI was hell bent on proving it wasn't influenced by the email. It does just the opposite.

1. Secret, unleaked hacker email in FBI possession says that the story is that AG told Clinton that she'd make sure the email investigation didn't go anywhere.
2. When email is discovered by those outside FBI, it is claimed that FBI's determination & press conference shows that it went overboard to prove that it was NOT influenced by that email.
3. FBI's determination is in accordance with the substance of the email.
4. FBI gives a press conference to state that it is ending the email investigation and finds that there is nothing criminal there.

So the FBI's determination & actions actually supports the substance of the email. They don't support the notion that Comey went overboard to prove that the substance of the email was wrong.

I am not suggesting that the FBI acted on orders of the AG or anything of the sort. There is no evidence whatsoever that the FBI regarded the email as legitimate, or that its substance was true, or that it was acting on the orders of the AG or anyone else.

We just need to see what Comey and others have to say about this. Personally, I htink the FBI did its investigation using accepted practices and came to a conclusion (that jives with other conclusions for that sort of investigation).

[uponit7771]

15. Right, waiting on FBI feedback ... seems something sKrange here

[Perseus]

14. How did that document get in there?

Who got that document into the FBI if it came from the Russians? Do we know anything about that?

[EL34x4]

17. The President can't fire the Vice President.

Removing Pence is a much messier process.

[spanone]

19. the russians/trump won the election.