Category Archives: Attorney General
Integrity Beyond Question
Attorney General Loretta Lynch was caught red handed discussing grandkids with Bill Clinton. Bill’s wife, Hillary, was under investigation at the time for her secret email server. So the AG turned over her decision making authority in the caper to FBI Director James Comey.
When Comey decided not to prosecute, a Greek Chorus of Democrats sang his praises. But when he reopened the case, due to emails found on Carlos Danger’s laptop, they changed their tune.
Integrity Beyond Question
Harry Reid, having pronounced Comey’s integrity beyond question, questioned it by accusing him of violating the Hatch Act. At least he hasn’t accused Comey of not paying his taxes. Yet.
Tarmac Talk Could Influence Election Outcome
Jane Mayer, in the New Yorker, points out that FBI Director Comey broke with Justice Department tradition:
Attorney General Loretta Lynch expressed her preference that Comey follow the department’s longstanding practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations, and not taking any action that could influence the outcome of an election, but he said that he felt compelled to do otherwise.
Tarmac Talk
He might have felt compelled to do otherwise because the AG turned her authority in the case over to him:
Comey’s supporters argue that he had to act independently, and publicly, because Lynch had compromised herself by having an impromptu visit with Bill Clinton late in the investigation.”
Here’s Andrew McCarthy in NR on Comey’s tradition breaking behavior:
In effect, it became The Decision because Attorney General Loretta Lynch had disgraced herself by furtively meeting with Mrs. Clinton’s husband a few days before Comey announced his recommendation. Comey, therefore, gave Mrs. Clinton a twofer: an unheard-of public proclamation that she should not be indicted by the head of the investigative agency; and a means of taking Lynch off the hook, which allowed the decision against prosecution to be portrayed as a careful weighing of evidence rather than a corrupt deal cooked up in the back of a plane parked on a remote tarmac.
Taking Action
McCarthy says not taking action would also have influenced the election:
But of course, not taking action one would take but for the political timing is as political as it gets. To my mind, it is more political because the negatively affected candidate is denied any opportunity to rebut the law-enforcement action publicly.
Anyway Hillary created the mess so it’s her fault. At least that’s the way Rich Lowry, A. B. Stoddard, Trey Gowdy, Andrew McCarthy, and Piers Morgan’s see it.
Election Day Shower Forecast
Hillary’s under FBI investigation again thanks to Anthony Weiner. And now The Donald is really yuge. Time for a shower.
FBI Immunity Chest
Rather than convene a grand jury to subpoena her computer, the FBI gave Cheryl Mills immunity from prosecution. Mills served as Hillary’s chief of staff and as her attorney.
Immunity with Impunity
The FBI also gave immunity to four others and agreed to destroy computers after reviewing evidence on them.
Here’s what VDH thinks of that:
Had anyone else in government set up a private e-mail server, sent and received classified information on it, deleted over 30,000 e-mails, ordered subordinates to circumvent court and congressional orders to produce documents, and serially and publicly lied to the American people about the scandal, that person would surely be in jail.
We’re All Weasels Now
Not that anyone asked, but Director Comey assured us the FBI is not overrun by weasels.
Members of Congress needed assurances after last Friday’s FBI document dump. The dumped documents revealed that Clinton consiglieri Cheryl Mills sat in on Hillary Clinton’s FBI interview. Mills listened along with eight other lawyers while Hillary was questioned about her private email server. Mills is also a witness in that case. Legal experts say that’s unusual because it gives attorney/client protection to her communications with Hillary.
And the Justice Department gave her immunity anyway.
No Weasels Here
Committee Chair Trey Gowdy, a respected former federal prosecutor himself, says this isn’t the FBI he remembers.
When you have five immunity agreements and no prosecutions, when you are allowing witnesses who happen to be lawyers who happen to be targets to sit in on an interview — that is not the FBI that I used to work with.“
Comey sputtered that it is so.
“I hope, someday, when this political craziness is over, you’ll look back again on this, because this is the FBI you know and love,” the Bureau’s director told Gowdy. “This was done by pros, in the right way. That’s the part I have no patience with.”
And he insisted “We are not weasels.”
