The Comey Dilemma<\/p>\n
It sounds like the President\u2019s birthday present may be the Department of Justice Inspector General\u2019s report on the conduct of former FBI Director James Comey during the Hillary Clinton investigation. \u00a0\u201cDeepstate\u201d theorists are keenly awaiting the release, sure that it will reveal a conspiracy to protect Clinton from the consequences of her email use.<\/p>\n
It’s a tremendous contradiction.\u00a0 Comey is the \u201cproximate cause\u201d of the defeat of Hillary Clinton.\u00a0 His actions in announcing the reopening of the email investigation (the search of the Weiner laptop \u2013 there has to be a better way to say that) <\/em>ten days before the election, clearly stopped the Clinton momentum and lead to the narrow results giving us President Trump.\u00a0 It also made all of the other influences, including Russian involvement and possible voter tampering, factors in the outcome.<\/p>\n In short then, Comey got Trump elected President.\u00a0 So what\u2019s everyone complaining about?<\/p>\n The President speaks of\u00a0\u201cComey and his band of thieves.\u201d \u00a0But theft isn’t going to be what the Inspector General finds in his report, so what will Mr. Horowitz discover?<\/p>\n Without any investigation, there are several areas where James Comey probably stepped over the edge of Department of Justice policies.\u00a0 Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein has already outlined many of these actions in his letter prior to Comey being fired.<\/p>\n It won\u2019t take an Inspector General\u2019s report to reveal these issues, they are already well known.\u00a0 Comey makes a strong argument for taking the first two actions, based on what occurred with Attorney General Loretta Lynch.\u00a0A few days prior to the determination that the FBI would not recommend charges for Clinton, Lynch had an indiscrete meeting with former President Bill Clinton at the Phoenix Airport.\u00a0 This meeting created an aura of impropriety around the Attorney General.\u00a0 She did not recuse herself from the investigation, but stated she would accept the FBI results and recommendations. This and Comey\u2019s desire to keep the FBI out of politics, made him feel empowered to make the July statement.<\/p>\n And the reaction of Republicans in Congress to that announcement, in particular the House Government Oversight Committee and Chairman Trey Gowdy; made the October letter inevitable.\u00a0 Comey had assured the Committee that he would notify them if anything changed regarding the Clinton emails, their presence on Weiner\u2019s laptop was a major change.<\/p>\n It is also rumored that the Weiner Laptop information was already being leaked from the New York FBI office.\u00a0 Rudy Giuliani claims to have had forewarning of the information, and Comey probably had little choice but to get out ahead of the release.<\/p>\n Comey almost assuredly violated Department of Justice regulations, and while he had good reason, and felt that he also had the authority to do so, \u201cMonday morning quarterbacking\u201d by the Inspector General will probably find him wrong. None of these actions rise to the level of violation of law; the ultimate penalty for them would to be removed from the Director\u2019s job.\u00a0 That\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n The Trump campaign owes Comey a huge favor.\u00a0 He\u2019s why Trump is in office; he couldn\u2019t have strategized it better if it was planned.\u00a0But instead, Comey is called a \u201cthief,\u201d and this report will be used to create fog and doubt around the Mueller investigation. \u00a0Happy birthday, Mr. President:\u00a0 but soon the Mueller report will be your real present.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n