When Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md) complained to CNN that FBI Director James Comey was applying different standards to investigations of the candidates, he was absolutely correct.
Comey clearly has very different ideas about when it is appropriate to influence a national election, depending on which candidate might benefit.
The information came from a “former FBI official.” He told CNBC that the FBI Director argued privately against having the Bureau sign onto a statement which named Russia as attempting to interfere with the U.S. election.
The statement went out anyway, signed by the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It was sent one full month before the election, on Oct.7, 2016. It said:
“The U.S. intelligence community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”
A second source confirmed to the Huffington Post that Comey did not want his agency to sign the statement implicating the Russians because he felt that it was too close the date of the upcoming election.
This fact is particularly upsetting to supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Last week Comey ignored the advice of officials in the Department of Justice and sent a letter to Congress. That letter informed members of key Congressional committees that the Bureau had discovered emails that might or might not be related to the earlier investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server.
Essentially, the letter stated that they have no idea what they’ve found.
In spite of the fact that the letter implying potential wrong-doing by Clinton came only 11 days before the election, Comey still sent it. In spite of the fact that it was vague to the point of pointlessness, and in spite of advice from many in his own department, the Director sent the letter to Congress.
Naming Russia as the hacker only indirectly implicates Republican presidential candidate Trump. He has denied any ties to Putin and the Russian government, although there is a great deal of evidence pointing to a close financial connection.
Interestingly, and maddeningly, Comey has refused to tell Congress about any investigation into the Trump-Russia situation. For some completely unfathomable reason, he apparently didn’t feel that Congress needed to know about any potential connection.
He’s kept lawmakers completely informed about every tiny aspect of the Clinton investigation, though. He seemed to feel pressure to tell them that his people had discovered something that might possibly have some relevance to it.
To call this a double standard is to put it mildly.
The Director of the FBI has behaved in a way that, no matter his intentions, has put one candidate in the completely impossible position of defending herself against a whisper. In the meantime, he has kept her opponent completely out of any possible negative publicity from a far more serious situation.
If Trump ekes out a last minute victory next Tuesday, I think we are all going to know where to place the blame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgBBpx-GLc8
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
