Sunday, September 04, 2016

Hammering Blackberries

Sounds like the good name for a metal band.  That appeared to be Hillary's preferred method for safekeeping national secrets.  Federalist: "FBI Interview Catches Hillary Clinton In Multiple Lies."

I raise a practical - if futile - question.  Can the FBI change its mind about a recommendation for indictment?  Couldn't James Comey say something like: "In light of recent information, we are reversing our decision?"  Hillary and her minions engaged in a massive and illegal effort to delete thousands of emails three weeks after the illegal server was discovered.  Included among these emails were (at least) 30 emails related to the Benghazi investigation, emails that were specifically requested by a Congressional review committee.  How is this not contempt of Congress?

As somebody noted, the only secrets that Hillary strained to keep private were her own.

4 comments:

Roger Bournival said...

I don't know - I'm kinda wondering what external pressure was applied to Comey to arrive at this first 'decision', and how many people applied it. I'm fairly suspicious that there was lots of that pressure.

Eric said...

I really think it boils down to that he didn't want the FBI interfering with a Presidential election. Think of the precedent it would make if they failed to convict.

Anonymous said...

Included among these emails were (at least) 30 emails related to the Benghazi investigation, emails that were specifically requested by a Congressional review committee. How is this not contempt of Congress?


How, indeed?

Politico: New trove of Clinton Benghazi emails proves thin

In a court filing early Wednesday morning, government lawyers said a closer review of the records the FBI located revealed only one of the messages was entirely absent from those produced by previous State Department searches: a flattering note sent by a veteran U.S. diplomat following her testimony on Benghazi before a Senate panel in January 2013.

"I watched with great admiration as she dealt with a tough and personally painful issue in a fair, candid and determined manner," then-U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon wrote in a message sent to State Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills official account and forwarded on by Mills to Clinton's personal one. "I was especially impressed by her ability to turn aside the obvious efforts to politicize the events in Benghazi, reminding Americans of the tremendous sacrifice made by Chris Stevens and his colleagues but also insisting that our ability to play a positive role in the world and protect U.S. interests requires a willingness to take risks."



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ox6eX2wG3Y

Anonymous said...

*I raise a practical - if futile - question. Can the FBI change its mind about a recommendation for indictment? Couldn't James Comey say something like: "In light of recent information, we are reversing our decision?"

*I'm kinda wondering what external pressure was applied to Comey to arrive at this first 'decision', and how many people applied it.

*I really think it boils down to that he didn't want the FBI interfering with a Presidential election.



Or, you know, not.

Washington Post: FBI director: Clinton email case ‘was not a cliff-hanger’

FBI Director James B. Comey said in a memo to the bureau’s employees that the decision not to charge Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state was “not a cliff-hanger” and, “despite all the chest beating by people no longer in government, there really wasn’t a prosecutable case.”

The director’s assessment was notable for its bluntness, though its assertions were not new. When Comey announced in July that he was not recommending charges for Clinton or her aides, he said no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. He did, however, say that Clinton and her aides were careless in their handling of classified information, which Republicans in Congress have seized upon to question his conclusion and push for more information on his agents’ investigation.

Comey seemed to take aim both at those outside the bureau who questioned his conclusion that Clinton not be charged and at Republican legislators who have been critical of how he has made information about the probe public.

Comey said in the memo that he was “okay if folks have a different view of the investigation (although I struggle to see how they actually could, especially when they didn’t do the investigation), or about the wisdom of announcing it as we did (although even with hindsight I think that was the best course).” But he said he had “no patience for suggestions that we conducted ourselves as anything but what we are — honest, competent, and independent. Those suggesting that we are ‘political’ or part of some ‘fix’ either don’t know us, or they are full of baloney (and maybe some of both)."