[Subjectivist]

WASHINGTON — The day before he upended the 2016 election, James B. Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, summoned agents and lawyers to his conference room. They had been debating all day, and it was time for a decision.

Mr. Comey’s plan was to tell Congress that the F.B.I. had received new evidence and was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton, the presidential front-runner. The move would violate the policies of an agency that does not reveal its investigations or do anything that may influence an election. But Mr. Comey had declared the case closed, and he believed he was obligated to tell Congress that had changed.

“Should you consider what you’re about to do may help elect Donald Trump president?” an adviser asked him, Mr. Comey recalled recently at a closed meeting with F.B.I. agents.

He could not let politics affect his decision, he replied. “If we ever start considering who might be affected, and in what way, by what we do, we’re done,” he told the agents.

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But with polls showing Mrs. Clinton holding a comfortable lead, Mr. Comey ended up plunging the F.B.I. into the molten center of a bitter election. Fearing the backlash that would come if it were revealed after the election that the F.B.I. had been investigating the next president and had kept it a secret, Mr. Comey sent a letter informing Congress that the case was reopened.

What he did not say was that the F.B.I. was also investigating the campaign of Donald J. Trump. Just weeks before, Mr. Comey had declined to answer a question from Congress about whether there was such an investigation. Only in March, long after the election, did Mr. Comey confirm that there was one.

For Mr. Comey, keeping the F.B.I. out of politics is such a preoccupation that he once said he would never play basketball with President Barack Obama because of the appearance of being chummy with the man who appointed him. But in the final months of the presidential campaign, the leader of the nation’s pre-eminent law enforcement agency shaped the contours, if not the outcome, of the presidential race by his handling of the Clinton and Trump-related investigations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/us/p ... .html?_r=0

[Plantagenet]

....with polls showing Mrs. Clinton holding a comfortable lead, Mr. Comey ended up plunging the F.B.I. into the molten center of a bitter election. Fearing the backlash that would come if it were revealed after the election that the F.B.I. had been investigating the next president and had kept it a secret, Mr. Comey sent a letter informing Congress that the case was reopened.

This is "Fake News." The NYT is misrepresenting the facts there. That isn't actually when Comey entered the political arena of the 2016 election.

Comey had already plunged into the election mess months earlier when he took the unprecedented step of holding a press conference and reading a statement that denounced Hillary's incompetence and stupidity in handing classified emails.

Why did he do this?

Comey was responding to the Obama administration political meddling in the Clinton investigation. Comey is a straight shooter and the FBI tries very hard to keep the FBI non-partisan and Comey was furious the Obama DOJ people hadn't played things straight.

Comey presented a report on the FBI's investigation of Hillary's mishandling of secret emails to the justice department showing Hillary had mishandled secret emails. What did the Obama DOJ people do? 1. They refused to indict Hillary for mishandling secret emails for purely partisan reasons and 2. AG Lynch got in her private plane and roundezvoued with Bill Clinton in his private plane at a remote airport to give him a heads-up on the good news.

When AG Lynch and Bill Clinton got caught holding a the secret meeting, Comey blew his top. It outraged Comey so much that he made his unprecedented public statement blasting Hillary's carelessness with the secret emails. That statement made it clear that the FBI found that Hillary had mishandled the secret emails, but Obama's DOJ wouldn't do their job and indict Hillary.

The second breach of normal FBI practice must be seen in the context of this earlier breach of normal FBI practice---it was a continuation of what Comey had done earlier. Comey was still furious the Obama people had politicized the Hillary national security investigation, so he released a second statement on the subject when Hillary's emails turned up on Anthony's Weiner's laptop next to his pervert stuff.

Cheers!


The Obama people messed with Comey and the FBI and he messed with them right back

[Plantagenet]

Trump fires FBI director Comey

james-comey-fired-fbi.

The MSM is trying to spin this as another "Saturday Night Massacre" i.e. Trump is firing Comey because Comey is investigating Russia. But Trump says he is firing Comey because he did a terrible job on the Hillary investigation---a fact confirmed by the non-partisan DOJ review of Comey's handling of le Affair Hillary.

It will be interesting to watch the Ds flip flop 180° on this one. Up till now the Ds have blamed Comey over and over again for Hilalry's defeat in the election, but now they will flip flop to saying Comey is a shining knight of probity and legal perfection ---all because Trump fired him and the Ds must automatically oppose whatever Trump does.


FBI director Comey---YOU'RE FIRED!

[Cog]

Democrats past statements of requesting Comey's firing are now being brought up by the Trump administration. What a show this is. Best season of The Apprentice ever.

Comey was fired while at a recruitment seminar IN LA for new FBI agents. First he knew about it was when it showed up on CNN. Got to admire the firing. Wait until the guy is on the other side of the country so he has to slink back to Washington to clear out his desk. The Art of the Deal at work.