That was my point. 11th hour revelations have happened before other elections. What Comey did isn’t unprecedented.
How it effects the election is hard to gauge. We certainly don’t know yet if this will hurt Clinton very much.
It certainly is unprecedented for an FBI director or other high-level law-enforcement official to pull this sort of lame-ass stunt, especially in the face of opposition by the attorney general and assistant AG.
The notion that Comey deliberately torpedoed his career as FBI director so he can become a right-wing talking head doesn’t make any sense.
Sure, some people are addicted to appearing on camera, and there’s a living to be made as part of the right-wing media industrial complex. And lots of these right-wing bloviators are pretty nearly pure scam artists, who only care about money and fame, and it turns out that being a right-wing talking head is a reliable path to both.
Except only a pathological fame-whore would trade the very real raw power of the position of FBI director for the ephemeral career of a right-wing media personality. Seriously, who would do this? Yeah, you’ve got your Newt Gingriches and your Rudy Gulianis. Except they’ve been booted out of elected office and any hope of real, actual power, and so right-wing media is all they have left. Director of the FBI means you’re actually accomplishing shit. You’re making real decisions, you’re putting real people behind bars. You’ve got real power there.
And even if you’re really a venal partisan gasbag, you can do so much with that position, compared to getting a 5 minute spot on Fox News every couple of weeks. It just doesn’t add up.
How he’s going to spend the next 4 years as FBI director is another question, given that Trump loathes him for not indicting Hillary, and Hillary loathes him for investigating her in the first place, not to mention this latest cherry on the top of the sundae. No matter what he’s going to find that he doesn’t have the confidence of the President. I know the FBI director is supposed to be a non-partisan post, but how can you do your job when the next president, whoever that will be, is openly contemptuous of you?
No, it doesn’t, and so in situations like this I always refer to a variant of Occam’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” It’s a very handy maxim in untangling these apparent complexities. As you and many others have pointed out, this stunt has put him in a very bad position no matter who wins the election, so it was clearly a bad miscalculation.
I am very skeptical that the infamous October Surprise is effective in modern presidential elections. This shit has been dragging on in earnest for somewhere betwixt 17 and 20 months. We just want it to be the fuck over. The people who give a shit about Comey’s announcement will not be swayed off their perches. Everyone else just wants to shamble into the voting booth, bleary-eyed, make a mark somewhere on that screen or card, and go to the grocery store on Wednesday, when shit is on sale. For those on the East Coast, staying up till the networks are cleared to project a winner is too goddam exhausting; they will glance at the paper on the kitchen table, or maybe listen to the car radio on the way to work. Further west, there might be buzzword bingo drinking games in front of the coverage, but hey, don’t we hare that set of Shrek DVDs that we have seen 431 times? let’s watch that again instead!
Seriously, this is exhausting. And like that episode of West Wing where they are sitting on Josh’s stoop mourning the millions they spent on the midterms just to end up exactly where they were beforehand, there is a pervasive gloom that stretches from Key West to Nome to Lahaina to Presque Isle, and all points in between, that after all this interminable sound and fury, we will be left with nothing of significance.
Comey’s little blort will will amount to a fart in Yellowstone: hardy heard and impossible to smell over everything else. So untwist your knickers, have another glass of whatever that is you are drinking, and pass me some more of Aunt Lois’ special hill-of-beans casserole.
No, it sure doesn’t.
There are other explanations though… Like Comey was trying to cover his ass, and did so in a particularly stupid way, by violating the Hatch Act.
Or that Comey was promised a large sum of untraceable cash in an offshore account.
Or that Comey was told that some VERY compromising information about him would soon be released by Wiki-Russia-Leaks if he did not do this.
See: There are a number of explanations.
Hatch Act? Let’s not be crazy now. Did that nutcase Reid suggest that or something?
Well, most of them weren’t proven guilty. Because Bush The Smarter used the powers of his lame-duck presidency.
So, Bush hadn’t been indicted. Yet. So his pardons also saved his own ass.
I looked this up after pardons were mentioned in another thread–that petered out. But it’s a shining Great Moment in Republican-ness. Hey, the preceding century had the Gettysburg Address…
Multiple people have suggested it. I previously cited an article on Dan Abrams’ LawNewz.com about Richard Painter, former Bush admin lawyer and lawyer-ethics specialist, who has condemned Comey for violating the Hatch Act. Painter has made formal complaints against Comey to both the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics.
It seems pretty cut and dry, from Painter’s argument, any way. Comey’s intent doesn’t matter if there was good reason for him to write that letter, and given that Comey hadn’t even read the actual emails yet, there was no immediate pressing need to blab about it in contrast to normal law enforcement practices of not talking about investigations. It’s clear from the crowing of Trump and others that Republicans immediately took Comey’s actions as a confirmation of all their wildest hopes. Plus, if Chaffetz or someone was breathing down Comey’s neck to release the news and damage Clinton’s chances, that just makes the Hatch Act violation more clear.
Comey’s going to have to work extra hard to explain to the FBI-version of internal affairs just what the great big rush was all about.
So, you’re not following this issue very closely, are you? I’ve seen it mentioned since the day this nonsense got leaked by Chaffetz.
That would look extremely sketchy, to broadly interpret the Hatch Act to get a Clinton political adversary, while narrowly interpreting the applicable laws to exonerate Clinton herself.
You don’t get to do that. Find an example of a Hatch Act prosecution that affected official duties of the defendant where the defendant had no intent to influence an election.
Comey may have saved this country from some very disturbing post election events.
Trump has been screaming rigged election for weeks. The best way to validate that (for his supporters) is to discover the FBI was secretly investigating new evidence. That could be the match in a barn full of TNT.
I’m thankful the truth came out. No cover ups. Hillary may win by a few less points and that’s good enough.
Also, how is concealing this information not attempting to influence an election?
But seriously, there’s no need for liberals to jump into the fever swamps too.
Richard Painter, an actual lawyer for the Bush administration, explained why he believes that Comey violated the Hatch Act. Your characterization of his argument is just a bunch of handwaving. I quoted his argument there in my citation. Why don’t you explain why Painter is wrong?
(I mean, I know you don’t because you can’t, but you might at least pretend to try.)
The “information” in this case is that the FBI has found a bunch of emails but doesn’t know what they say or what their significance is. Expecting the Director of the FBI to follow the standard DOJ and law enforcement practice of not blabbing about “evidence” that hasn’t even been assessed yet is not concealing anything.
Here, for your edification, is an open letter from dozens of prosecutors and DOJ officials, past and present, explaining why Comey’s letter was a serious breach of protocol:
The letter and its signatories is posted in full at that link.
Guess they areafter all…
Intent matters now?
That is really weird!
The New World Order puppet master aliens are controlling Judge Jeanine!
I’m putting my tin foil hat back on.
Painter is asking for an investigation, which much like the Clinton email investigation, would have a hard time finding evidence of anyone’s intent to do anything of the sort. But sure, I’m fine with an investigation, unlike Democrats I don’t think investigations are a waste of time just because it’s my guy being investigated.
But let’s call this what it is: fishing. They would need to find that a) someone below Comey wanted to influence the election, and b) that Comey acted because of this pressure.
Good luck with that.
I’d note that the easiest, bulletproof way for Comey to influence the election would have simply been to recommend charges against Clinton. You guys might want to stick to your story about whether Comey can be trusted or not.