David Harsanyi of the Federalist website takes Democrats’ complaints about the FBI director with a grain of salt.
Though it slipped the mind of the media this weekend, FBI Director James Comey’s letter informing Congress that the bureau had found new evidence relating to the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton was entirely the fault of Hillary Clinton. She’s the one who used a secret server to circumvent transparency. She’s the one who sent unsecured classified documents on that server. She’s the one responsible for attempts to destroy the evidence related to her server. And she’s the one who lied to the American people about the entire scheme.
So it’s laughable to hear Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta and his allies demand the FBI release all new evidence in the case. After all, no one had better access to the information Hillary is seeking than Hillary.
Let’s also remember that Comey had no choice but to send his letter to Congress after being notified that pertinent evidence had been uncovered on a computer used by both Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife Huma Abedin.
If Comey was in possession of this information and then sat on it until after the election, all the accusations panicky Democrats are now leveling against him would actually be true. Comey would have been acting in a political manner rather than reacting to events. As he made clear in his congressional testimony, new leads would be examined. He had an ethical duty to inform Congress.
The mass media’s reaction to this event, though completely expected, was breathtaking in its swiftness and synchronization. It started, appropriately enough, with a Clintonian freakout over semantics.
Republicans had the temerity to claim that Comey had “reopened” the Clinton investigation. This led to hackish attacks on the veracity of their phrasing. Technically speaking, conservatives weren’t exactly right. The investigation could not have been reopened because it had never been “closed” in the first place — even though the Left threw around that word plenty when Comey announced he would not recommend that the DOJ prosecute. …
… Once we learned that Attorney General Loretta Lynch had tried to dissuade the FBI director from sending Congress a letter about the new emails in the investigation, citing protocol, journalists quickly became experts on official DOJ procedure. Forget the email protocol Hillary ignored for years or the protocol she circumvented when it came to her favor-trading foundation (though rarely reported, it too is under criminal investigation). This was big. Lynch was now held up as paragon of ethical law enforcement.
Hey, did we ever learn what the Justice Department’s protocol is on AGs having off-the-record meetings with the spouses of those under investigation by the FBI? What about the precedent of a FBI director conducting a press conference to explain to the public why the DOJ shouldn’t prosecute a presidential candidate though every shred of evidence points to her guilt?