Subsections on this page:

The FBI seems to avoid any evidence against Hillary Clinton

FBI Director Comey appears to reverse his course again, November 5, 2016

News and commentary prior to the re-opening of the FBI investigation on October 28, 2016

Related topics on other nearby pages:

The FBI in general

Andrew McCabe and Rod Rosenstein

James Comey and the FBI

The FBI vs Michael Flynn

The FBI vs Roger Stone

The FBI seems to avoid any evidence against Hillary Clinton:

Fingerprints on Russiagate 'Smoking Gun' Are Ignored.  Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe created a new category of news last week — the ho-hum smoking gun — when he released a letter regarding the Clinton campaign's efforts to generate the Trump/Russia hoax during the 2016 election.  In three short paragraphs addressed to Sen. Lindsey Graham, Ratcliffe revealed that U.S. intelligence officials had learned in late July 2016 that the Russians believed Clinton "had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the Democratic National Committee."  Ratcliffe reported that former CIA Director John Brennan considered the information important enough to share with President Obama and other senior national security officials.  In addition, on Sept. 7, 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to then-FBI Director James Comey regarding "U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's approval of a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server."  The information is ho-hum because it tells us what already we know.

The Deep State Wins if Trump Loses.  In his 2017 inauguration speech, President Trump shocked the world by promising to take on the Washington, D.C. establishment — aka "The Swamp" — and thereby return power to the people.  The Swamp denizens seated in the main dais behind Trump that day, Republican and Democrat alike, were not pleased, to put it mildly. [...] We saw Holy James Comey, the disgraced former head of the FBI, totally tank two investigations into Hillary Clinton, one looking into Clinton Foundation money-laundering and the other scrutinizing Hillary's illegal secret server.  All you have to know about Comey, other than he's as dirty as he is tall, is that he penned Crooked Hillary's exoneration letter months before the supposed investigation ended, months before he even interviewed Clinton.

Sidney Powell's Speech From March Is Now Making Waves as New Reports Indicate Clinton Foundation Is Under a Criminal Investigation.  A speech by Sidney Powell back in November is now given more attention with word that the Clinton Foundation is now under a criminal investigation.  In her speech in March, Powell shared the following: ["]The Anthony Weiner laptop, which I don't know if you heard this.  I wrote an article about that too. 675,000 Clinton emails when they got Anthony Weiner's laptop in a search warrant because of all his sex perversion issues.  It was all the Clinton emails, the Clinton Foundation, her Secretary of State emails, Huma Abedin emails, lots of people emailed Huma as a proxy for Hillary, and it included what Comey called... the golden emails, because they were the blackberry backup emails.  That they were supposedly just looking for very diligently, well guess what they did when they found them on the Weiner laptop?  They got a search warrant for things that didn't include the blackberry backup emails.  So when they told us, when he stood there and said that day, oh we've reviewed all the emails now, there is nothing there.  That was a bald face lie."["]

Why should anyone believe James Comey?  [Scroll down]  The portrait is in October Surprise, a new book by Washington Post reporter Devlin Barrett.  The book focuses on the period in late October 2016, when the FBI was deep into the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and Comey decided, 11 days before the presidential election, to inform Congress, and thus the world, that the FBI had reopened the Hillary Clinton email investigation.  The reopening, which ultimately came to nothing, outraged Democrats and Comey's colleagues in the Obama Justice Department.  The Clinton email decision, as I describe in my own book, Obsession:  Inside the Washington Establishment's Never-Ending War on Trump, spurred some of President-elect Trump's closest advisers, including Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, and Jeff Sessions, to urge him to fire Comey immediately upon taking office.  The advisers were not offended on behalf of Hillary Clinton.  Instead, they believed the episode showed that Comey was so erratic, headstrong, and self-righteous that he would surely cause trouble in a Trump administration.  Trump did not take their advice, to his regret.

Report: Durham Investigating Main Justice Resistors Blocking FBI Subpoenas in 2016, RE: Clinton Investigation.  Two media reports today [9/24/2020] point toward an aspect CTH had noticed happening in the background of the Durham/Aldenberg investigation.  The Washington Examiner and New York Times are writing about Durham investigating 2016 efforts from Main Justice DOJ to block FBI efforts to investigate the Clinton Foundation.  The interesting part is what the media ignore [...]

FBI Agent Who Discovered Hillary's Emails On Weiner Laptop Claims He Was Told To Erase Computer.  FBI agent John Robertson, the man who found Hillary Clinton's emails on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, claims he was advised by bosses to erase his own computer.  Former FBI Director James Comey, you may recall, announced days before the 2016 presidential election that he had "learned of the existence" of the emails on Weiner's laptop.  Weiner is the disgraced husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.  Robertson alleges that the manner in which his higher-ups in the FBI handled the case was "not ethically or morally right."

Book: FBI Agent on Sex Crimes Unit Found Hillary Clinton Emails.  An FBI agent investigating child pornography on former Rep. Anthony Weiner's computer first stumbled on hundreds of thousands of emails, many of which were to and from Hillary Clinton, ahead of the 2016 election, a new book reveals.  The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett wrote "October Surprise:  How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election," in which he provides an inside look at what happened in the weeks before the 2016 election — and how the discovery of the Clinton emails threw a wrench into the electoral process.  Special Agent John Robertson was investigating allegations that Weiner sent sexually explicit material to a 15-year-old girl when he stumbled on 600,000 emails from an account belonging to Weiner's then-wife Huma Abedin, Clinton's top aide, sitting on Weiner's laptop.  Many of the emails were either to or from the private email address of Clinton, who served as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

New details emerge about FBI delay on Weiner laptop in 2016.  New details have emerged about 2016's "October Surprise," during which the FBI found emails belonging to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on disgraced New York Rep. Anthony Weiner's laptop, with the FBI official who found the emails speaking out for the first time.  FBI agent John Robertson, who worked in its New York office's child sex crimes unit and was later cited (though not named) in Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz's 2018 report on the handling of the investigation of Clinton's unauthorized private email server, spoke with the Washington Post's Devlin Barrett for his upcoming book, October Surprise:  How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election.  Robertson unearthed tens of thousands of Clinton emails in late September 2016 on the laptop belonging to Weiner, the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, in a sex crimes case involving underage girls, but for weeks after being alerted, top FBI leaders [...] took little to no action to investigate.

FBI agent who found Hillary Clinton's emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop calls agency's handling of case 'immoral'.  An FBI agent who found the messages that led to the Hillary Clinton email investigation being reopened days before the 2016 election said the way the bureau handled the case was 'not ethically or morally right'.  John Robertson feared he would be made a 'scapegoat' when he found the new emails less than two months before voting day, in the wake of DailyMail.com's revelation that Anthony Weiner, whose wife Huma Abedin was Clinton's top aide, was sexting an underage girl.  Robertson watched nervously as the bureau did nothing for a month until he went outside the chain of command and spoke with the US Attorney's office overseeing the case.

FBI Agents Pushed For A FISA To Investigate Foreign Government Targeting Hillary Clinton.  FBI agents in 2015 sought authorization to surveil foreign government operatives who sought to influence Hillary Clinton, but ultimately settled for a defensive briefing given to lawyers for the Democratic presidential candidate, according to documents released on Sunday [8/23/2020].  One FBI agent involved in the investigation asked then-FBI Director James Comey in an April 2015 email for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant, according to the documents, published by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham.  A FISA order was not granted in the investigation.  Instead, an FBI special agent provided a defensive briefing to Clinton's personal lawyers in October 2015.  Graham, a Republican, said that the documents are evidence of a double standard in how the FBI conducted investigations of foreign meddling regarding the Clinton and Trump campaigns.

Former top FBI lawyer worried Hillary Clinton would be indicted after winning election.  The FBI's top lawyer was torn over what to do when FBI Director James Comey asked in 2016 whether he should inform Congress that the bureau was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.  FBI General Counsel James Baker had been told that FBI agents discovered between 600,000 and 1 million emails on disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner's laptop relating to Clinton.  The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee's top aide, Huma Abedin, was married to Weiner, who was being investigated for sending illicit texts to an underage girl.  Baker, who left the FBI in May 2018, told author David Rohde that he felt like the "fates had thrown him a hundred-mile-an-hour fastball."

DOJ Blocks FBI Investigation of Clinton's Swindle of Bill Gates Charity Cash.  When FBI agents working the Clinton Foundation investigation developed intelligence that tech pioneer and philanthropist Bill Gates was beyond angry at Bill and Hillary Clinton for duping his charitable foundation out of as much as $200 million, FBI brass wanted to arrange a sit down with the Microsoft mogul.  Gates, after all, is the second wealthiest man in the United States, running a close second behind Amazon king Jeff Bezos.  That is the kind of fact witness FBI agents dream about.  Would Gates flip on the Clinton's and spill the beans on the millions he forked over to their sham foundation?  Bad blood between Gates and the Clinton's would certainly help fortify a criminal case against the Clinton Foundation.  But as Thomas Paine revealed on his Moore Paine Show on Patreon Tuesday night [2/25/2020] as well as the Thomas Paine Podcast on Wednesday — FBI agents never got the chance to pick Gates' brain.  The Justice Department blocked access to Mr. Gates.

5 Times Barack Obama Protected His Allies from Justice and Democrats Didn't Care.  [#1] Hillary Clinton:  It was not all that long ago that Hillary Clinton was the heir-apparent to Barack Obama, and Obama wasn't going to let her criminal behavior get in the way of her winning the election and keeping his legacy intact.  Thanks to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey, Hillary was never going to be punished for her illegal private server and mishandling of classified and top-secret information that would have seen anyone else indicted.  In fact, FBI Director James Comey had drafted her exoneration letter before Hillary had even been interviewed by the FBI.

Obama Interposed His Opinion in Hillary Clinton Case While Investigation Was Ongoing, But Dems Said Nothing.  For starters, is there anyone that thinks that Roger Stone would have been prosecuted at all but for the vendetta to hang convictions on folks next to Trump?  Did he get a raw deal with the recommendation of 7-9 years for a first offense which was non-violent?  It sure sounds like it, as Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, has noted.  Trump was making a comment on a proposed recommendation, that he thought it was excessive.  He doesn't have power over the ultimate sentence nor does the DOJ.  Let's go back and look at what Barack Obama said and did during the investigation into Hillary Clinton.  He actually interposed himself, basically declaring her innocent while the investigation was still ongoing.

The Democrat Data App.  [Scroll down]  When ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — Democrat presidential candidate in 2016 — violated many laws by mishandling sensitive data, the head of the FBI himself, James Comey, acted more like a pope than an agent of the law, publicly granting her a papal indulgence reserved for high-ranking Democrats.  Her crimes were annulled.  Her little mistake was erased, aborted.  It was just careless, not deliberate, said Pope James.  It did not matter that "she should have known better," because, after all, clearly, she had to know better.  Clinton was an experienced official and an experienced lawyer.  Clinton herself had claimed she was the most experienced candidate running in 2016 and in 2008.  She knew the letter and spirit of the law.  It also did not matter that she and her staff clearly acted with full deliberation, destroying evidence of her guilt — her phones and her email server.  They were given immunity by Comey, America's tallest undertaker, who rubbed his hands unctuously as he buried the case.

FBI Investigators Say McCabe Apologized for Lying about Clinton-Probe Leak.  FBI investigators claim former deputy director Andrew McCabe admitted to misleading them about his involvement in a media leak and subsequently apologized for the lie, according to newly released transcripts of McCabe's interviews with investigators.  The transcripts, released by the Department of Justice Inspector General's office (OIG) — which found McCabe "lacked candor" with investigators in a scathing February 2018 report — detail how McCabe spun a false narrative that he was not responsible for leaking the information cited in a October 2016 Wall Street Journal article that detailed a new probe into Hillary Clinton's email use.

Connection revealed between FBI and lawyer working for Hillary Clinton.  Recently the conservative organization Judicial Watch revealed the contents of several emails from former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who would have had preferential treatment with the lawyer representing former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's collaborators.  As the conservative BizPac Review website indicates, Beth Wilkinson, Clinton's lawyer met with top FBI officials and even received privileged treatment in which she was warned about media coverage and given the opportunity to participate in "discreet" meetings.

The Madness of Progressive Projection.  Who made the decision to quash the investigation of Hillary Clinton after she destroyed over 30,000 emails under subpoena?  Who excused Obama officials after they knowingly misled federal FISA court justices?  Who leaked information about a surveilled phone call between Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador?  Who decided that it was acceptable for Samantha Power to request over 260 times the unmasking of names of American citizens swept up in government surveillance, many of which were illegally leaked to the press and most of which Power denied requesting and alleged others had used her name to do so?  Somewhere, somehow there was a great deal of obstruction and distortion of justice that so far has prevented the pursuit of these criminal acts.

Trump-Russia and Clinton-Libya:  A Story of 2 Probes and the FBI.  Records recently posted online by the FBI indicate that it did little to investigate allegations from private sources connected to Republicans about a scheme in which associates of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to exploit their connection to her to profit from the turmoil in Libya in 2011.  The FBI received the documents in June 2016, around the same time it launched an exhaustive, three-year investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia based, in part, on information from private sources connected to Democrats that in the main would prove to be false — the Steele dossier.  The bureau's different responses to these documents also came during the same period when FBI Director James B. Comey controversially cleared Clinton, in his first of two exonerations, of criminal wrongdoing in the bureau's probe of her unauthorized and insecure email setup.

Where is Huma Abedin's Laptop?  An August 2018 release from the FBI Vault on the Hillary Clinton email investigation revealed the Anthony Weiner/Huma Abedin laptop containing Clinton emails (350,000) and Blackberry communications (344,000) was never reviewed for intrusion prior to the 2016 election.  Does anyone at the DOJ/FBI even care about this issue any longer?

Trump can change history by declassifying three Obama-era documents.  [Scroll down]  The final Obama-era tranche that requires declassification concerns Hillary Clinton's email controversy — a highly classified set of documents that FBI agents identified as important and necessary in the investigation into whether she violated the law by transmitting classified emails on her unsecured private server.  As I wrote last week, the agents never got to review those documents in 2016 before then-FBI Director James Comey unilaterally decided not to seek criminal charges against Mrs. Clinton.  The Justice Department's internal watchdog in 2018 provided Congress a classified annex explaining how the FBI intended to examine that secret evidence, but never did.  Sources who have seen the annex say it contains explosive revelations about what really happened with Clinton's emails and the national security concerns that her conduct raised.

Comey FBI Willfully Ignored "Highly Classified" Hillary Clinton Emails; Barr Radio Silent.  President Obama's FBI, ran by disgraced former director James Comey, knew about - but purposefully ignored - "highly classified" evidence in the Hillary Clinton email investigation before they downgraded their initial assessment of her crime from a felony to a "grossly negligent" mistake.  As The Hill's John Solomon reports, a Senate staff memo updating an ongoing inquiry by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) reveals that the FBI decided to back off their pursuit of this damning evidence "even though the agents believed access to the sensitive evidence was "necessary" to complete the investigation," writes Solomon.

The road not taken:  Another FBI failure involving the Clintons surfaces.  August in Washington can be the political equivalent of an elephant graveyard:  One good rain can wash away the dirt and expose the bones of scandals past.  And this August did not disappoint.  Thanks to the relentless investigative work of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), we are learning that the Hillary Clinton email case may not really be settled.  A staff memo updating the two senators' long-running probe discloses that the FBI — the version run in 2016 by the now-disgraced and fired James Comey, Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok — failed to pursue access to "highly classified" evidence that could have resolved important questions.

Clinton's Deliberate, Felonious Actions Harmed National Security.  Earlier today, my good friend and colleague, Bonchie, penned an excellent article about the latest twist in the Clinton e-mail saga, one that demonstrated just how dangerous her actions were to National Security.  Please go have a look.  Because of his timely article, I thought I might once again review just how corrupt the FBI was, especially former Director Comey, when he "cleared" Secretary Clinton of any criminal wrongdoing.  Comey's excuse?  Secretary Clinton had no intent to violate the law.  Despite the fact that the applicable statute regarding the handling of classified information doesn't require intent, the explainer below will show that there was indeed such intent and a number of people should be doing hard time.  Let me be clear at the outset; somebody committed a felony, likely several.

New Evidence Unveils Disturbing Facts About Hillary's Email Scandal.  Clinton kept classified emails on a private server in violation of Federal law, and the immunity agreements reveal that both Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson were actively involved in the cover-up of these emails as well as in the destruction of evidence. [...] The agreements issued were with DOJ and the FBI.  They asserted that Mills and Samuelson would turn over the computers to them, but stipulated that they weren't turning over "custody and control".  This critical point is a legal and factual bunch of bunk. [...] Suspects cannot withhold "custody and control" by mere words or lack of consent, as consent is not required.  In other words, these agreements are extremely flawed and whomever signed off on them should be investigated and perhaps prosecuted.

FBI gave immunity to Hillary lawyer responsible for 33k email deletion.  Heather Samuelson testified under oath in a Judicial Watch court-ordered deposition that, contrary to what she told the FBI, she was, in fact, aware that Clinton used a private email account as secretary of state.  That's not all.  The former Secretary of State's White House Liaison at the State Department, and later Clinton's personal lawyer, Heather Samuelson, admitted under oath that she was granted immunity by the U.S. Department of Justice in June 2016.  Samuelson also revealed that, contrary to what she told the FBI in 2016, she was, in fact, aware that Sec. Clinton used a private email account while secretary of state.

Comey Hid 'Clinton Emails' Binder In His Office Safe and Had Hillary's Backup Email Device.  Former FBI director James Comey had a white binder marked "Clinton Emails" in his office on May 16, 2017, a few days after he was fired, as the Department of Justice was trying to get back the items in Comey's office safe.  The State Department and FBI also possessed a "Datto" backup email device for Hillary Clinton's private email server, which a judge ordered released.  Michael Bekesha, who waged the Datto case for Judicial Watch, tells Big League Politics that the State Department is "still processing the FBI investigative file," even though Datto contents were ordered released by last September.

The FBI Just Dropped New Documents On Hillary Clinton And They Are Really Bad.  Late Friday night, we got a document dump from the FBI dealing with the investigation into Hillary Clinton's illegal email server.  While we've already gotten ample evidence that she absolutely should have been charged for her mishandling of classified information, these latest revelations are still pretty mind-blowing.  After you read them, you are left asking yourself how it was possible that she wasn't indicted.  Well, we know why. [...] Starting with Hillary's actions, her criminality isn't even in doubt anymore.  Stripping highly classified materials of their markings and then pushing them out via unapproved means is illegal.  Nowhere in the statute is their a requirement for "intent" nor could any serious person argue she didn't intend to do what she actively chose to do.  While we already knew that, it's pretty amazing to see that even the FBI was admitting it at the time.  Shortly after, the full whitewash would go into effect.

McCabe: Comey's Draft Statement Exonerating Clinton Two Months before Her FBI Interview Was Not Normal Protocol.  "This is the only time I am aware of, sir."  "I have not seen that before, sir."  "I've never seen that."  These are just some of the words utilized by former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe when asked during closed door testimony about an email penned by disgraced ex-FBI chief James Comey circulating a draft statement exonerating Hillary Clinton in the private email server case[,] a full two months before the FBI interviewed Clinton and other witnesses in the criminal probe.

Grassley, Graham Put Bill Barr on Notice:  DOJ Can No Longer Use Mueller Probe as Excuse to Dodge Questions on Hillary's Email Investigation.  Top Senate Republicans are renewing their efforts to get to the bottom of the FBI's [mis]handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server now that Mueller's investigation has concluded.  Mueller's investigation into whether Trump colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 election also served as a way to block Congressional oversight into Obama's and Clinton's corruption.  Now that Rosenstein and Mueller can no longer run defense at the Justice Department, Republican Senate chairs of three very powerful committees are demanding Bill Barr look into the FBI's sham 'Midyear investigation.'

Nunes criminal referrals could affect 'two dozen' individuals, as GOP demands answers on apparent FBI stonewalling.  As many as two dozen individuals may be implicated in House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes' criminal referrals to the Justice Department arising out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's recently concluded Russia probe, sources confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday [4/16/2019].  The sources confirmed that the referrals related in part to the anti-Trump dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, and his work for the Clinton camp and the Democratic National Committee-funded firm Fusion GPS.  Meanwhile, three top Republican Senate committee chairmen said Tuesday that the DOJ has 10 days to explain itself as to why FBI investigators looking into Hillary Clinton's email use in 2016 sought access to "highly classified information" they said was "necessary" to complete their probe, but later withdrew the request and cleared Clinton of wrongdoing.

Devin Nunes: 'Fourth bucket' of classified emails show info withheld from FISA court.  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., revealed the existence of a "fourth bucket" of information related to potential misconduct by the FBI that he wants declassified.  On his way out as chairman, as Democrats will take control of the House next year, Nunes said his panel's investigation into the Justice Department and FBI is largely complete.  Still, he said the public release of these "buckets" would help give his efforts a sense of "finality."  Speaking with anchor Maria Bartiromo on her Fox News program "Sunday Morning Futures [11/18/2018]," Nunes said the first of three "buckets" were the Russia-related documents President Trump walked back from declassifying earlier this year.

Mueller's 'Pit Bull' Arranged Meeting With Reporters To Discuss Manafort Investigation.  Justice Department documents released on Friday [7/6/2018] confirm that the DOJ attorney known as Robert Mueller's "pit bull" arranged a meeting with journalists in April 2017 to discuss an investigation into Paul Manafort.  The documents show that Andrew Weissmann arranged a meeting with DOJ and FBI officials and four Associated Press reporters on April 11, 2017, just over a month before Mueller was appointed special counsel.  Manafort's lawyers obtained the documents on June 29 and revealed them in a briefing filed in federal court in Virginia.  The attorneys are pushing for a hearing into what they say are possible leaks of secret grand jury information, false information and potentially classified materials from the meeting.

Nunes calls for House probe of 42 Obama-era anti-Trump activists.  Rep. Devin Nunes is referring 42 Obama administration officials, FBI agents and outside political activists to a House task force for as investigation into how the Obama Justice Department targeted the Donald Trump campaign. [...] The California Republican is asking his fellow GOP legislators to summon for public testimony all 42 — a cast of FBI, Justice Department and State Department officials and outside anti-Trump people with whom they communicated.

Devin Nunes Closes In on Corrupt Obama Officials.  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is calling on two of his fellow Republican committee chairman to hold open hearings for 10 former State Department and Obama White House officials regarding alleged surveillance abuses against the Trump campaign. [...] Nunes has investigated the Justice Department, FBI and State Department over the agencies' investigations of Trump campaign associates.  The Republican has mostly focused on the DOJ and FBI's handling of the infamous Steele dossier and their applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.  Nunes and other Republicans have alleged that law enforcement officials improperly used the unverified dossier to obtain the spy warrants while also failing to disclose to federal judges that the document was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Mueller's Kafkaesque Probe.  The chattering class's frenzied discussion of the Mueller probe is like listening to George Carlin's old parody advertisement in which he gushes over a product that he never bothers to identify: [...] Turn on the television at any hour and the gibbering about the Mueller probe takes on that tone:  endless talk about people "flipping" and so on but without any relationship to the mandate of Mueller's probe.  Mueller was supposedly completing a counterintelligence investigation.  But almost everything we hear about it pertains to something else.  His "collusion" probe is looking at everything but collusion.  Historians will look back at this grim farce and wonder how a sitting president could be shafted so badly by his own Justice Department for something he didn't do.  The answer they will probably settle on is that Trump was a reviled outsider whom official Washington decided to subject to a Kafkaesque hazing in the failed hope of inducing his impeachment.

Letter From Devin Nunes: 17 DOJ and FBI Names Named.  Devin Nunes has sent a letter to Chairman Gowdy and Chairman Goodlatte.  In it, Nunes refers 17 highly recognizable names to the joint task force of the Committees on Oversight & Government Reform and the Judiciary for interviews.  Note that the names cut off at a certain political level.  Below Sally Yates at DOJ and below Comey at FBI.  This is almost certainly by intent.  Without the IG Report on FISA Abuse, it's too early to move any higher.  As unsatisfying as this may be to some, I consider this to be a good start.  Most of these individuals — but not all — have left their positions so enforcement will prove interesting.

FBI may have modified witness reports, misled DOJ watchdog with 'false information,' GOP Rep says.  The FBI may have "edited and changed" key witness reports in the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations, a top House Republican charged in a hearing into FBI and Justice Department misconduct Tuesday [6/26/2018].  Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C, also raised the possibility that the FBI misled the DOJ watchdog in an attempt to hide the identities of FBI employees who were caught sending anti-Trump messages.

Did Comey's Informants Fabricate Russian Collusion Evidence?  In our nation's worst governmental scandal, Watergate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation heroically kept widespread White House corruption from being concealed, eventually reviving important prosecutions.  Sadly, in today's increasingly convoluted moral universe, senior FBI officials, it now appears, have tried to artificially create serious "Russiagate" crimes, thereby becoming implicated in a scandal promising to be nastier than Watergate.  Congress presently awaits DOJ documents which may or may not confirm what presently seem reasonable inferences of such FBI wrongdoing.

House Approves Resolution Demanding DOJ/FBI Docs.  The House Judiciary Committee approved for the first time a resolution Tuesday demanding that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein turn over all requested documents regarding the FBI's handling of the Russia investigation during the presidential election after seven days or face possible impeachment or contempt.  The decision to move forward with the resolution came after a year of battles with the Justice Department and FBI to turn over requested documents.  The committee voted on party lines 15-11 to pass the resolution directing Rosenstein to comply within the next seven days or face the consequences.

Seven Mysterious Preludes of the FBI's Trump-Russia Probe.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation formally opened its Trump investigation after Western intelligence assets and Clinton-affiliated political operatives repeatedly approached the Trump campaign and tried but failed to damage it through associations with Russia, a growing body of evidence suggests.  Before the FBI began investigating the Trump campaign in an operation code-named "Crossfire Hurricane," there were at least seven different instances when campaign advisers were approached with Russia-related offers.

Tyranny Has Finally Arrived in America.  Enough with the endless investigations that lead nowhere and leave the guilty unpunished.  Enough with absurdity of agencies investigating themselves in order to protect the institution they serve rather than the people.  We need to see indictments and trials to restore the foundations of our political order.  The president and his Attorney General need to give more support to the Congressional oversight committees trying to do their jobs of holding accountable the abusers of the public trust.

Did the FBI Frame Flynn?  The criminal case against Gen. Michael Flynn for lying to FBI agents was incredibly weak. [...] Not too many years ago, a claim that the FBI fabricated evidence to facilitate a prosecution would have seemed incredible.  Today, given what we know of the corruption of the Bureau under the Obama administration, such a claim appears entirely plausible.  This is just one more thread in the slowly unraveling story of the misuse of intelligence and law enforcement agencies by the Democrats to try to frustrate the candidacy of Donald Trump, and to destroy his administration after his election.

The FBI Needs to Be Turned on Its Head.  This has nothing to do with the everyday men and women of the FBI.  FBI Director Christopher Wray should stop hiding behind them like his mother's skirt.  This is all about the leadership of the FBI — the seventh floor of the building.  There was a culture created and protected that allowed a definitive bias to exist during the 2016 election and beyond in that group.  That is on Comey's head and there is no evidence Wray has obliterated that culture.  The fact that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page exchanged so many damning text messages on their FBI devices is evidence of that culture.  We, in private industry, learned long ago that all of our emails/texts are subject to review at a further time.  Strzok and Page most likely knew that because they had seen it used against FBI suspects.  They went ahead with their communications anyway.  There is only one rationale for their behavior.  They thought they would never be looked at.  They thought they were above the law because they thought they were the law.

Can the FBI be independent?  When President Donald Trump appointed Atlanta lawyer Christopher Wray to succeed James Comey as the director of the FBI, my initial reaction was not positive.  Wray is a veteran of the Department of Justice and is part of that good-old-boy DOJ network that knows how to protect its own.  Indeed, when then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former U.S. attorney, needed a good criminal defense lawyer — whose millions in fees were paid by New Jersey taxpayers — he hired Wray.  Christie was never indicted in the Bridgegate scandal, but defense counsel for those who were sought Christie's cellphone to demonstrate to jurors the governor's involvement in the plot to shut down lanes near the George Washington Bridge for political retaliation.  Christie claimed that he gave his phone to federal prosecutors, but they told the court that they did not have the phone.  Where was it?  In a safe of the Atlanta law firm that employed Wray.

Grassley Outlines 'Double Standard' and 'Credibility Problem' at DOJ.  "There was some shocking news in the Inspector-General's report," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the American people on Monday [6/18/2018].  "We already knew about Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and their anti-Trump text messages.  Now, in this report, we learned at least three others at the FBI did the same thing."  Grassley noted that those five FBI employees accounted for more than 25 percent of the 15-member team assigned to investigate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.  The inspector-general has referred all five of them for violations of the FBI's code of conduct.

What do Republicans suspect really happened in the FBI Trump-Russia investigation?  The struggle to uncover the FBI's conduct in the Trump-Russia probe has made some congressional investigators deeply suspicious of the bureau.  But what do those investigators think the FBI actually did in its investigation of the Trump campaign, Russia, and the 2016 election?  First, they're convinced the FBI has something to hide.  In the last 12 months, the bureau has, at various times, ignored, slow-walked, resisted, and downright stonewalled congressional requests, not to mention subpoenas, for information on the Trump-Russia investigation.  Each time the bureau hunkered down, suspicion grew on Capitol Hill.  The FBI seemed particularly reluctant to reveal to Congress not what Russians did, or what people in the Trump circle did, but what the bureau itself did.

Dirtier by the Minute:  "Alarm Bells Went Off" for Trump Campaign Aide Targeted by FBI.  Former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo joined Sean Hannity to discuss the realization that informants were planted to try and set up Caputo and the campaign in a Russia collusion trap.  Caputo describes a call from a man he thinks is Russian or an Israeli who claimed to have dirt on Hillary.  Caputo says when he described the call to Mueller, that Mueller knew all about the FBI informant sent to target him.

What do Republicans suspect really happened in the FBI Trump-Russia investigation?  The struggle to uncover the FBI's conduct in the Trump-Russia probe has made some congressional investigators deeply suspicious of the bureau.  But what do those investigators think the FBI actually did in its investigation of the Trump campaign, Russia, and the 2016 election?  First, they're convinced the FBI has something to hide.  In the last 12 months, the bureau has, at various times, ignored, slow-walked, resisted, and downright stonewalled congressional requests, not to mention subpoenas, for information on the Trump-Russia investigation.  Each time the bureau hunkered down, suspicion grew on Capitol Hill.  The FBI seemed particularly reluctant to reveal to Congress not what Russians did, or what people in the Trump circle did, but what the bureau itself did.

Problems at the Justice Department and FBI Are Serious.  What do you do with an FBI agent, sworn to uphold the law, who flagrantly violates the law in a rogue investigation aimed at making a name for himself by bringing down some high-profile targets?  Why ... you promote him, of course.  At least that is the way the Justice Department answered that question in the case of David Chaves, an FBI agent who serially and lawlessly leaked grand-jury information, wiretap evidence, and other sensitive investigative intelligence to the media in his quest to make an insider-trading case against some celebrities.  And when finally called on it, the Justice Department circled the wagons.

Rosenstein Won't Allow Grassley to Interview Agent Pientka Who Knows DOJ Likely Altered Mike Flynn's Testimony.  [On] Friday May 11, 2018, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein stating Comey testified the FBI didn't think General Flynn lied.  Grassley also revealed Joe Pientka was the second FBI agent who joined Peter Strzok on January 24th, 2017 in an ambush style interview to take down General Flynn.  Rosenstein refused to give the Senate Judiciary Committee the requested documents.  Instead, Rosenstein provided "insufficient" documents prompting Grassley to send a second scathing letter to the Deputy AG.  It appears Senate investigators have finally received the 302 notes or evidence confirming Cernovich's February scoop that the FBI summary on Flynn's interview was altered by McCabe.

Devin Nunes to DOJ: Hand over docs on alleged FBI informant by Tuesday or it's 'obstruction'.  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has set a Tuesday deadline for the Justice Department to provide documents related to an alleged FBI informant looking for suspicious ties to the Russians who spoke with members of President Trump's 2016 campaign.  In a letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Friday, the California Republican demanded the documents be provided to all committee members "and designated staff," which would go beyond top members of Congress which have been invited to view material related to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

A skeptical chairman Grassley really, really wants to see the Michael Flynn 302.  On Feb. 15, 2017 — that would be 16 months ago — Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked the Justice Department to turn over the transcript of fired national security adviser Michael Flynn's infamous call with the Russian ambassador, plus other documents related to the Flynn case.  The department refused.  Some of Grassley's and Feinstein's questions were answered the next month, on March 15, 2017, when the FBI's then-director, James Comey, briefed the committee on Flynn and other matters in the Trump-Russia investigation.  It was at that briefing that Comey told lawmakers the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn did not believe he lied to them.

Secrets Travel Fast in DC.  To paraphrase Napoleon's "secrets travel fast in Paris," secrets travel fast in D.C., as we learned this week with the indictment of James A. Wolfe, a 30-year veteran staffer of the Senate Intelligence Committee indicted for lying to the FBI about leaking to, among others, his former paramour, Ali Watkins, an NYT reporter.

James A. Wolfe, former Senate intel panel security director, indicted for allegedly lying to FBI.  A former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee — who was in charge of maintaining all classified information from the Executive Office to the panel — was indicted for allegedly giving false statements to FBI agents looking into possible leaks to reporters, the Justice Department announced Thursday night [6/7/2018].  James A. Wolfe, 58, served as the panel's security director for 29 years, according to the feds.  Wolfe lied to the FBI in December 2017 about contacts he had with three reporters, the indictment read.  He also allegedly lied about giving two reporters non-public information about committee matters.

Top Senate staffer arrested in leak probe, after NY Times reporter's records are seized.  A longtime staffer for the Senate Intelligence Committee has been arrested on charges of lying to investigators probing the potential leaking of classified information, the Justice Department announced Thursday night [6/7/2018].  A federal grand jury indicted the staffer, James A. Wolfe, 58, on three counts of making false statements in December about contacts with reporters, including providing sensitive information related to the work of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which he served as security director for 29 years.  He was arrested Thursday and is expected to appear in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on Friday.

Adam Schiff Caught in Huge Lie About Carter Page's March 2016 Interview With FBI Officials.  Carter Page says his interview with the FBI in March of 2016, before the Russia dossier was compiled, had nothing to do with Russian collusion or the Trump campaign, rather he was questioned about events that transpired in 2013 in a case where he was a witness in support of the FBI, reports Paul Sperry.  This statement by Page directly contradicts Adam Schiff's 10-page memo wherein he claims the former Trump campaign advisor was grilled by the FBI in March of 2016 about his ties to Russia.

Pandora's Box:  Trump/Russia May Expose Extent of "Five Eyes" Allied Spying.  Over the past month, a number of articles have made reference to the timeline surrounding the Obama administration's counterintelligence operation into President Donald Trump's campaign's alleged ties to Russia.  Investigations conducted by Congressional and Senate committees are entering the second year and what has been pieced together by investigators — battling for documents every step of the way — challenges the information the FBI and former senior Obama administration have revealed about the investigation.  Their evidence is at odds with the DOJ/FBI timeline leaked to various news outlets indicating the investigation began in late summer of 2016.

Report: Obama White House Tried to Intrude on FBI's Russia Investigation.  The Obama administration tried to take over the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign, The Hill's John Solomon reported on Fox News Thursday night.  And according to Solomon, the FBI began spying on members of the Trump campaign to gather the intelligence that ultimately justified the collusion investigation, weeks or even months before the FBI had a formal predicate.  "That's very important.  The rules say you can't use sources until you have a predicated investigation.  The predication is July 31, 2016," Solomon told Fox host Sean Hannity.  The investigative reporter said he had sources and documents backing up his claim that he would be making public in his report in The Hill on Friday.  He stressed that informants were making contacts with the Trump officials and providing information to the FBI "much, much earlier than July 31."

FBI Spy Stefan Halper's Media Contacts Could Pose A Problem, Retired FBI Officials Say.  While working as a spy for the FBI, Stefan Halper interacted on multiple occasions with the media, both on the record and, according to a University of Cambridge researcher, as an anonymous background source.  Those media interactions, which occurred between December 2016 and March 2017, could be cause for concern for the FBI, according to two retired senior bureau officials who worked closely with confidential informants during their careers.  "This is something that is highly irregular and not something that I would have ever tolerated with any of the folks working for me," retired FBI investigator and CNN analyst James Gagliano told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

DOJ Employee Donations Overwhelmingly Favor Democrats.  Political donations from those who work at the Department of Justice (DOJ) overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates so far this cycle, data shows.  Individuals at the DOJ have contributed a total of $192,534 so far this election cycle, with $159,800 (83 percent) of this amount going to Democrats.  Republicans, on the other hand, have been the recipients of just 14 percent of the total contributions from those at the agency, pulling in $27,129 in donations. [...] DOJ workers handed out nearly $950,000 in total political donations in 2016.  Of this amount, $818,985 went to Democrats, or 87 percent of the total donations.  Republicans garnered $108,882 in donations from those at the agency in 2016, or 12 percent of all the money given.

FBI Had No 'Clear Criminal Predicate' for Trump Campaign Snoops.  Spying on President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign for "national security" purposes would not provide the "clear criminal predicate" required to authorize such surveillance, retired FBI Special Agent James Wedick said Wednesday [5/23/2018] on "The Ingraham Angle."  "You need to know that the guidelines say:  If you're going to use an informant to infiltrate a political organization, you need a clear criminal predicate," Wedick told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.  "National security is not a criminal predicate."

The FBI Used Its Secret Spy Program To Protect Killers, Jail Innocents, And Screw Victims.  Following reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used at least one spy to secretly surveil members of the Trump campaign, fired former FBI director James Comey lashed out at critics of his agency's activities during the 2016 election.  "Facts matter.  The FBI's use of Confidential Human Sources (the actual term) is tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country," Comey tweeted on May 23.  "Attacks on the FBI and lying about its work will do lasting damage to our country."  While Comey's record on truth-telling is decidedly mixed, he is correct that facts matter and that the FBI's use of informants is governed by strict guidelines.  How and why many of those guidelines came to be are important facts that the American public deserves to know as it considers revelations that the FBI used wiretaps and spies to surveil Donald Trump's presidential campaign, his transition, and perhaps even his presidential administration.

What Happened During the FBI Interview With Flynn?  FBI Special Agent Joe Pientka, if subpoenaed, will provide testimony regarding the circumstances surrounding his interview with former National Security Advisor Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, sources with knowledge have been telling this reporter for more than a year.  And recent reports scattered across social media and some news outlets claiming that Pientka's testimony will bring down former FBI Director James Comey, are not true.  For nearly a year, I have reported that Pientka, who at the time I addressed as the second agent in the interview with Flynn, would testify if subpoenaed.  But so far Pientka, has not been subpoenaed for his testimony.  Pientka and embattled FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, interviewed Flynn on Jan. 24, 2017 about his conversation with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, as first reported here.

DOJ Agrees To Allow Congress To Review Requested Documents.  The Department of Justice will allow Congress to review highly classified requested documents relating to the FBI's investigation into the Trump 2016 campaign in conjunction with the White House and other agencies, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday [5/21/2018].  "Based on the meeting with the President, the Department of Justice has asked the Inspector General to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's or the Department of Justice's tactics concerning the Trump Campaign," Sanders said.

Trump Orders DOJ to Investigate FBI's Campaign Infiltration.  As previously reported by TGP's Kristinn Taylor, President Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon he is ordering the Justice Department to investigate whether the Obama administration spied on his 2016 presidential campaign.  The order comes on the heels of leaks to the New York Times and Washington Post that the Obama administration had an "informant" make several approaches to three Trump campaign officials, included one that involved an offer of cash and another an offer to "advise" the campaign.

Donald Trump Orders Justice Department to Investigate Obama Surveillance.  President Donald J. Trump announced his decision to demand an official investigation of former President Barack Obama's administration on Sunday [5/20/2018] for infiltrating or surveilling his presidential campaign for political reasons.  "I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!" Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday afternoon [5/20/2018].

The fight moves up a notch.  The scenario anticipated more than a year ago in King vs.  King has advanced to the semi-finals.  The Russian collusion affair, which began with the incoming president on the defensive, has now become a set of simultaneous offensives with each side trying to jail the other.  "President Trump on Sunday said he would 'demand' a Justice Department investigation into whether the FBI 'infiltrated' his 2016 presidential campaign," USA Today reported.

Watergate II: Collusiongate.  Unlike Watergate, the current crisis in government/spying/politics doesn't have a memorable name.  But for those of us who lived through Watergate it has a certain resonance with that event as well as major differences, imparting a strange sense of familiarity, dislocation, and increasing alarm.  This isn't some burglary to get some dirt on the opposing party, and it isn't a threat (unfulfilled) of using government entities to "get" the opposition.  This is the marshaling of those government entities by one administration in order to "get" the next, and nearly succeeding.

Report:  Inspector General Will Declare FBI, DOJ Broke Law in Clinton Email Probe.  A new report suggests an imminent Inspector General (IG) report may rule that FBI and Justice Department officials broke the law in their handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.  Investigative reporter Paul Sperry said Thursday [5/17/2018] that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has "found 'reasonable grounds' for believing there has been a violation of federal criminal law in the FBI/DOJ's handling of the Clinton investigation/s," adding that the top watchdog official has "referred his findings of potential criminal misconduct to Huber for possible criminal prosecution."

FBI Used Secret Program To Gather Information On Trump Campaign, No Judge Needed, Report Says.  A report released by The New York Times on Wednesday revealed that the FBI, under Director James Comey's leadership, used a secret program that does not require the approval of a judge to gather phone records and "other documents" on Donald Trump's presidential campaign.  The report also revealed that a government informant met several times with Trump campaign officials, which validates a March 8, 2018 report from The Washington Post.

Conspiracy to Frame Trump 'Unraveling,' Ex-Prosecutor Says.  New revelations that FBI agents pressed a Russian oligarch with ties to independent counsel Robert Mueller to help build an election collusion narrative only reinforce the likelihood of a conspiracy to frame President Donald Trump, according to a former federal prosecutor.  Joseph diGenova, who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia under Ronald Reagan, reacted to a report in The Hill that FBI agents met with Oleg Deripaska in September 2016.  They were in search of information that Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort was conspiring with the Russian government to throw the presidential election to the Republican nominee.

Huma Abedin Laptop Emails and The Non-Investigated Issues Therein.  The Department of Justice Inspector General will soon release a report on the government's investigation of Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information.  It's taken a long time; and with good reason.  The scale of the misconduct and criminal activity is staggering. [...] The emails along with the fact that they were on Anthony Weiner's laptop was kept secret and not investigated for four weeks (Sept 28th, through Oct 27th) by top officials at the FBI.  Who stalled the investigation and why?

Hunt For FBI Mole Intensifies.  Previously we reported on a disturbing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Kimberly Strassel suggesting the FBI had a mole within the Trump campaign.  After a battle between House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein over the release of classified information that was so top-secret that the DOJ refused to show Nunes on the grounds that it "could risk lives by potentially exposing the source, a U.S. citizen who has provided intelligence to the CIA and FBI" — the agency finally relented on Wednesday [5/9/2018], allowing Nunes and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) to receive a classified briefing.

Treasongate and the FBI "Source": A Deep Dive on Stefan Halper.  Open-source research points to a man named Stefan Halper as the CIA asset tasked with planting incriminating evidence of Russian "collusion" on the Trump campaign.  In March, @The_War_Economy presciently foresaw this development.  Here's a deep dive into Halper and his involvement with low-level Trump staffers for the sole purpose of advancing the "insurance policy". [...] Americans of every political stripe should stand together to destroy the weaponization of our intelligence assets, hunting every one of these criminals down and prosecuting them.

Mark Warner:  Trump Aides' Contacts With Russians Could Be 'Coincidences,' Not Collusion.  The top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence acknowledged in a recent interview that contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russians could be "a set of coincidences" rather than collusion.  "I'm reserving my final judgement until we've seen all the witnesses we need to see, and we've gotten all the facts.  So I'm going to hold off," Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said in an interview with The New Yorker's David Remnick when asked whether he believes that Trump associates conspired with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 presidential election.  Warner and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican chair of the Senate panel, have since Jan. 2017 led an investigation into Russian interference in the election.

Did the FBI Have a Spy in the Trump Campaign?  Something tells me Glenn Simpson did not make a mistake.  Something tells me the co-founder of Fusion GPS was dead-on accurate when he testified that Christopher Steele told him the FBI had a "human source" — i.e., a spy — inside the Trump campaign as the 2016 presidential race headed into its stretch run.  When he realized how explosive this revelation was, Simpson walked it back:  He had, perhaps, "mischaracterized" what he'd been told by Steele, the former British spy and principal author of the anti-Trump dossier he and Simpson compiled for the Clinton campaign.  Simpson gave his testimony about the FBI's human source at a closed Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on August 22, 2017.  He did not try to retract it until the uproar that followed the publication of his testimony on January 9, 2018.  The latter date is significant for reasons we'll come to.

About That FBI 'Source'.  The Department of Justice lost its latest battle with Congress Thursday [5/10/2018] when it allowed House Intelligence Committee members to view classified documents about a top-secret intelligence source that was part of the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign.  Even without official confirmation of that source's name, the news so far holds some stunning implications.  Among them is that the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation outright hid critical information from a congressional investigation.

Senator Chuck Grassley Drops Atomic Sledgehammer on FBI — Requests FBI Reports and Testimony From Special Agent Joe Pientka.  Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has just dropped a sunlight grenade into the prosecution of Michael Flynn with a jaw-dropping request letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.  Within the letter Chairman Grassley outlines a prior briefing from fired FBI Director James Comey to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and contrasts the false presentations of Comey — regarding Michael Flynn — against recently known evidence.

The Insurance Policy, The "EC", The 2016 FBI Counterintel Operation, and The Mysterious Informant.  In addition to everyone here, Wall Street Journal Author Kimberly Strassel also smells the familiar aroma of a cover-up deployed by administrative state officials inside the DOJ and FBI.  The DOJ is refusing to allow public inquiry into the source John Brennan used to create the "EC".  Additionally, the Deep State media advocates, writ large, are working furiously to attack Chairman Devin Nunes for his inquires.  Methinks they doth protest too much.  Obviously the compliant media, Democrats and second-tier DOJ/FBI officials don't want anyone to discover the source of the 2016 counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign.

Newly Released Unredacted Documents Show DOJ-FBI was Protecting Comey.  On Friday night [5/4/2018] the Department of Justice released the requested unredacted documents to to the House Intelligence Committee on the investigation of Donald Trump and the interview of Michael Flynn by corrupt agents Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok.  The newly unredacted portion of the House Intel Report revealed Comey told lawmakers that the FBI agents who interviewed General Flynn did not detect any deception.  This was a complete opposite to what Comey has been telling reporters these past few weeks while promoting his new book.

This is another example of a Friday night document dump.

The Coup Is Still Underway.  Former U.S. attorney and special counsel Joe DiGenova and ex-Secret Service agent Dan Bongino were both masterfully interviewed by Mark Levin last night.  The result was stunning.  As many of you know, I follow the dual scandals of the DOJ's exoneration of Hillary Clinton and persecution of Donald Trump, eh, rather closely.  This interview revealed new information for me, including how Robert Mueller is protecting certain Russian oligarchs from exposure by redacting or concealing their names.  I simply cannot state this strongly enough:  every American should watch this surgical deconstruction of, for lack of a better term, Obamagate.  Please watch it and please pass it along.  I am not overstating things when I say that this information is vital to saving our Republic.  [Video clip]

God Bless Judge Ellis.  [Scroll down]  I'm caught — as the world is — among three channels.  One is Justice with Jeanine Pirro on FNC.  She's hot as a pistol tonight.  She has Rudy Giuliani and Victoria Toensing — two towering lawyers.  They're talking about a federal district court judge in Virginia who has just dropped a bomb right down Mueller's smokestack and it's blowing him up.  The bomb is the judge, T.S. Ellis, asking a Mueller lawyer what the heck the Manafort prosecution has to do with the alleged Russia/Trump collusion that started the whole Gestapo chase.  The judge asked what Mueller's authority was for the Manafort case.  Incredibly, the DOJ attorney said he was not allowed to say.  It was a secret.  Judge Ellis exploded.  In words to this effect he said, "But I'm the judge.  It can't be a secret from me why you're in my court."  He gave the government two weeks to answer.

Preparing for The Inspector General Report on The FBI Investigation of Hillary Clinton.  As a result of the known OIG investigative findings already the top FBI and DOJ officials in charge of the Clinton investigation have been fired, demoted or removed from responsibility:  Director James Comey (fired), Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (fired), FBI Legal Counsel James Baker (removed — status unknown); FBI investigative Agent Peter Strzok (demoted, reassigned); DOJ special counsel to McCabe, Lisa Page, (removed, reassigned); and DOJ Deputy AAG Bruce Ohr (demoted, twice).  Additionally other officials resigned immediately after the preliminary IG findings were made public:  FBI Communications Director Mike Kortan (quit); Director Comey Chief-of-Staff, Jim Rybicki (quit); DOJ-NSD DAAG Mary McCord (quit); DOJ Deputy AAG David Laufman (quit).  In total, almost no one within the "small group" conducting the Clinton email investigation has survived initial Office of Inspector General scrutiny.

Refresh on How DOJ and FBI "Small Group" Officials Intentionally Worked To Clear Hillary.  The scale of the misconduct is staggering.  John Spiropoulos, a former TV news reporter at WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, DC, has created a series of video reports as a reminder on the background on the crime, the coverup and the corruption.

Outrageous Redactions to the Russia Report.  Cute how this works:  Kick off the week with some "the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted" bombast from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, by which he rationalizes that his defiance of subpoenas and slow-walking document production to Congress — which is probing investigative irregularities related to the 2016 campaign — is required by DOJ policy and "the rule of law."  Then end the week with the Friday-night bad-news dump: the grudging removal of DOJ and FBI redactions from a House Intelligence Committee report on Russia's election meddling.  Now that we can see what they wanted to conceal, it is clear, yet again, that the Justice Department and the FBI cannot be trusted to decide what the public gets to learn about their decision-making.

In No Apparent Rush, the Grand Inquisitor Plods On.  Should he wish, Mueller can be at this for the rest of his life, with an unlimited budget, and at taxpayer expense.  But this is not justice in any meaningful sense of the term.  Rather, it's the sore-loser Left's latest attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election by orchestrating, via deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and St.  James Comey, a quasi-legal proceeding to demonstrate that Donald Trump is unfit to sit in the Oval Office, and that therefore his presidency must be ended by any means necessary.

The Rape Culture of Politics by Investigation.  While it's tempting to joke about the ridiculousness of federal investigators and lawmakers continuing to sniff out a crime that did not happen, it's no laughing matter.  [Michael] Caputo said he has incurred about $125,000 in legal fees and he's not done yet.

Why All the Secrecy?  Many people believe, as I do, that the president should not be subjected to questioning by a prosecutor on the facts as we presently know them.  From that premise, however, they argue that Mueller may not subpoena the president, or that the president may ignore any subpoena.  Neither of those things is true.  A prosecutor has the power to subpoena virtually anyone.

Mueller probe is a political counter-revolution to overthrow Trump — It must be defeated.  Nearly two years ago, the British people voted for Brexit.  They rejected the arguments of the political, business, academic and media establishment, which were united in their support for the European Union and its elitist agenda that favors the rich.  Instead, voters chose populism, voting for Britain to become a self-governing, independent nation outside the EU.  You can say they were wrong; you can lament their decision.  But you can't deny the facts of what happened.  But guess what?  Denying the facts is exactly what the elitists are trying to do.

Special Counsel To Judge:  You Don't Have The Authority To Review What We're Doing.  Yesterday [5/4/2018], the special counsel had a very tough day in court.  Federal district judge T. S. Ellis was openly skeptical not only of the authority of the special counsel to undertake the prosecution of Paul Manafort on crimes that are over a decade old, but he was blatantly skeptical of the honesty of the special counsel as well.  It probably wasn't lost on the judge that the special counsel had said in court filings that Manafort had been in contact with Russian intelligence operatives in 2016 and then had to admit, via a Brady motion, that it actually had zero evidence that this was true.  Now the transcript has started leaking out and it looks worse than the media reports from yesterday.

FBI Delays Release of Communications With Firm That Examined DNC Servers.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has pushed back the estimated completion date of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to its communications with the security firm that examined the Democratic National Committee's hacked servers to October.  The Washington Free Beacon submitted the FOIA request in July 2017 with the FBI seeking all communication between the bureau and CrowdStrike, Inc., the California-based cyber security firm that examined the DNC's servers following the infiltration that led to the release of John Podesta's emails.  The FBI said in December the documents should be available by March.  The FBI, which was never granted access to the DNC's servers for inspection, instead relied on the third-party firm that was brought in by the DNC for information regarding the compromised network who concluded that Russia was behind the hack.

U.S. judge questions special counsel's powers in Manafort case.  A federal judge said Special Counsel Robert Mueller should not have "unfettered power" in probing ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, and accused Mueller of using criminal cases to pressure Trump's allies to turn against him.

Earth to Jeff Sessions....  It is staggering to witness the Justice Department go off the rails and barrel toward a showdown with our president over innuendo and manufactured misdeeds.  From the beginning of the special counsel appointment and despite Jeff Sessions's recusal, I felt confident that Trump and Sessions had a behind-the-scenes plan to navigate this quagmire.  Ridiculous was the notion that Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was not fully in his camp in light of the glaring double standards of justice demonstrated at every point from before the election to present day.  I expected the A.G. to pursue other completely legitimate avenues that might create leverage and pressure on Rosenstein and by proxy, the special counsel, to gracefully withdraw their aggression against the president.  And yet we sit here dumbfounded as the witch hunt lingers on.

The Process is the Punishment (As Always).  There have been exciting developments in the "Russia investigation".  There always are, because that is the nature of open-ended money-no-object investigations.  But, to me, the most interesting development was the testimony of Michael Caputo, who appeared just before me on Tucker Carlson's show last night.  Mr Caputo was, briefly, a very minor Trump campaign aide — and so his life has been destroyed.

Of the bureaucracy, by the bureaucracy, and for the bureaucracy.  Bullies who abuse their power like Bungling Bob Mueller and Jim Shady Comey co-opted the national press decades ago.  Using leaks to take out critics — indeed President Nixon — the FBI created this illusion that it is an independent agency that is some unelected guardian angel of our republic.  Comey shattered that image when his agents smashed to smithereens the evidence of Hillary's breaches of national security in an effort to get her elected so Comey could continue his job.  The press ignored this story.

The FBI Shouldn't Be Above The Law Either.  [W]hile it might come as a surprise to many, the Justice Department is not an "independent" entity.  Presumably those who work for the DOJ have fealty to law and justice first, yes, but they are subordinates, ultimately, of the president of the United States, who was elected legally and has the identical powers to Barack Obama or George W. Bush.  Or, in other words, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein doesn't work for CNN personalities or Vox explainer writers.  He works for Trump.

Dershowitz: Trump Better Off Challenging a Subpoena Over Sitting Down With Mueller.  Alan Dershowitz said Special Counsel Robert Mueller could force President Trump's hand by playing the "subpoena card."  According to a new report, Mueller told Trump's legal team that he could subpoena the president to appear before a grand jury if Trump refuses an interview with Mueller's team.  It appears to have been the first time Mueller raised the possibility of compelling Trump to testify as part of his investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials ahead of the 2016 election.

FBI Has Not Requested Anti-Trump Agents' Personal Email Records.  The FBI says it has not requested information from the personal email accounts of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the two bureau officials who exchanged anti-President Donald Trump text messages while working on the investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.  The disclosure was made in a letter sent May 2 to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Grassley, a Republican, questioned why the bureau has not sought Strzok and Page's personal email records, noting they referred to using private email accounts to conduct government-related business.

FBI's James Baker, Lisa Page resign.  Two FBI officials — both advisers to former FBI Director James Comey — are resigning from their posts at the agency.  James Baker, who served as the bureau's top lawyer until late last year when he was reassigned as an adviser to FBI Director Christopher Wray, is resigning, per the New York Times.  He is also being looked at for possibly disclosing classified information with journalists about the so-called Trump dossier, though he has not been charged.

FBI-DOJ caught using redactions of House Intel Committee Report to protect their posteriors.  The release of a less redacted version of the House Intelligence Committee Report on Russian active measures (AKA "collusion") has exposed abuse of the redaction process to protect the bureaucrats at the FBI and Department of Justice.  In theory, redacting of official documents prior to public release is supposed to be solely to protect confidential sources, or protect ongoing prosecutions, or otherwise serve legitimate government interests.  Redactions to prevent embarrassment or potentially illegal activities on the part of federal officials is not legitimate.  Yet that is clearly what happened when the House Intelligence Committee report was first redacted by the DOJ and FBI.

Here Are Three Scary FBI Scandal Factors You Must Know.  There are three scary but crucial factors underlying the rapidly growing FBI scandal that most people miss, even though these factors are hidden in plain sight.  Recognizing and understanding this trio goes a long way toward explaining what has happened in the scandal — and where it is likely to go next.  First, there's Horowitz's revenge.  Virtually everybody in the nation's capital is waiting either in fear or in eager anticipation for the upcoming investigative report of Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.  Horowitz is among the most respected and effective IGs ever appointed, but former President Barack Obama, who nominated him in 2011, may consider that decision among the most regrettable from his eight years in the White House.

FNC's Baier Grills Comey Over Dossier, E-Mail, Leaks in Epic Interview.  Former FBI Director and new author James Comey has spent the past 12 days on his book tour promoting A Higher Loyalty, the supposed greatness of Comey himself and the lack thereof on the part of President Trump.  However, no prior interview compared to his Thursday [4/26/2018] hit on the Fox News Channel's Special Report as host Bret Baier offered a masterfully tough tour de force akin to interviews of yesteryear by the late Tim Russert.

Comey Confirms:  In Clinton Emails Caper, the Fix Was In.  If Comey had not been the FBI director, he would not have had these discussions with the president of the United States about investigations.  His memos, clearly, were made in the course of and in relation to his official duties.  They were written on FBI-issued equipment.  The standard FBI employment agreement unambiguously states:  ["]All information acquired by me in connection with my official duties with the FBI and all official material to which I have access remain the property of the United States of America.["]  These memos belonged to the government.  The information in them belongs to the government.

FBI Never Investigated Abedin/Clinton Laptop Emails In October 2016.  As many people are aware, CTH has decided to go back through two years of documents, releases, reports, testimony, media interviews; including interviews with fired FBI Director James Comey; question all prior assumptions; re-examine the entire framework within all the known granular DOJ and FBI activity; and finally contrast it all against the full scope of released messaging between FBI Agent Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.  Within this project some breakout discoveries need to be highlighted.  One of those discoveries pertains to the Fox News interview with James Comey and Bret Baier.

Time to End the Resistance of the Swamp.  The ongoing Mueller "investigation" is not a legal matter.  It's a continuation of abuse of power by the Obama administration, which behaved as if Democrats were going to reign forever.  The extent of their abuse started to come to light only after the elections. [...] It's clear now that the Obama administration used the FBI to persecute its political enemies.  The FBI needs to be investigated thoroughly and be purged of the Obama-Hillary loyalists who conducted these crimes.  The first step in such investigation might be to offer FBI agents and officers who observed or participated in such activities to step forward and to tell what they saw or did.  But it is also clear that Mueller does everything in his power to prevent such investigation.  This alone justifies arresting him and charging with obstruction of justice.

James Comey Creates Deeper Legal Jeopardy With CNN Townhall Answer.  FBI Director James Comey appears on CNN tonight and digs himself deeper into legal jeopardy.  Remember as you watch this answer, on March 20th, 2017, while still officially FBI Director, Comey testified to congress a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign began in July 2016.  In an effort to attempt to obfuscate his current legal and professional malfeasance in leaking information, via his leaks to the media, Comey insists he did nothing wrong.  However, Comey also states that it would be a violation to leak "information about an ongoing investigation."  As Comey describes his leaking of his notes from a conversation with President-elect Trump, he conveniently avoids the contradicting fact that President Trump was a person within the investigation the FBI was conducting.  [Video clip]

FBI Scandal:  Deep State Corruption Of FBI, Justice Was There From Very Start Of Hillary Email Probe.  Were the Justice Department and FBI corrupted by their efforts to protect Hillary Clinton and her future chances at the presidency?  Recent revelations suggest the answer is an unqualified yes, and now those who cooperated may soon feel the law's sting for doing so.

Goodlatte, Gowdy say they struck deal with DOJ for Hillary Clinton probe documents.  The Republican chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced Monday that the Justice Department has agreed to provide them with documents related to the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.  The deal was struck after Reps.  Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., met this month with the U.S. attorney, John Lausch, who has been selected to respond to Republican demands for documents.

IG Report:  Obama's DOJ Tried To Influence FBI Clinton Foundation Probe.  Missed until the Washinton Times put two and two together, the inspector general's report about the leaking and lying of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was the story of Justice Department big shot calling McCabe with the purpose of interfering with the FBI's investigation into the Clinton Foundation: [...] The DOJ Inspector General is already looking into both the FBI and Department of Justice handling of the Hillary Clinton probes.  As he has mentioned the phone call as part of his McCabe leaking investigation, it is likely he the phone call will also be part of those probes.

FBI Wants to Take 16 Months to Process Only Half of Comey Docs Requested Under FOIA.  President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton was outraged on Thursday [4/19/2018] after the FBI told the watchdog group it will take 16 months to process only half of the Comey docs they requested under FOIA.

New emails bolster GOP claims of FBI, DOJ 'coordination' on Clinton case response.  Emails reviewed by Fox News from February 2016 suggest the FBI and DOJ worked together to craft a response to a key development in the Hillary Clinton email investigation, amid newly raised Republican concerns about a "concerning level of coordination" between the two agencies during the probe.  The emails concern the period after 22 messages with "Top Secret" information were found on the former secretary of state's personal email server.  Republican Rep. Mark Meadows cited them in a letter earlier this week claiming former FBI Director James Comey's testimony to Congress — in which he downplayed FBI-DOJ coordination on the Clinton case — may be at odds with documents suggesting "frequent" coordination.

Lawmakers Make Criminal Referral on Clinton, Comey, Lynch to DOJ on Steele Dossier.  Congressional lawmakers made a criminal referral Wednesday to the Department of Justice Attorney General Jeff Sessions against former senior-level Obama administration officials, including employees of the FBI connected with the unverified dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as those involved in the warrants used to spy on a former Trump campaign volunteer, this reporter has learned.  The lawmakers also made a criminal referral on former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and threats made by her DOJ against the FBI informant, who provided the bureau with information on the Russian nuclear industry and the approval in 2010 to sell roughly 20 percent of American uranium mining assets to Russia.

Justice Department watchdog to report on Clinton-related FBI leaks.  A long-awaited U.S. Justice Department internal watchdog report on former FBI chief James Comey's public disclosures on Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state and whether FBI employees leaked information to try to hurt her 2016 presidential bid is expected to be issued next month.

Congress Pursues Clinton for Hiding Fusion GPS Payments.  As I reported here, the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last year alleging that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee violated campaign finance laws by not revealing their payments to Fusion GPS.  In an October 25, 2017 filing with the FEC, the watchdog group accused the Hillary for America campaign and DNC of failing to "accurately disclose the purpose and recipient of payments for the dossier... effectively hiding these payments from public scrutiny."  The complaint was filed one day after the Washington Post confirmed that both entities paid Perkins Coie — a politically-connected law firm — to retain Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump, which resulted in the infamous dossier.  According to the Center, the Clinton campaign and DNC paid Perkins Coie more than $12 million during the 2016 election cycle; all payments were recorded as "legal services."  No payments to Fusion GPS were itemized on disclosure reports by either group.

Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier.  The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump's connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said.  Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research.  After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

New emails show Hillary-FBI-DOJ coordination.  Newly uncovered emails containing 22 messages with "Top Secret" information found on former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's personal email server indicate that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) "coordinated" efforts to devise a response to a major development in her email probe.  The recent discovery bolsters Republicans' newly raised allegations that there was a "concerning level of coordination" between the FBI and DOJ during Clinton's private email investigation.  "Republican Rep. Mark Meadows cited [the accusations] in a letter earlier this week claiming former FBI Director James Comey's testimony to Congress — in which he downplayed FBI-DOJ coordination on the Clinton case — may be at odds with documents suggesting 'frequent' coordination," Fox News announced.

Republicans Call For DOJ Investigation Into Comey, Clinton, Lynch, Strzok And Page.  A group of House Republicans are calling for the Department of Justice to investigate a laundry list of former agency heads and people involved in the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server.  The letter is addressed to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John Huber.  It asks that each of these men use their respective powers to investigate "potential violation(s) of federal statues" on the part of former FBI Director James Comey, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI counsel Lisa Page.

Obama's Justice Dept. feuded with FBI, agents quit as politics played larger role.  Acrimony between the FBI and Department of Justice was so bad in the waning days of the Obama Administration some agents quit the bureau, a former G-man said.  Feuds over the direction of investigations — and particularly some of the high-profile politically-involved probes — began to build up as the 2016 election approached, and as the FBI felt pressure from its political masters at the department.  Agents in field offices did not trust department lawyers they viewed as Washington bureaucrats, while the department's headquarters, known in the business as Main Justice, felt rank-and-file agents weren't following orders and, at times, strongly disagreeing with superiors.

FBI Ignores Warnings on Boston Bombers — Nikolas Cruz — Omar Mateen, But Executes Pre-Dawn Raid For Trump Tape.  It seems like every time there is a terrorist attack or a mass shooting we hear later the suspects were being monitored by the FBI prior to the attack.  The FBI always has a plethora of excuses as to why they failed to thwart yet another mass shooting or terrorist attack.  Oddly enough, the FBI found it necessary to raid Trump's personal lawyer's home at 6 AM for dirt on Stormy Daniels and Trump's [...] "Hollywood Access" [sic] tape.

Comey: I Announced the Hillary Investigation Because Polls Showed Her Ahead.  In his new book "A Higher Loyalty," former FBI Director James Comey says the reason he announced that the FBI had re-opened its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server was polling.  Yes.  Seriously.  In late October of 2016, just days before the presidential election, polling was skewing in Clinton's favor.  Comey says this subconsciously influenced him to send a signed letter to Congress announcing that the bureau had re-opened its investigation into the former secretary of state.

Comey hints at damaging material involving ex-AG Lynch 'still unknown to the American public'.  James Comey's cryptic reference in his new book to "a development still unknown to the American public" involving then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Hillary Clinton email probe is sparking furious speculation inside and outside the Beltway.  According to ABC News, Comey writes in "A Higher Loyalty:  Truth, Lies and Leadership," that he became the public face of the investigation partly because of the mysterious development which he felt could cast "serious doubt" on Lynch's independence.

DOJ IG releases explosive report that led to firing of ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.  Andrew McCabe, onetime acting FBI director, leaked a self-serving story to the press and later lied about it to his boss and federal investigators, prompting a stunning fall from grace that ended in his firing last month, says a bombshell report released Friday by the Justice Department's internal watchdog.  Inspector General Michael Horowitz, appointed by President Barack Obama, had been reviewing FBI and DOJ actions leading up to the 2016 presidential election.  The report, handed over to Congress on Friday and obtained by Fox News, looked at a leak to The Wall Street Journal about an FBI probe of the Clinton Foundation.

Time for Mueller to lay it all out.  The violent swings of the leaky pendulum make this an excellent moment to call timeout on the Mueller probe.  What does he have, where is he going and when is he going to get there?  Those are basic questions that need to be answered.  The American people deserve facts instead of waters muddied by partisanship, innuendo and special access to biased big-media companies.  Mueller's team includes some active Democrats, and whether they are behind the anti-Trump leaks is, for the moment, beside the point.  The point is that the leaks are creating a reality all their own about the investigation and the president.

What is the FBI Hiding? [Part 2].  The FBI has responded to the letter from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes that I posted here yesterday.  In a self-advertised act of magnanimity to Congress, the Department of Justice and the FBI will make an "extraordinary accommodation" to the committee by allowing its members access to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications and renewals.  It's very big of them.  However, there are limits.  With respect to Nunes's specific demand for the electronic communication — "EC" in investigative jargon — that officially kicked off the counterintelligence "collusion" investigation, the Department of Justice and the FBI seem to have drawn the line.  The demand for the document, let us recall, dates back to one of the committee's August 2017 subpoenas.

Paul Manafort says FBI illegally searched storage unit containing Ukraine files.  Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Trump's 2016 campaign, has asked a federal judge to throw out all evidence in his criminal trial that was obtained when the FBI searched a storage unit that contained materials related to work by him and Rick Gates in Ukraine.  Manafort's lawyers on Friday issued a motion to suppress evidence, which would disallow special counsel Robert Mueller from using the evidence from the Alexandria, Va.-based storage unit.  "The evidence obtained from the government's search of the storage unit should be suppressed," said the lawyers in the motion.

Victor Davis Hanson Discusses the Downstream Effects of Corruption Within Obama's FBI and DOJ.  Victor Davis Hanson appears on Fox Business with Lou Dobbs for an excellent interview on the topic of DOJ and FBI political corruption.  In the first response from Hanson he instinctively and accurately outlines the scale of the challenge that was/is faced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  Hanson frames the context of the myriad of issues very well, and as such represents himself as one of the few big-picture-brains who really gets it.  [Video clip]

Issa thinks special counsel ultimately will lead FBI-Justice probe.  California Darrell Issa said Sunday that existing probes into the Obama administration's FBI and Justice Department "could and will likely lead" to a special investigator, while fellow Republican and South Carolina Lindsey Graham suggested the time is now for a special counsel to lead such an investigation.  Issa, a member and former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, the chamber's top investigative panel, made his comments to Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," after Attorney General Jeff Sessions said last week he would not immediately appoint a new special counsel to investigate Republican concerns involving the FBI and Justice Department.

Russians Bragged About 10 Spies Assigned to Clinton; Mueller, McCabe, and Rosenstein Helped Cover It Up.  The Uranium One scandal is the gift that keeps on giving:  Each new revelation continues to show more and more just how deep the rabbit hole of Clinton corruption goes.  An FBI informant has informed several congressional committees that during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state and leading up to her approval of the deal that handed over control of at least 20 percent of U.S. uranium reserves to Russia, Moscow assigned 10 spies in the United States to cozy up to Clinton to guarantee the deal.  And when it came to the attention of the FBI, Clinton had some big names help keep it under wraps.

Hey, Mueller, Here's Proof of Election-influencing Collusion With Foreign Nationals.  Just so we know our tax money isn't wasted, special counsel Robert Mueller recently handed down vanity indictments against 13 nationals and three entities of the Russian persuasion for, essentially, "trolling" before, during, and after the 2016 election.  But what of the far worse election meddlers?

Judge Nap:  Inspector General Will Find 'Treasure Trove' of Abuses by FBI, DOJ.  The probe stems from allegations of surveillance abuse by the FBI and DOJ in efforts to obtain FISA warrants to examine Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.  "FBI people who knew they couldn't get a warrant from a judge like me, where the standard is probable cause of crime, go to FISA where the standard is probable cause of talking to a foreign person," Napolitano said on "Fox and Friends."

First Investigate, then Dismantle, the FBI.  Some on the right were disappointed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions wrote Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy there would be no special counsel for now in the Hillary Clinton matters (email and Uranium One, one assumes) and the FISA/dossier/surveillance affair.  Not so fast.  Hiding in plain sight in Sessions' letter was information considerably more important than a special counsel, pro or con.  As he mentioned a week ago on Shannon Bream's show but now has made public officially, the attorney general has assigned a senior U.S. attorney to the investigation — John Huber.  Importantly, working in concert with the inspector general, Mr. Huber can actually indict people.

The Democratic Party Collusion Story Gets Worse.  We have barely begun to plumb the depths of the scandal arising out of the 2016 presidential election.  James Comey, John Brennan, Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Perkins Coie law firm, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, unknown Russians, Andrew McCabe — the list goes on and on, and it keeps getting longer.

Special counsel investigating the FBI.  The headline and accompanying story in the Hill made it appear as if Attorney General Jeff Sessions is defying the Senate:  "Sessions declines to appoint second special counsel."  The story said, "Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed in a letter to lawmakers Thursday [3/29/2018] that he had declined to name a second special counsel to investigate allegations of surveillance abuse within the Department of Justice, despite pressure from the Republican Party for him to do so."  I read the letter.  Sessions, a veteran prosecutor, said a special prosecutor isn't necessary.  Inspector General Michael Horowitz and his staff of 470 people are handling the investigation in the corruption of the FBI by Barack Obama and company.  Sessions named U.S. Attorney John Huber — an Obama appointee — of Utah to handle any prosecutions that may arise from Horowitz's investigation.

More Anti-Trump Bias Revealed:  Anti-Trump FBI Agents Laughed About Comey Intervening In Election.  Newly-revealed text messages between anti-Trump FBI agents show that the agents talked about former FBI Director James Comey intervening in the 2016 presidential election.  The texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two high-level FBI agents, appear to show they were discussing and laughing about Comey getting involved in the election just days after the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation spying on members of the Trump campaign.

What Is John Brennan Hiding?  An Obama-appointed Department of Justice inspector general finds that former FBI Director Andrew McCabe lacked candor while testifying under oath about stories he leaked to the press.  The IG report goes to the FBI-run Office of Professional Responsibility, which recommends McCabe's firing.  Attorney Jeff Sessions fires McCabe.  It's true the president taunted McCabe relentlessly on Twitter, but it's pretty clear he had nothing to do with the firing.

McCabe's Bogus Witch Hunt Of Jeff Sessions Confirms Worst Fears About FBI/DOJ Politicization.  Thousands upon thousands of media reports over the last year and a half have intimated, suggested, or flat-out asserted that President Donald Trump is a traitor who colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton.  What this widely held theory lacks in evidence, its diehard supporters in the media and other anti-Trump bastions make up for with their faith-filled conviction of its truth.  An alternate storyline has been unfolding over that same time.  The basic contour is that claims Trump stole the election by treasonously colluding with Russia are the result of a coordinated campaign that was bought and paid for by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, weaponized by the federal government, and promulgated by a completely compliant media.

DOJ Admits They Have a Grand Jury Empaneled in FBI and DOJ Investigation.  Today [3/22/2018] chairman Bob Goodlatte sends a formal subpoena to the DOJ (Inspector General Michael Horowitz) for documents regarding the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server, potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility recommendation to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Mark Levin:  Dimwit Republicans Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio Ignoring the Real Election Interference.  During a discussion with Sean Hannity on his show last night, Mark Levin picked up the one critical fact everyone seems to be missing or ignoring about Andrew McCabe and the Russia story.  The lawyer, radio, and television superstar first explained that the person who colluded with the Russians was Barack Obama.  Levin blasted Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio for worrying about "bad cop" Andrew McCabe losing his pension.  He is not losing his pension.  Democrats and these few Republicans are upset about this "bad cop" and his "mob boss" James Comey.  These are bad people, he said.  "The director of the FBI, Comey, and the deputy director, McCabe, these were bad cops," Levin told Hannity's audience.  "They were politicizing the FBI, they were obstructing certain investigations, they were pressing the foot on the gas peddle in other investigations, they are bad cops!"

Bombshell reveal:  A grand jury already is hearing evidence on DOJ and FBI scandals.  We are on the verge of a huge political explosion.  While there have been calls for a special counsel to investigate the DOJ and FBI scandals, and many conservatives have been outraged at the seeming passivity of "Gentleman Jeff" Sessions (aka Sessionzzz in some quarters), it now is clear (as I have already figured) that a grand jury far outside the Beltway already is hearing evidence dug up by DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, whose report is now believed to be coming in April.  Following release of that report, expect heads to explode all over the media, all over the Deep State, and among NeverTrumps.

Was The Mueller "Investigation" Actually Created By The Russians?  It's Starting To Look That Way.  There's mounting evidence to suggest the near-entirety of the Robert Mueller investigation is actually a perfectly executed Russian government chaos operation that would never have been possible without the help of current leaders in Congress and multiple members of the former Obama administration.

Jim Jordan:  Why did DOJ hide Strzok's link to federal judge?  Newly obtained text messages are showing that Trump-hating FBI agent Peter Strzok, well, he was close friends with U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras.  Now, the messages are also revealing that Strzok and his FBI lover Lisa Page, she wanted to meet Judge Contreras at a cocktail party.  Is that collusion?  Now, this is the same judge the presided over a hearing with the former national security adviser, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI.  Now, Judge Contreras then later mysteriously recused himself from the Flynn case.  [Video clip]

The FBI's Blood Feud:  "This Is Going To Get A Lot Uglier Before It's Over".  For a microcosm of the current madness of American politics, look no further than the weekend meltdown after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe late Friday.  Mr. Sessions acted on a recommendation by the FBI's own Office of Professional Responsibility, but Democrats and the media ignored that and called the firing part of Donald Trump's plot to undermine the FBI and steal American democracy.  Mr. Trump then seemingly tried to confirm the accusations with a Twitter fusillade hailing Mr. McCabe's firing and escalating without cause to attack special counsel Robert Mueller.  Which triggered another round of claims that Mr. Trump's days in office are numbered, or should be.

Is James Comey A Serial Liar?  When President Trump accused former FBI director James Comey of lying under oath in a tweet on Saturday [3/17/2018], defenders rushed to Comey's aid.  But Comey has been saying a lot of things that are decidedly fact challenged.

Former FBI Director Goes On Record:  "Comey, McCabe, & Brennan All Corrupt & Everything Leads Back To Obama".  James Kallstrom is no joke.  With nearly thirty years in the FBI, several of them as the Assistant Director, Kallstrom knows how the agency functions far more than most.  So when he says there was a plot to protect Hillary Clinton from prosecution and to illegally influence the 2016 Election people should pay attention.  Kallstrom goes on to call the entirety of the FBI investigation against Donald Trump completely phony.  Maria Bartiromo's own take appears very much to compliment Mr. Kallstrom's assertions.  The Deep State shenanigans run very deep and in 2016 are linked to the Obama White House.  Barack Obama wanted a third term.  His support-system within the FBI, DOJ, State Department, CIA, the Establishment Media, etc., wanted the same and they all broke the law in their attempt to do it.  Donald Trump has managed to reveal much of it.  The media continues to ignore it because so many of them are implicated in the illegal manipulations of the public as well.  That means it's up to YOU to bypass the media and help to spread the truth of what is really going on.

Why is the FBI leadership so incompetent?  Think about this — FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had to wait to retire because he had too few years in the FBI.  Yet, he was the Deputy Director.  Many agents with 3 years, or even less, time actually investigating cases, become Supervisors at FBI Headquarters.  Once they get on the management track, they stay there.  Many FBI managers have little investigative experience, which has a catastrophic impact on major cases as these people rise up the ranks.  During FBI Director Mueller's tenure, there was a significant period of time when former police and military personnel were intentionally not hired.  This had a devastating impact on the FBI's culture.

FISA Judge Removed From Flynn Case Had Secret Friendship With Anti-Trump FBI Official Peter Strzok.  The federal judge who recused himself from the Michael Flynn case is personal friends with Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who conducted the White House interview in which the former national security adviser has pleaded guilty to lying.  The friendship between Strzok and Rudolph Contreras, a judge on the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is discussed in text messages the FBI agent exchanged with his mistress, Lisa Page.  The Justice Department redacted the references to Contreras in 384 pages of text messages provided to Congress.  Congressional investigators read the underlying documents and have filled in some of the gaps.  The unredacted versions of the texts were obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

A second special counsel should be investigating the FBI leaks.  Anyone waiting for final proof that Washington needs a second special counsel got it Friday.  The breathless anticipation over whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions would fire Andrew McCabe before McCabe's FBI retirement began was a ridiculous exercise better suited for a television game show.  The pressure built because if he survived Friday, McCabe could retire with a lifetime pension estimated to be worth $1.8 million.  But if Sessions followed the recommendations of Justice Department lawyers and fired McCabe for wrongdoing before the witching hour, the former deputy director would get no pension and might face a criminal investigation.  The absurdity was not negated when Sessions finally fired him late in the evening.  Either way he ruled, the spectacle was not worthy of the grave issues involved.

Why aren't Mueller, the FBI and DOJ interested in illegal actions that might alter our elections?  In announcing the recent indictments against Russians brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the American people that "there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity.  There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election."  That was good news.  The bad news is that the special counsel, the FBI, and the Department of Justice don't seem interested in illegal actions that may actually affect the outcome of U.S. elections.  The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) sued Pennsylvania on Monday for concealing numerous cases of noncitizens registering to vote.  One Pennsylvania election official testified before the state Legislature that an estimated 100,000 noncitizens are registered in the commonwealth.

Obama FBI Officials May Face Charges of Conspiracy, Obstruction of Justice and Contempt of Court.  According to the report, DOJ and FBI officials who abused the FISA process could be subject to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and contempt of court.  Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of treasonous thugs.

The Case For and Against a Special Counsel Investigation of DOJ and FBI.  A second special counsel might investigate any or all of the following:  possible criminal violations by senior FBI and DOJ officials in obtaining a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign volunteer, the bureau's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to send classified information and whether senior Obama administration officials, including the president, were aware of the use of the unverified dossier to open an investigation into the Trump campaign and possible Russian collusion.  The investigations could also be conducted by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is expected to conclude his much-anticipated report into the FBI's handling of the Clinton server investigation in the next several weeks and who Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked to investigate possible FISA warrant abuse against Carter Page, who briefly volunteered for the Trump campaign in 2016.

FBI, Hillary scandals could have a ripple effect on Wall Street.  Again, if you are investing in US financial markets, keep a close eye on developments regarding the FBI and the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation.  The markets don't like chaos, and that's what we are headed for.  There have been a lot of major developments recently, although most big media organizations are ignoring them.  They will soon regret that.

A few people are leaving the FBI, but they're not going to prison!    Yet.
The Trump, Clinton Scandals Are Claiming A Lot Of Bodies — At FBI And Justice.  [I]f the FBI and Justice are so squeaky clean of political bias, what accounts for the growing pile of top officials deeply involved in those supposedly above-board investigations who've been reassigned, demoted or have suddenly quit their jobs?  There have been nearly half a dozen in just the past few weeks.  Thankfully, reporter Sharyl Attkisson has been keeping a running tally.

Hillary Clinton's Fingerprints Are All Over The FBI's Investigation Into Trump's Russia Ties.  A significant part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's basis for investigating the Trump campaign's Russia ties is looking more and more like a political hit job carried out by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.  Her campaign's fingerprints are on at least three separate pieces of information fed to the FBI, including the Christopher Steele dossier Republicans say formed the basis of a secret warrant obtained to spy on Trump campaign associate Carter Page.  A former State Department official confirmed on the record Thursday [2/8/2018] that Clinton associates were funneling information to Steele as he was compiling a dossier commissioned and paid for by the Clinton campaign and DNC.  That's on top of the recent revelation that a top Department of Justice official fed the FBI information compiled by his wife, who was working for the firm Clinton and the DNC were paying to dig up dirt on Trump, Fusion GPS.

The rogue FBI may collapse.  The public is now learning of the use of the FBI to destroy evidence of Hillary's exposure of national secrets while helping to fabricate a dossier to justify spying on the Trump campaign.  This is go-to-jail stuff.  The problem is, who prosecutes these bad cops?

The Dirty Dozen Deep State Operatives Who Have been Demoted or Left the DOJ-FBI Since Election.  Ten People Have Been Fired or Demoted from the DOJ and FBI since 2017.

How Obama's Hillary Clinton cover-ups destroyed DOJ and FBI.  [Scroll down]  The announcement states, "There was a problem with Strzok and Page's bureau-issued Samsung Galaxies — that 'firmware upgrades' and other technical issues deleted records of texts sent from not only their phones but many phones across the bureau.  We regretfully report that these text messages were lost."  This occurred during a crucial time in the Russia investigation that included Michael Flynn's resignation due to lies about his Russian ties and FBI Director James Comey's firing.  We now know this statement is not true since the "lost" emails have now magically reappeared.  However, the DOJ has decided to withhold, for personal and other reasons, more than 85% of the text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

Confirmed: Clinton operative Sidney Blumenthal helped spread Russia collusion fever before the election.  Earlier this week we wrote about the possible involvement of Clinton operative Sidney Blumenthal in feeding information to Christoper Steele, author of the infamous Clinton/DNC funded dossier.  That dossier formed a key part of the FBI's presentation to the FISA court to obtain a warrant to surveil Carter Page.

"Mike" is Out — Michael P Kortan Quits FBI.  Another longtime FBI official quits today.  According to Fox News Catherine Herridge reporting, FBI Asst.  Director Michael Kortan (aka text message "Mike"), the head of the FBI Public Affairs Office, has announced he is retiring.  Mike Kortan was previously exposed by FBI Agent Peter Strozok as having specific information that the investigation into Hillary Clinton was manipulated by the "small group".  "Mike's" job was to sell the ruse as a valid investigation.

Another longtime Comey aide leaving FBI.  The longtime head of public affairs at the FBI — who was a confidant of former director James Comey — is planning to retire, Fox News has learned.  A notice went out this week for a retirement get-together for Michael Kortan scheduled for Feb. 15.  Since 2009, Kortan has served as assistant director for public affairs, an influential job that controlled media access.  He also served under former director Robert Mueller, now leading the Russia probe.  The FBI confirmed to Fox News that Kortan is retiring.

Tear Down That Wall ... of Silence.  As the Obama wall of silence begins to crumble, the FBI's reputation is befouled by its own rash actions, a politicized Justice Department stands revealed as, well, politicized, and the Democrats furiously spin the facts outlined in the Nunes Memo and subsequent revelations, there's only one overarching question left to ask:  what made them think they could get away with it?  And by "them," I mean the lot of them — the corrupt, partisan officials, the political operatives masquerading as selfless public servants, the intelligence community pooh-bahs who betrayed their trusts, the preening "straight arrows," the talking heads, the Washington bureau chiefs, the White House correspondents, every man jack of whom did his level best to create, run, and disseminate a disinformation operation designed to do one thing:  destroy the unwanted and unwelcome presidency of Donald J. Trump.

Sudden FBI departures indicate that the jig is up.  Choose your metaphor:  rats leaving a sinking ship, cockroaches scurrying away from the light, or maybe just people cutting deals to save their butts.  Yesterday [2/8/2018] saw the FBI fan feculated.  The blandness of this Politico story, titled "Two more officials cited in FBI texts step down," conceals really, really big news.  The jig is up.  Each of the "officials" who is "stepping down" is leaving under duress and likely facing serious legal consequences for acts that have been disclosed — acts that go to the heart of the fraudulent application for the Page FISA warrant and the obstruction of justice in the Hillary email probe.

Russia-Trump Investigation:  How Did Hillary Clinton Get FBI, FISA To Do Her Political Dirty Work?  Recent revelations point to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and a secretive group of supporters and hangers-on both inside and outside of the FBI and Justice Department as having a far deeper personal involvement in the investigation than first thought.  Fears of a politicized and manipulative "deep state" are looking less paranoid by the day.  The involvement of Hillary Clinton campaign aides in both the FBI's and Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's supposed ties to the Trump campaign in 2016 now seems deeper, and more nefarious, than first thought.

Disgraced FBI Agent Lisa Page Also Trashed Pro-Lifers: 'I Truly Hate These People'.  Disgraced former FBI lawyer Lisa Page not only has a strong distaste for President Trump, but also pro-lifers.  According to LifeNews, on page 13 of the Interim Report by Sen. Ron Johnson titled "The Clinton Email Scandal And The FBI'S Investigation Of It," released yesterday [2/7/2018], there is an "exchange between FBI senior lawyer Peter Strzok, Page's co-adulterer, and her about pro-life Americans."  Simply put, Page not only dislikes the pro-life movement but "truly hate[s] these people," making it personal.

How The Media Buried Two Huge FBI Stories Yesterday.  For more than a year and a half, the media have gone all-in on reporting every possible angle of President Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Russia.  No story update has been too small, no encounter with a Russian too inconsequential, and no anonymous source too sketchy to generate outsize coverage and histrionic claims from major media.  But as the Russian collusion story disintegrates, another interesting story ascends.  Investigations by multiple congressional committees as well as an investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Justice have shown irregularities in the handling of the most politically sensitive probes in recent memory:  the investigation into Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information while secretary of State and the investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged nefarious ties with Russia to meddle in a U.S. election.

FBI Missed Clinton Emails Openly Marked Classified, Wanted To Conclude Probe Before IG Caught Mistake.  The FBI didn't notice that some emails from Hillary Clinton's private email server were marked classified with a "(C)" when they were sent — something that seemingly would have been one of the first and most obvious checks in an investigation, and one that FBI agents instantly recognized put the facts at odds with Clinton's public statements.  The Intelligence Community Inspector General spotted it after the FBI missed it, texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, reveal.  "Holy cow," Strzok wrote, "if the FBI missed this, what else was missed?"

Peter Strzok Savages Chelsea Clinton in Newly Released FBI Text Messages.  FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page are in hot water after their text messages were blasted out to the public.  The two were caught disparaging Trump, Gowdy, 'hillbilly' Virginians and many other people.  Strzok also savaged Chelsea Clinton leading up to the DNC convention in late July of 2016 and then again during the convention.

Read FBI Texts Of Agents Hating On Trump While Supporting Illegal Immigration.  These are/were high-ranking FBI officials charged with responsibilities like counter-intelligence and yet when you read their communications you are struck by how dumb/immature they are.  They are left-wing, yes, but also oddly adolescent in how they view the world around them.  Spoiled, petulant, and thinking their version of morality is all-important.  They helped orchestrate the sham investigation into the very real crimes of Hillary Clinton and then were deeply involved in the real investigation into the false crimes they have attempted to manufacture against POTUS Trump.

Sr. Congressional Oversight Member:  Everything From Fast & Furious, Benghazi, IRS, & Other Obama Scandals Connected To Corrupt DOJ & FBI.  Congressman Paul Gosar didn't hold back in a recent interview and he's now begging the American people to pay more attention and demand answers from their political leaders.  According to Gosar, the Obama White House micromanaged everything from drone attacks to illegal surveillance on political opponents and was able to do so via very carefully placed DOJ and FBI firewalls that to this day continue to insulate Barack Obama and other Obama-related officials, from justice.

Exclusive — Rep. Paul Gosar:  Obama's Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS Scandals All Connected to DOJ, FBI Corruption in Trump Probe.  Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), a leading conservative member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told Breitbart News Daily on Wednesday that he believes that there is an interconnectivity between various high-profile Barack Obama-era scandals and the latest revelations about corruption at the Department of Justice and FBI.

FBI 'needs to clean house,' former agents say.  Former FBI agents say it may take a long time to wash away the stain of political-bias accusations lobbed against the bureau, which has long been viewed as the nation's premier law enforcement agency.  Criticism of the storied bureau has been bipartisan.  Republicans point to accusations that the agency mishandled the justification for spying on a Trump campaign figure, and Democrats are furious at the FBI's investigation of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over her email and private server while she headed the State Department.  In between are a slew of embarrassing text messages from an agent involved in both the Trump and Clinton investigations, revelations of top officials' partisan ties, and a wave of demotions and ousters.

Flashback: President Obama Promised 'No Political Influence' in FBI Investigations 'Period.  Full Stop.'  On April 10, 2016, former President Barack Obama vowed that there was no political influence on any investigations in the FBI.  "I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case," Obama said.  "Full stop.  Period."  Obama made his comment in an interview with Fox News reporter Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

Also posted in the catalog of Obama's lies.

Explosion over the Washington Swamp.  The first director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, was at the helm for almost 50 years.  During this time, the FBI turned from a small agency that dealt with federal crimes to one of the leading political forces of Washington.  Hoover transformed the FBI from a criminal investigation agency into a criminal and political investigation agency.  The files he collected over the years (both real and imaginary) made the FBI a powerful lever of political influence.  Probably, Hoover could have become president if he wanted to.  But he played the role of the "Gray Eminence" until the end.

Nunes memo raises question:  Did FBI violate Woods Procedures?  There are strict rules requiring that each and every fact presented in an FBI request to electronically spy on a U.S. citizen be extreme-vetted for accuracy — and presented to the court only if verified.  There's no dispute that at least some, if not a great deal, of information in the anti-Trump "Steele dossier" was unverified or false.  Former FBI director James Comey testified as much himself before a Senate committee in June 2017. [...] Presentation of any such unverified material to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to justify a wiretap would appear to violate crucial procedural rules, called "Woods Procedures," designed to protect U.S. citizens.

An open letter to the FBI agent who resigned because of Trump.  Until recently Josh Campbell was an FBI special agent.  He was appointed in 2008 and stationed in the Los Angeles field office.  He also once served as a special assistant to James Comey.  He is now most well known for a New York Times op-ed, "Why I am leaving the FBI."  In the wake of Comey's firing last May, he wrote another piece for USA Today — a glowingly sympathetic tribute to the just-relieved director, "James Comey is no showboat."  What struck me odd at the time — having retired in 2015 after serving for 25 years in the FBI agent and executive management ranks — was this:  Who afforded a GS-13 bureau employee the privilege to have a personal opinion piece published?

Comey's Former Special Assistant Lands Gig at CNN After Resigning From FBI and Trashing Trump.  Josh Campbell quit the FBI last week.  Then he wrote an op-ed for The New York Times where he complained about people exposing the corruption and criminal acts by agency leaders.  "I am reluctantly turning in my badge and leaving an organization I love," Campbell wrote in the NY Times op-ed.  It turns out this precious snowflake was crooked Cop Comey's special assistant.

I am proud of the FBI.  As this case against the misuse of the FBI and the intelligence community develops, I realize that without good, honest agents in the FBI, we would have never known, because Hillary would be president. [...] After Trump's election, Obama and company foolishly tried to use the deep state to bring Trump down.  Instead, they should be sweating things out.  You see, the good guys in the FBI (and elsewhere) are not letting this die.  Comey scorched the bureau's reputation.  Some good people in the bureau are fighting back.

FISA Court Judge James Boasberg Rules Comey Memos Will Remain Secret.  The media are pointing out that a Federal District Court Judge, has ruled against the release of the memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote to himself while acting head of the FBI.  However, one little thing they fail to notice: [...]

Keep calm and Comey on.  CNN, USA Today, the Daily Caller, Judicial Watch and other outlets brought a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI to obtain copies of the memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote to document his conversations with President Trump.  Comey, you may recall, strategically leaked a memo or two to his friend Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School, under orders to leak the contents to the New York Times.  When President Trump fired Comey, Comey sought the appointment of Special Counsel to remove Trump from office.  And not just any Special Counsel — Comey desired the appointment of his friend Robert Mueller.  Richman followed orders.  He called the Times.  He read parts of one or more of the memos to the Times.  The Times published a page-one story by Michael Schmidt with Comey's account.  The appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel ensued.

FBI hired dossier author Steele to investigate Trump, fired him for lying about media leaks.  The FBI officially authorized payments to Christopher Steele, who wrote the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, but then fired the former British spy for lying to agents about his covert leaks to the news media.  The sequence of events is outlined in the declassified memo released Friday by Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican and chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  The Nunes memo is the first official confirmation that the FBI hierarchy made a decision to start paying Mr. Steele and why the deal fell through.  Justice Department witnesses in public have declined to confirm such a deal.

Other Secrets of the FBI.  During these last few days, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been the center of attention as perhaps never before.  As this is being written, a memo may be released pertaining to the FBI that may prove to be the most scandalous of all time.  This article seeks not to reveal classified or formerly classified material, but to impart a better understanding of recent events relating to the FBI.  Some of the topics covered are secrets in the sense that many people who should know better have fixed ideas that are wrong about the FBI.  Other topics are simply not known to the general public.  In both cases a better understanding of these topics will allow for a better and more-informed general discussion concerning all matters pertaining to that institution.

Why the FISA memo could lead to perjury convictions of Comey & Co..  The 2018 Groundhog Day release of the Nunes FISA memo was preceded by partisan and establishment objections that its disclosure would somehow jeopardize ... something.  The contents of the memo now show the objections by anti-Trump forces in this historic matter were certainly a case where they "doth protest too much."  J. Marsolo explains why FISA warrant procurers James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Rod Rosenstein, and Dana Boente have reason to be nervous: [...]

The Center of the Web.  [Scroll down]  The conduct of Lynch, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, and others did not occur in a vacuum.  There was a purpose and direction to it.  The first question is, who benefits?  The answer is, Hillary and Obama.  The second question is, why did Lynch, Comey, Strzok, McCabe and others act to benefit Hillary and Obama?  They did not risk their careers to do things they knew were illegal unless they were motivated to do so by their superiors, and they believed they would get away with it because they expected Hillary to win the Presidency.  Obama set the stage when he announced publicly at the beginning of Comey's investigation that Hillary made a mistake but did not intend to violate the law, and did not endanger national security.  This was Obama's marching order to Lynch and Comey.  Comey's exoneration letter reflected Obama's statement.

Tip of The Iceberg.  For several years the U.S. justice department has maintained an attitude of non-accountability within its ranks.  The Obama years elevated that attitude and provided multiple examples of a DOJ gone rogue.  A complicit media enables that attitude by engineering a false narrative the U.S. Justice Department was/is an independent fourth branch of government; unaccountable to congress and entirely separate from the executive branch.  The House Intelligence Memo is simply using the example of currently known FISA abuse to open the door and show the U.S. electorate how corrupt this unaccountable institution has become.  Behind that door are very uncomfortable realities for all of those who constructed the weaponized agency; and also those who have benefited from it.

FBI to Trump White House:  Please Block The FISA Memo That Could Expose Us For Spying On You.  The four-page memo is seen by some as a document that could offer clarity over whether the FBI used the shoddy Trump dossier compiled by former MI6 operative Christopher Steele, whose was contracted by research firm Fusion GPS — which was given money for this opposition research project by the Hillary campaign.  It wasn't corroborated and on top of that, Steele is said to have given the FBI another dossier compiled by a Clinton political operative, Cody Shearer, which also wasn't verified.  So, did the FBI/DOJ secure FISA warrants on members of the Trump campaign by presenting before the court unverified documents?

Ron Johnson wants communications from 16 new DOJ and FBI employees, including James Comey and Andrew McCabe.  Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson has requested the Department of Justice turn over communications from 16 FBI and DOJ officials, including former Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.  In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein sent Wednesday [1/31/2018], the Wisconsin Republican requested "all documents and communications" — which includes emails, memos, notes, texts, iPhone instant messages, and voicemails — from 16 employees between January 1, 2015, to the present.  The request is part of the committee's broader probe into how the FBI handled its investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

Intelligence Recognizes Presidential Authority — A Case of Too Little, Too Late.  The FBI's top leadership — whose careers, business dealings, politics, marriages and extramarital affairs intertwine — invested itself incompetently and illegally into the 2016 election campaign against Donald Trump.  In part to cover itself, it launched the so-called "Russia probe."  Its members are personally, deeply interested in keeping the public from seeing the documents concerning these activities.  They raised the familiar shield:  release would compromise the sources and methods of national security.  The House of Representatives' Republican majority wanted the documents made public, issued a subpoena for them, and was prepared to jail senior FBI for contempt had they not complied with it.  The House compromised, being satisfied by viewing them and making a summary, which it has voted to make public.

The FBI Has 'Grave Concerns'? So Do I.  I have grave concerns about the politicization of the Department of Justice and the FBI under the Obama administration, which I have been writing about since 2010. [...] If there are "material omissions of fact," the Democrats' responsive memo no doubt will reveal them.  Good: let's lay the cards on the table.  The relevant fact here is that the FBI is no longer claiming that there is a national security problem with releasing the memo, only that it will put the FBI in a bad light.

Second Dossier by 'Creepy Clinton Confidante' Raises Doubts About FBI's Trump Probe.  Reports that the FBI has been utilizing a second dossier in its investigation of unsubstantiated claims of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's presidential campaign raise more questions about the credibility of the federal bureau's already controversial probe.  According to a report in the Guardian citing "multiple sources," the second memo in question was authored by Cody Shearer, a shadowy former tabloid journalist who has long been closely associated with various Clinton scandals.

Former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova:  FBI Going Through Worst Period in Its History.  Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Joe DiGenova Monday evening said that the FBI was going through the worst time in its history and predicted that a federal grand jury would be convened that was "not going to be pretty."  DiGenova blamed former FBI director James Comey, outgoing deputy director Andrew McCabe, and everybody else at the senior levels at the FBI for this "disgraceful moment for the bureau."  He added that after working with the bureau for over 30 years, the fall from grace of the people working there "truly saddened" him.  "Make no mistake about it," the former federal prosecutor told Fox News' Laura Ingraham.  "This was a plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton illegally, and then if she lost the election, to frame Donald Trump with an illegal crime."

Major Revelations Coming in FBI Bias/Corruption Scandal.  If you were beginning to buy the media narrative that the GOP was simply chasing a "fake" conspiracy and attempting to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation... don't do it.  There is more to the congressional investigation into the FBI and DoJ than the media is letting on.  How do we know?  Because this is the first time that we aren't seeing any major leaks from the Democrats involved in the investigation.  If there was "nothing" to this investigation, do you have any doubt that the Democrats would have already leaked the evidence that it was a "nothing-burger?"  Of course they would have.

Paul Ryan calls to 'cleanse' the FBI, backs surveillance memo release.  House Speaker Paul Ryan called Tuesday [1/30/2018] to "cleanse" the FBI as he openly backed the release of a controversial memo that purportedly details alleged surveillance abuses by the U.S. government.  "Let it all out, get it all out there.  Cleanse the organization," Ryan, R-Wis., said.

Look Who Turned on the FBI!.  Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer has lost his confidence in the FBI.  Fleischer says he used to support Comey on the Hillary investigation, but now thinks it was all a sham.

Does the Washington Post understand the 'rule of law'?  The Washington Post editorialized that Republicans are trying to undermine the rule of law because they dare question the FBI and Justice Department on their motives and methodology used to justify spying on a political opponent.  Evidence now clearly shows the Justice Department did everything they could to elect Hillary and destroy Trump, abusing the FISA Court to weaponize the nation's intelligence and law enforcement apparatus.

House Intelligence Committee opens investigation into DOJ, FBI.  The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has opened a new investigation into both the Department of Justice and the FBI.  Ranking Member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters the Democratic minority was informed of the apparently new investigations Monday night [1/29/2018] "for the first time."  According to committee rules, the majority has to consult with the minority before opening an investigation.  Schiff said Monday night [1/29/2018] there was no such consultation.

Why Obama pardoned Gen Cartwright on his last day in office.  Obama pardoned Gen Cartwright on his last day in office, for leaking secrets to the NYT about Stuxnet (the US-Israeli cyber attacks on Iran).  Oh — and if this incredible thread is true, he just happens to be the grandfather of Peter Strzok's first cousin, Devin.  Cartwright, 'Obama's favorite General', was a key member of Obama's natsec team and head of the U.S. Strategic Command.  His leak to the media wasn't revealed until 2016.  He later pleaded guilty for lying to FBI agents pursuing an investigation into the leak.  In March 2015, the Washington Post reported that the sensitive leak investigation had "stalled amid concerns that a prosecution in federal court could force the government to confirm" information about the highly classified program.  Who was the investigator?  Rod Rosenstein.

FBI agents' texts reveal Hillary Clinton probe likely fixed.  The FBI is still coming under scrutiny, as some of the newly found text messages between two FBI officials have been released, and they show that the agents were apprehensive about going after Hillary Clinton.  And on Friday [1/26/2018], Republican lawmakers responded to the messages, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy telling Fox News that it "doesn't appear anyone wanted her charged."  "Now we know the fix was in, and I think the logical thing is, if the fix was in on the Clinton investigation, and if these same people — the top people at the FBI — started and ran the Trump-Russia investigation, might there be some bad things going on there as well," Rep. Jim Jordan asked while on Fox and Friends on Friday.  "And as you look at these text messages, it sure looks like there is."

FBI's Secret, Anti-American Society.  Deep State operatives dominate the FBI.  They have never worried about discovery.  They believe they are too big to indict, and that they are somehow above the law.  Except, now, the FBI is under fire, and under examination, and the liberal left's wagons are circling the agency, not only to hide the corruption, but to keep the public from learning that a secret society of leftism is running rampant through the nation's top bureau of investigation.  They are trying to even blame the Russians for the FBI's crimes, but fall short drastically.

Why aren't the Democrats horrified by the corruption at the FBI and DOJ?  It is becoming clearer by the day, after over a year of investigations, that the Obama administration did indeed weaponize the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, the ATF, the IRS and the NSA.  Over those eight years, each of the above agencies was transformed into an arm of the Democratic Party tasked with crippling the opposition and abrogating the Constitution.  Since all of the mainstream media already were arms of the DNC, it is well and truly a miracle that Donald Trump prevailed throughout his campaign to win the election, as the entire DC bureaucracy and media were aligned against him.  Most of them still are.  Those law enforcement institutions in which Americans have put their trust and faith for many decades have been thoroughly compromised by a group of bad actors at the top, self-appointed arbiters of electoral politics.

Why Trust the FBI?  Another big tranche of missing communications?  Really?  When the IRS was in trouble for targeting tea-party organizations and other conservative groups in the run-up to the 2012 election, thousands of emails — evidence under subpoena — went missing.  John Koskinen, then acting commissioner of the IRS, lied to Congress about how and why that happened, a fact he was later forced to acknowledge.  As a legal question, the result of all that malfeasance — destroying evidence — was precisely squat.  Lois Lerner walks the streets a free woman with a fat federal pension, and John Koskinen is perfectly comfortable showing his face in the daylight.  And now it is the FBI's turn.

The Sad Decline of the FBI.  The FBI scandals continue to unravel.  Scott has chronicled the saga of the missing Strzok/Page text messages, now apparently on the road to recovery.  The FBI has continued to stonewall Congressional investigations, to the point where Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley says the FBI is playing "a bureaucratic game of hide the ball."  And House Republicans have prepared a four-page memo that apparently summarizes the FBI's malfeasance in connection with the fake Trump dossier.  Some who have read it say it may lead to criminal prosecutions within the Department of Justice.  DOJ is demanding a look at the memo, but so far House Republicans won't turn it over.  Why?  Because they know what Justice bureaucrats will do with it.  They will leak it to their friends at the New York Times and the Washington Post so they can preemptively attack the memo before the public gets to see it.

As walls close in on FBI, the bureau lashes out at its antagonists.  There are two overarching issues.  First, there's the alleged improper use of politically-funded opposition research to justify secret warrants to spy on U.S. citizens for political purposes.  Second, if corruption is ultimately identified at high levels in our intel agencies, it would necessitate a re-examination of every case and issue the officials touched over the past decade — or two — under administrations of both parties.  This is why I think the concerns transcend typical party politics.  It touches everybody.  It's potentially monumental.

Senator Chuck Grassley Sends Letters Requesting Information.  As part of their ongoing oversight efforts to ensure that the FBI's law enforcement activities are free of improper political influence, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) yesterday sent six letters seeking information and documents regarding Christopher Steele's work on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary for America.  The letters seek information and documents relating to those political organizations' knowledge of and involvement in Mr. Steele's work and his reported interactions with the FBI while he was working on behalf of these political organizations.

Forensic Experts Retrieve 'Ghost Texts'.  The Inspector General has recovered the Samsung 5 cellphones of two embattled FBI agents at the center of ongoing Department of Justice and Congressional investigations.  The two agents are under scrutiny for their involvement in the Special Counsel's investigation into President Trump and alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.  The DOJ's Inspector general is now retrieving some of the missing five months of crucial text messages exchanged between the pair of FBI agents using forensic experts to track 'ghost texts,' left behind even after they are deleted from the devices, former and current law enforcement officials told this reporter.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte Discusses Justice Department Corruption.  House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte is a key figure in the overall investigation and reform effort needed within the U.S. Justice System because the House Judicial Committee holds primary oversight over the U.S. Department of Justice.  By statutory construct the DOJ and FBI are directly and primarily accountable to Chairman Bob Goodlatte and the House Judicial Committee, on all matters.  This primary oversight structure is why Chairman Goodlatte and DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz are working so closely during the ongoing justice department investigation.

The FBI Is Looking Guilty In Russia Probe.  As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's vast and fruitless investigation into supposed ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government drags on, it's the FBI itself that appears to have been engaged in nefarious activities.

Sessions Has No Choice But To Appoint A Special Counsel To Investigate DOJ, FBI.  It is long past time for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to investigate the possibility of widespread and systematic corruption, obstruction, leaking, and collusion within America's law enforcement and intelligence agencies.  The leadership of the FBI and Department of Justice have made clear, through their ongoing obstruction of congressional investigations and oversight, that these agencies simply can not be trusted to investigate or police themselves.

The Stench at Obama's DOJ and FBI.  For a brief, shining moment, CNN paused in its nonstop coverage of everything it loathes about President Trump for some actual "breaking news."  One of the network's reporters had noticed that Congress was looking into malfeasance and political corruption at the Obama-era Department of Justice, FBI, and intelligence agencies.  This is still news to most mainstream outlets.  There are now three major congressional investigations, peeling away layers of political bias, unequal application of the law, and, perhaps even felonies by senior officials who may have leaked classified documents, obstructed justice, and violated Fourth Amendment guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure.

FBI Official:  FBI Agents Threatened Physical Harm to President Trump In Missing FBI Texts.  A high-ranking FBI official confirms a number of the missing 50,000 FBI text messages — as well as other text and email messages among FBI brass — reportedly discussed initiating physical harm to President Donald Trump.  The FBI official urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — which oversees the U.S. Secret Service — to launch an investigation of the Justice Department, the FBI and all text messages missing and otherwise that threatened the President.  "This is dangerous territory and all FBI text messages and personal phones should be examined," the official said.  "It would reveal some frightening conversations."

Texts surface; FBI officials worried abt being too tough on Hillary during email investigation.  After reports surfaced earlier this week that five months of text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page disappeared and several difference excuses later as to how it could have occurred, the DOJ's Inspector General reported earlier today that the text messages are in the process of being recovered.  The result, additional text messages from October 2016 revealed that former FBI Director, James Comey thought that Andrew McCabe should recuse himself from the Clinton investigation... for starters.  Talk about a can of worms.  In the meantime, Progressives are becoming more bitter and hateful by the hour, a true sign of their desperation.

On Capitol Hill, growing frustration with FBI secrecy.  Republicans in both the House and Senate are growing increasingly frustrated with the FBI and Justice Department over tight restrictions on classified and other confidential information in the Trump-Russia affair.  The restrictions mean the FBI and Justice Department control what congressional investigators may see; under what conditions they may see it; and what they may make public.  The practical result is that voters remain in the dark about hugely consequential events going on in Washington.

FBI Text Said To "Directly" Link Obama To Illegal 2016 Election Tampering.  By now it is no secret to those paying attention that when POTUS Barack Obama weaponized federal intelligence resources to try and sway the 2016 Election in favor of the Democrat candidate of his choosing — Hillary Clinton.  It is the same kind of illegal use of federal entities to go after political enemies the Obama administration utilized previously with the IRS, the EPA, etc.  This time, though, Mr. Obama might actually have been caught with the evidence to prove it.

What Do We Do About the FBI?  Suppose what many are now suspecting is completely true — that the FBI, or parts of it, exonerated Hillary Clinton and her cohorts with a mock investigation, attempted to swing our presidential election against Donald Trump and then continued to undermine the new administration after they had won with illegitimate claims of Russian collusion orchestrated by sleazy political lowlifes?  While this is not quite Stalinist — no one was tortured in Lubyanka or sent to the Gulag for life — it's not all that distant.  It's tantamount to an internal coup d'état that is still ongoing.

The Problem Isn't Just Corruption at the FBI and Main Justice, It's Also The Media.  Over the past year we have learned that a significant number of people within the DOJ and FBI have been the source of leaks to the media.  Almost all of those leaks built on lies.  Reports have confirmed that FBI Director James Comey, his chief legal counsel, James Baker as well as his chief-of-staff James Rybicki have all been leaking to media outlets.  In addition, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI Attorney Lisa Page have been identified as leaking stories to Politico, the Washington Post and New York Times.  Adding to that mix, Asst. AG Sally Yates, Asst. AG John Carlin and a host of Main Justice officials were also participating in leaks; all leaks based on self-interest.

Evidence suggests a massive scandal is brewing at the FBI.  During the financial crisis, the federal government bailed out banks it declared "too big to fail."  Fearing their bankruptcy might trigger economic Armageddon, the feds propped them up with taxpayer cash.  Something similar is happening now at the FBI, with the Washington wagons circling the agency to protect it from charges of corruption.  This time, the appropriate tag line is "too big to believe."  Yet each day brings credible reports suggesting there is a massive scandal involving the top ranks of America's premier law enforcement agency.

FBI "Small Group" Key Figure, James Rybicki, Quits — Here Comes The Lois Lerner Manuever.  [James] Rybicki was the key figure in circulating and coordinating the "Clinton Exoneration Statement" read by Director Comey.  For Clinton endeavor Rybicki was the hub collecting and dispatching communication as the 'talking points' were constructed, edited, refined and ultimately finalized.  Additionally, Rybicki was the communication hub surrounding the Clinton-Lynch 'Tarmac Meeting' discussion points that led to public statements therein by the FBI and ultimately Loretta Lynch's public statements about distancing herself from the investigation.

The feds repeatedly manage to lose or intentionally destroy evidence against powerful people the Deep State supports.  A computer glitch supposedly destroyed five months of text messages of anti-Trumpers at the FBI.  Sure it did. [...] Since the government loses and destroys so many records that would hang powerful people, why should we believe they won't destroy documents that would exonerate people they want to hang?  Journalists should stop pretending they believe in equal justice for all since they are so willing to look the other way for people they support.

Former Federal Prosecutor Outlines Scope of FBI and DOJ Corruption.  Former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova outlines the majority of the events behind the unlawful surveillance of Donald Trump and each of the participating members within the FBI and DOJ corruption.  In essence, during this 30 minute discussion, diGenova outlines much of the back-story and how FBI officials Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok, Jim Baker, Andrew McCabe and Jim Comey participated along with Justice Department Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, John P Carlin, Bruce Ohr and Lisa Page.  Mr. diGenova has a solid grasp on the players and how they are enmeshed within the entire operation.  [Video clip]

Republicans Have Four Easy Ways to #ReleaseTheMemo — and the Evidence for It.  Social media last night and today have been flooded with inflammatory and quite dramatic claims now being made by congressional Republicans about a four-page memo alleging abuses of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act spying processes during the 2016 election.  This memo, which remains secret, was reportedly written under the direction of the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, and has been read by dozens of members of Congress after the committee voted to make the memo available to all members of the House of Representatives to examine in a room specially designated for reviewing classified material.  The rhetoric issuing from GOP members who read the memo is notably extreme.  North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, called the memo "troubling" and "shocking" and said, "Part of me wishes that I didn't read it because I don't want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much."  GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania stated:  "You think about, 'Is this happening in America or is this the KGB?'  That's how alarming it is."  This has led to a ferocious outcry on the right to "release the memo" — and presumably thereby prove that the Obama administration conducted unlawful surveillance on the Trump campaign and transition.

A Bombshell House Intelligence report exposing extensive FISA abuse could lead to the removal of senior government officials.  A review of a classified document outlining what is described as extensive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse was made available to all House members Thursday [1/18/2018] and the revelations could lead to the removal of senior officials in the FBI and Department of Justice, several sources with knowledge of the document stated.  These sources say the report is "explosive," stating they would not be surprised if it leads to the end of Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation into President Trump and his associates.  The House Intelligence Committee passed the motion along party lines Thursday to make the classified report alleging extensive 'FISA Abuse' related to the controversial dossier available to all House members.

The Obama Administration's "Brazen Plot To Exonerate Hillary Clinton" Starting to Leak Out, According to Former Fed Prosecutor.  A former federal prosecutor says the truth is starting to seep out about the Obama Administration's "brazen plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton" and "frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy," according to an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.  Joe diGenova, a former federal prosecutor, connects the dots on former Obama administration Justice Department and FBI officials who may have "violated the law, perhaps committed crimes" to politicize law enforcement and surveillance against political opponents.

FBI Agents Spoke Of 'Pressure' To Wrap Up Clinton Probe As Trump Surged To GOP Nomination.  One of the FBI agents who oversaw the Clinton email investigation spoke of "pressure" to wrap up the probe after it became clear that Donald Trump would win the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.  And in a text exchange on July 1, 2016, FBI lawyer Lisa Page suggested to her lover, counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch had foreknowledge that the FBI planned to exonerate Clinton in the investigation over her use of a private email server.  That despite then-FBI Director James Comey saying on July 5, 2016 that the Justice Department had no idea what statement he planned to make that day.

Loretta Lynch Already Knew Comey Would Let Hillary Go Free When Announcing She Would Accept FBI's Conclusion.  According to an exchange between Strzok and Bureau lawyer Lisa Page, then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch reportedly knew former FBI Director James Comey would let Hillary Clinton off the hook in her email investigation when she announced the Justice Department would "defer" to the FBI's conclusion.

Ex-Secret Service Agent Warns FISA Memo Leaves Obama With Only Two Options.  On Thursday [1/18/2018], former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino warned the release of the FISA report will destroy the image of his former boss Barack Obama.  "Take it to the bank, the FBI/FISA docs are devastating for the Dems.  The whole image of a benevolent Barack Obama they've disingenuously tried to portray is about to be destroyed.  The real Obama, the vengeful narcissist, is going to be exposed for all to see," tweeted Dan Bongino[.]

This Memo May Expose Obama's Watergate.  The big explosive scandal is the one that hardly anyone talks about.  It's not Russia collusion.  It's not even Uranium One.  It's the eavesdropping on Trump staffers by Obama staffers.  This eavesdropping was partially legitimized by the Steele dossier.  It was accidentally uncovered and since then it's cost multiple people their jobs, not the people responsible, but those who learned about it.  Now the reckoning may finally be here.

Republicans are lining up to view the classified FISA abuse memo, while Democrats choose to stay in the dark.  More than 130 congressional members have viewed the classified four-page memo detailing what senior government officials describe as "disturbing and explosive" surveillance abuse by employees of the FBI and Department of Justice under the Obama administration against President Trump and members of his campaign.  But almost all of them were Republicans.  Since the document was released Thursday to House members "only Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have seen it," a congressional source with knowledge of the memo said.  The classified memo was described by senior government officials as a detailed account of the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into the FBI and apparent FISA abuse associated with the controversial dossier that alleged President Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.  As recently reported, some congressional members who reviewed the memo said the revelations may end in the removal or criminal prosecution of senior officials in the FBI and Department of Justice.

Ex-Secret Service Agent Warns 'Devastating' FISA Memo Set To 'Expose' Obama.  The House Intel panel's passage of New York Republican Rep. Peter King's motion to release the FISA abuse memo to fellow House members has rocked Washington, D.C.  Lawmakers from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) have called for the classified memo's immediate release.  According to Fox News contributor Sara Carter, the contents of the memo are so "explosive," that it could end special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe once and for all.  Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino warned the release of the FISA report will destroy the image of his former boss Barack Obama.

House Committee Document Could Mean Trouble for Anti-Trump "Deep-Statists".  Sara Carter reports on a classified document that was released to all members of the House today.  The document seems to be a compilation of information, prepared by House intelligence committee staff, relating to the anti-Trump dossier, the FBI, the warrant to conduct surveillance on members of the Trump campaign, and the use of that warrant.  Carter calls the document a bombshell.  Her sources say its revelations might lead to the removal of senior officials in the FBI and Department of Justice, and perhaps even to the criminal prosecution of some.  They also say, less plausibly, that the revelations could lead to the end of Robert Mueller's investigation into President Trump and his associates.  What information does the classified document contain?  We don't know yet.  It's classified.

Secret (for now) memo may blow the lid off FISA warrant and Mueller investigation.  Conservative hearts are aflutter, thanks to a memo that has been made available to members of the House of Representatives (if they go to a secure room and read it).  According to several members, there is finally hope of documenting the cabal that appears to have deceived the FISA Court with the Steele dossier to obtain a warrant to spy on the Trump campaign, and then launched special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate the bogus "collusion" charges, morphing into the Lavrentiy Beria strategy of "show me the man, and I'll find you the crime."  According to some members who have seen it, heads may roll, and people may end up in prison.

The Evidence Inside The "House Intel Committee Four Page FISA Memo".  As the year-long story has unfolded, there are two central components at the heart of the political corruption and weaponization of the DOJ and FBI:  First, corruption within the DOJ and FBI that included their use of unlawful use of FISA-702 exploits; and [s]econd, how that intelligence information was extracted, passed along to those outside government, repackaged, and reconstituted into the "Steele Dossier".  The finished, albeit sketchy, intelligence was later returned to the FBI to request lawful FISA court surveillance authority.  It is a circle of "intelligence laundering".  The DOJ (National Security Division), and FBI (Counterintelligence Division), worked together on the enterprise.  This collaboration is where the insider "small group" participants assemble, intersect and ultimately redistribute themselves into the Mueller investigation with the help of Mueller's adviser, FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker.  The evidence of this corrupt DOJ and FBI weaponization of intelligence is what lies inside today's Four Page Intelligence Committee Memo.

House Intelligence Committee Votes To Reveal "The Big Ugly".  The House Intelligence Committee voted today to allow all congressional members to view a summary report of classified documents behind the "Clinton Dossier".  As Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner:  "At the committee's meeting Thursday morning [1/18/2018], Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., offered a motion to allow all House members to review a brief report prepared by the Republican majority summarizing the panel's investigation into what GOP members call 'FISA abuse.'"

This Defense Of FBI's Handling Of The Steele Dossier Is One Of The Weakest Yet.  [Scroll down]  The dossier has been driving news coverage of Russia since it was legitimized via a leak to major media a year ago.  The dossier alleges treasonous collusion between Donald Trump and Russia.  It includes salacious details.  It was written by someone who journalists and intelligence officials said was a credible ex-spy.  And it was allegedly used by the FBI, even though it was a Clinton campaign document.  But more than a year after it became public, none of its significant claims have been verified.  In recent weeks, some journalists and other critics of President Trump have been downplaying its importance as a centerpiece of the FBI's investigation.  Others are trying to rehabilitate it and the shady opposition researchers who have run its messaging campaign.  The most important recent talking point, for some reason, is that it wasn't used to launch an investigation into Trump and his associates.

The FBI and Collusion:  An Inside View.  On May 17, 2017, former FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel to investigate the supposed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.  Now, over a year and a half later, this has become the equivalent of the Energizer battery that keeps going on and on forever.  Not only is it apparent that there is no prosecutable collusion case, but what the investigation has proven is that the world's finest law enforcement agency, the FBI, has become blemished, stained, and tainted.  The Mueller probe and the FBI leadership have become contaminated by an anti-Trump bias, improper leaks, and text messages between senior FBI officials showing their own form of collusion.  American Thinker interviewed Jim Kallstrom, the former assistant director in charge of the FBI office in New York and a twenty-eight-year veteran of that agency, on his views.

Ohr what?  When NSA Mike Rogers discovered the unauthorized search FISA-702 contractor access queries, he shut it down.  The use of the FBI NSA database had been ongoing for a long period of time.  However, it was the increases in FISA-702(17) "About Queries" responses, from November 2015 through March 2016 that triggered the internal alarm.  When Admiral Rogers effectively shut down FBI contractor access to the FISA search system, the DOJ/FBI "small group" needed a way back in.

Congress Takes 3-Prong Approach To Surround Corrupt Intelligence and Justice Officials.  There is an interesting dynamic unfolding with White Hats and Black Hats amid the story of how political forces within the DOJ and FBI conspired with Clinton allies in the 2016 presidential election, ie.  "The Trump Operation". [...] There are two central components:  First, corruption within the DOJ and FBI that included their use of unlawful use of FISA-702 exploits; and second, how that intelligence information was extracted, passed along to those outside government, repackaged, and reconstituted into the "Steele Dossier".  The finished, albeit sketchy, intelligence was later returned to the FBI to request lawful FISA court surveillance authority.  It is a circle of "intelligence laundering".

Friday Night Document Surprise from Office of Inspector General.  Well, well, well... here's a surprise.  Office of Inspector General has apparently begun giving Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte the 1.2 million pages of evidence from the year-long inspector general investigation into FBI and DOJ politicization.

Why Is the FBI So Afraid of Encryption?  FBI Director Christopher Wray declared the bureau's inability to access encrypted electronic devices a "major public safety issue."

The Obama FBI: They're With Her.  It was the summer of an election year.  The official odds all favored Hillary.  But a failed FISA request had already been made.  And the real insurance was still coming.  Its policies would include a second successful FISA request, the Steele dossier, the mass unmasking of Trump officials and the Mueller witch hunt.  The insurance still hasn't paid off, but the men and women behind the coup are betting that it will.

GOP House investigators want James Comey to testify on Clinton email investigation.  House Republicans are preparing to ask former FBI Director James Comey to testify as part of the Republican-led probe into the FBI and Justice Department handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.  Comey's testimony, if he appeared, would raise the stakes of the joint Judiciary and Oversight Committee investigation into the decision not to charge the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee over classified emails on her private server — and the rare step for Comey to publicly announce Clinton would not be charged — as the probe has become a proxy battle on Capitol Hill between Democrats and Republicans over special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.  Several Republicans told CNN that Comey is a key witness for the investigation, although it's not clear how soon he would be asked to testify.

FBI Text Messages Suggest Senior Agents Were Sources Of Trump Dossier Leaks.  The more we learn, the more the deluge of classified leaks about the totally irrelevant Trump dossier become explicable.  The Hill reports today on an overview of the 300+ text messages between former number two guy in the FBI's counterintelligence operation, Peter Strzok, and his paramour, FBI attorney, and friend of Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page.  Strzok and Page, you'll recall, were assigned to Mueller's investigation.  The were removed when it was revealed they were sending anti-Trump/pro-Hillary text messages to each other on their government smartphones.  Strzok is the guy who made an ominous reference to having an "insurance policy" to keep Trump from being elected.  Strzok is the guy who interviewed Mike Flynn.  These texts aren't conclusive but they strongly suggest that both Strzok and Page were leaking information to the media.

The FBI Takes a Mulligan.  Last week the FBI announced that it was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private unsecured email system while she was secretary of state and separately reviving the investigation into possibly illegal actions by her and her staff related to donations to the Clinton Foundation in those same years.  It's no wonder that the FBI wants to "take a Mulligan" on both.  The FBI's — meaning then-FBI director James Comey's — bizarre exoneration of Clinton in the former and the Bureau's burial of the latter investigation have done more damage to the FBI's reputation than any other incidents in its history.  A Justice Department Inspector General investigation into the Clinton email mess will soon highlight the ugly facts.  That is probably the reason for the revivals.

The FBI's Dubious Probe of Hillary's Emails.  The FBI did everything but drive Hillary's getaway car.  Former secretary of state Clinton is a free woman largely thanks to the tender loving care that the FBI provided her and her conspirators during its probe of her illegal, unsecure email server and related abuse of government secrets.  GOP lawmakers concluded this after grilling FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe on December 21, behind closed doors, according to John Solomon's molar-grinding exposé in Tuesday's [1/2/2018] The Hill.  "For the first time, investigators say they have secured written evidence that the FBI believed there was evidence that some laws were broken," Solomon reported.  This proof includes what Solomon calls revelations of "irregularities and contradictions" in the FBI's inquiry.

Congressional investigators find irregularities in FBI's handling of Clinton email case.  That evidence includes passages in FBI documents stating the "sheer volume" of classified information that flowed through Clinton's insecure emails was proof of criminality as well as an admission of false statements by one key witness in the case, the investigators said.  The name of the witness is redacted from the FBI documents but lawmakers said he was an employee of a computer firm that helped maintain her personal server after she left office as America's top diplomat and who belatedly admitted he had permanently erased an archive of her messages in 2015 after they had been subpoenaed by Congress.  The investigators also confirmed that the FBI began drafting a statement exonerating Clinton of any crimes while evidence responsive to subpoenas was still outstanding and before agents had interviewed more than a dozen key witnesses.

Walls Close In Around DOJ and FBI "Small Group" Participants.  Several stories broke yesterday [1/4/2018]:  [#1] Senator Ron Johnson gains copies of the manipulated/edited FBI small group "talking points" that exonerated Hillary Clinton despite overwhelming evidence.  Johnson is a Senate Judiciary Committee member and remains focused on those specifics.  [#2] Senator Chuck Grassley has identified that former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified FBI information to the media to gain political leverage.  Additional questions are now raised by the Senate Judiciary Chairman.  [#3] The FBI has begun a new review of the Clinton Foundation pay-to-play network during Hillary Clinton's tenure at the State Dept.  Investigators are questioning the people within the Clinton foundation about actions taken as a result of donations to the foundation.  [#4] A federal judge has ruled that Fusion GPS must turn over it's [sic] bank records to the House Intelligence Committee.  Including records of financial payments to journalists and media outlets to push the Christopher Steele "Dossier" story.

What the Trump dossier criminal referral means.  There's been a lot of confusion about the decision by Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley and crime subcommittee chairman Lindsey Graham to refer Christopher Steele, author of the Trump dossier, to the Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation.  The two senators sent a brief letter Thursday to deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and FBI director Christopher Wray.  The letter, which was unclassified and released to the public Friday [1/5/2018], was a cover letter for what Grassley and Graham called a "classified memorandum related to certain communications between Christopher Steele and multiple U.S. news outlets regarding the so-called 'Trump dossier' that Mr. Steele compiled on behalf of Fusion GPS for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee and also provided to the FBI."

Comey Memo Bombshell:  Evidence Hillary Committed A Felony, Deleted Mentions Of Evidence.  A bombshell report released on Thursday reveals that former FBI Director James Comey's memo on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was "evidence to support a conclusion" that she committed a felony before subordinates removed multiple references of incriminating terms and deleted mentions of evidence that supported felony and misdemeanor criminal acts.  The website of Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) released the full draft of Comey's memo on Clinton, including the edits to the draft.

Now We Know:  FBI Ignored Lawbreaking To Exonerate Hillary Clinton.  Each new revelation about how the FBI handled — or, more appropriately, mishandled — the Clinton email scandal makes it that much clearer that politics trumped law enforcement, even when it involved matters of national security.  The Hill's John Solomon reported on Wednesday [1/3/2018] that congressional investigators have turned up evidence that the FBI believed laws had been broken when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her top aides exchanged a multitude of classified information via email over Clinton's unsecured, home-brew server.

DOJ prepares new probe of Clinton's email server.  The Trump administration is launching another probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, a new report said Thursday.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions hopes to uncover new details on how Clinton and her aides handled classified material, The Daily Beast reported, citing a source close to the former Alabama senator.  The new probe was prompted by President Trump's repeated calls on Twitter and elsewhere for another FBI investigation into "Crooked Hillary," the source said.

It's time to investigate Fusion GPS's dirt-diggers, possible collusion with feds to derail Trump's campaign.  Late Wednesday [1/3/2018], the Justice Department and FBI stopped their four-month old stonewall of subpoenas from Congress for documents and witnesses related to the Steele dossier, the infamous compilation of unverified and salacious material alleging President Trump had improper dealings with Russia.  All of the material will now apparently be turned over.  The House Intelligence Committee had demanded that the Justice Department and FBI explain how they came to become involved with former British spy Christopher Steele, who compiled the dossier after being paid by Fusion GPS.  The company is a notorious Washington opposition research firm that in turn was paid to dig up dirt on Donald Trump by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

FBI launches new Clinton Foundation investigation.  The Justice Department has launched a new inquiry into whether the Clinton Foundation engaged in any pay-to-play politics or other illegal activities while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of State, law enforcement officials and a witness tells The Hill.  FBI agents from Little Rock, Ark., where the foundation was started, have taken the lead in the investigation and have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, and law enforcement officials said additional activities are expected in the coming weeks.  The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the probe is examining whether the Clintons promised or performed any policy favors in return for largesse to their charitable efforts or whether donors made commitments of donations in hopes of securing government outcomes.

Will the media ask questions about an FBI cover-up or become complicit in it?  For over a year the media have breathlessly followed every turn in the probes of Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election, along with any possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.  But now a new story is about to bust open, involving Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.  Nunes sent a letter Thursday [12/28/2017] to the Justice Department demanding compliance by Wednesday with the subpoenas his committee issued for information on how the department and its FBI subsidiary have handled the Russia probe.

Now We Know:  FBI Ignored Lawbreaking To Exonerate Hillary Clinton.  Each new revelation about how the FBI handled — or, more appropriately, mishandled — the Clinton email scandal makes it that much clearer that politics trumped law enforcement, even when it involved matters of national security.

New Evidence Found That FBI Investigators Believed "Laws Were Broken" by Hillary Clinton.  In what could be a major black eye for the deep state and yet another nail in the Clinton legacy coffin, The Hill's John Solomon reports that Republicans on key congressional committees say they have uncovered new irregularities and contradictions inside the FBI's probe of Hillary Clinton's email server.

Former Bush AG On Comey's 2007 Brush With Scandal: 'Jim's Loyalty Was More To Chuck Schumer'.  [Scroll down]  The narrative from the Acela corridor media establishment is that Trump is a known liar and Comey is an honest public servant above reproach, so clearly Comey's word must be believed, the total absence of any other corroborating evidence notwithstanding. [...] In fact, the current episode is not the first time Comey and his associates plotted to oust a sitting Republican official through highly orchestrated political theater and carefully crafted narratives in which Comey is the courageous hero bravely fighting to preserve the rule of law.  To understand how Comey came to be FBI director in the first place, and how he operates in the political arena, it is important to review the last scandal in which Comey had a front-row seat:  the 2007 U.S. attorney firings and the fight over the 2004 reauthorization of Stellar Wind, a mass National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program designed to mitigate terrorist threats in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

FBI Knew The 'Bleach Bit' Computer Guy Lied In Clinton Email Testimony, Gave Him Immunity.  The Hill published a story today based on leaks from a recent House Judiciary Committee meeting where FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe discussed elements of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.  Republicans on the committee say McCabe outlined some irregularities that suggest the outcome of the investigation was rigged in Clinton's favor.  Among the new findings is that an unnamed tech specialist who used Bleach Bit to wipe Clinton's server after a congressional subpoena was issued admitted lying to the FBI.

Fusion GPS Tries, and Fails, To Distance Themselves From FBI FISA Origin.  It's every man and woman for themselves as the collective groups of architects behind the entire FBI Counterintelligence Operation, that brought us the 18-month-long 'vast Russian conspiracy' narrative, now attempt to back-track from all previous assertions.  Two days ago we shared very strong confidence the joint FBI (counterintelligence) and DOJ (National Security Division) scheme was going to come out.  The reason is simple, they left too big a trail of factual and provable evidence of their activity.

The Stunning Truth Proving the FBI and DOJ Corruption Will Come Out.  The Bigger media voices will eventually catch up to the story.  Right now the scale of the story is so large, and the consequences so damaging to the Republic, they are scared to call it out... but that won't last too much longer.  Unless they are genuinely all paid political operatives of the UniParty, by the end of this month the sunlight will be so intense their worries about losing invites to the best cocktail parties will be overcome by the enormity of the truth.

DOJ Blows Past Deadline to Turn Over Documents to Congress on Dossier.  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is blasting the Department of Justice and FBI after officials ignored congressional subpoenas and blew threw a deadline to turn over documents related to the infamous Fusion GPS dossier.  In a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Nunes points out that not only did DOJ mislead his Committee about the existense of documents, they also unlawfully failed to comply with congressional requests.

The DOJ and FBI rot from the head down.  So who's the head?  After months of investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his army of highly partisan investigators, spending millions of taxpayer dollars, all Mueller has to show for his efforts is a handful of process crimes that have nothing to do with the original allegations that the Trump campaign worked with Putin to influence the 2016 election.  With 90 percent of media coverage negative toward President Trump, you can be certain that if Trump conspired with Russia to hack the election, these same media would have long ago found evidence of collusion.  But they haven't, have they?  Instead, they hyperventilate over nonsense, such as a truck blocking their view of Trump's golf course, now a three-day story for CNN.

The Scale of FBI and DOJ Corruption is Beyond Comprehension.  If you spend time looking at the scale and scope, I mean honestly looking at how deeply enmeshed those ideological entities are within the system, you would also have to admit the problem is not just a matter of eliminating a few dozen DOJ lawyers and FBI agents.  The issue is much bigger.

A Timeline Of Treason:  How the DNC and FBI Leadership Tried to Fix a Presidential Election.  As an aside, this appears to be the biggest political scandal in the history of the country.  Never before has an outgoing administration attempted to fix a presidential election.  It's like something out of a third world country.  But then, Obama always admired dictators like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez.

Trump is right about the FBI.  The ferocity of President Donald Trump's recent attacks on the integrity of the FBI has sent shock waves through an agency accustomed to public adulation in recent years.  Sadly, much of the presidential criticism of the bureau may be entirely legitimate.  The FBI has traditionally enjoyed a highly favorable reputation among a majority of the nation's citizens.  Despite controversial programs that sometimes employed illegal forms of surveillance and enforcement methods — such as those used on black citizens lawfully protesting racial segregation, individuals in the "red scare" of the 1950s and long-haired students and others protesting the war in Vietnam during the 1960s and '70s — this reputation endured.  And American presidents continued to steadfastly defend the bureau — that is, until now.

Senator Lindsey Graham Just Confirmed The Steele Dossier Was Used For 2016 FISA Warrant.  Senator Lindsey Graham just confirmed the sketchy Steele Dossier was used to get the wiretap and surveillance warrant from the FISA court.  Brian Kilmead understood what he was hearing was serious, but didn't quite catch the specific gravity of it.  [Video clip]  This is critical and important because the specific use of the Steele Dossier underpins the BIG UGLY and exposes the entire top-tier apparatus of the FBI Counterintelligence Division (Peter Strzok, Bill Priestap, James Baker, Andrew McCabe) and the DOJ National Security Division (John Carlin, Stuart Evans, Mary McCord and Sally Yates), as well as DOJ Bruce Ohr and FBI lawyer Lisa Page directly to "conspiracy" charges.

The Dossiad.  The Steele/Trump dossier gave critical support to claims of Russian collusion with the Trump presidential campaign.  It seems to have served as the predicate for the FBI counterintelligence investigation of Trump campaign associates.  Then FBI Director James Comey briefed President Trump on the contents of the dossier before his inauguration in January.  BuzzFeed posted the dossier online.  When President Trump fired Comey, Comey engineered the appointment of his friend Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to continue the counterintelligence investigation, now including everything Trump.  NOTE:  Though he capably plays a straight talking G-Man on television, Comey is one sophisticated operator.

Did the FBI really fall for the Steele dossier's 'dezinformatsiya'?  Senator Lindsey Graham may have spilled the beans in saying the Russian-sourced Steele dossier, with its lascivious tales about a pre-presidential Donald Trump, was used by the leftist leadership at the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a pretext to get a 2016 FISA warrant against the presidential candidate. [...] With the Steele dossier exposed as a load of hooey, it shows that the FBI had political motivations all along, or else they fell for a classic Russian disinformation operation, neither of which makes the agency look good.  Having political motivations should be enough to get some of them fired.  So to defend themselves, they are claiming that the dossier was real.  This makes them look colossally incompetent.

GOP lawmaker:  FBI, DOJ officials 'should be held in contempt' if dossier docs not turned over.  A Republican lawmaker says top officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice "should be held in contempt" of Congress if they don't hand over documents related to an anti-Trump dossier to the House Intelligence Committee.  "I think if they don't produce those documents on the third of January, they should be held in contempt," Florida Rep. Francis Rooney said Saturday on Fox News' "America's News Headquarters."  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has previously said he has instructed committee staff to begin drawing up a contempt of Congress resolution for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray unless the committee's demands for records are met.

Ex-NYPD Boss:  Be 'Scared to Death' of DOJ, FBI Corruption.  The Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation might be operating under a cloud of corruption and Americans should be "extremely concerned" — even "scared to death" — by it, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik told Newsmax TV on Wednesday [12/27/2017].  "This doesn't come from innuendo or rumor or some nonsense," Kerik told "America Talks Live" host Ric Blackwell.  "This is from ... subpoenas and [reports that there is] some kind of conspiracy within the Bureau and Justice to interfere with the election, and it appears to be the overthrowing of a president."

FBI Chapter of Hillary Clinton Fan Club Probes President Trump.  Recent weeks have revealed the chilling extent to which special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI chief, has surrounded himself with pro-Hillary acolytes who scorn Trump and even his voters.  At worst, this is judicial corruption, rooted in bottomless affection for the subject of one inquiry and boundless disdain for the target of a different probe.  At best, this creates the appearance of corruption, whereby Mueller's team and their FBI and DOJ colleagues seem so pro-Hillary and so anti-Trump that even their totally even-handed and perfectly honest conclusions would be attacked as either a phony exoneration of Hillary, a fake prosecution of Trump, or an over-reaction to criticism that prompted the opposite results.  With Drano-like efficiency, these outcomes would corrode confidence in federal law-enforcement agencies and the rule of law.

Nunes blasts DOJ, FBI for 'failure' to produce records relating to anti-Trump dossier.  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is blasting the Department of Justice and the FBI for its "failure to fully produce" documents related to an anti-Trump dossier, saying "at this point it seems the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves."  In a Thursday [12/28/2017] letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein obtained by Fox News, Nunes expressed frustration that information and witnesses subpoenaed by the committee in August related to the so-called Steele dossier had not yet been turned over.  The salacious dossier includes unverified allegations about President Trump's connections with Russia that he has denied.

FBI Still Considers Dossier Credible.  The FBI admits the Left's electoral collusion conspiracy theory is unsubstantiated but still refuses to distance itself from the discredited Russia propaganda dossier Democrats paid Fusion GPS to create to undermine President Trump's candidacy.  Testifying behind closed doors in Congress the week before Christmas, embattled FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe reportedly "declined to criticize the dossier's 35 pages of salacious and criminal charges against Donald Trump and his aides, but he said it remains largely unverified, according to a source familiar with ongoing congressional inquiries."

Investigating the Investigators at DOJ and FBI.  There's been a great deal of news coverage about allegations of collusion between President Trump and Russia; much of the reporting apparently accurate and some of it not.  Less attention has been given to concurrent investigations that seem to be claiming scalps even if indirectly.  The investigations into the investigators include Congressional inquiries and a multi-faceted probe launched by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz surrounding the FBI decision not to prosecute Clinton.

Looking for Mueller's red meat main course.  The conspiracy theorists are hungry, and Robert Mueller owes them dinner.  His pantry is apparently barren of groceries, and he has spent nearly $7 million of the grocery money.  So far he has only served up a cheese plate. [...] Indicting Paul Manafort satisfied growling tummies for a brief season.  So why not indict him again?  But you have to wonder what all those K Street lawyers are doing with their time at $500 an hour.

This is why Hillary needed a pardon before Obama left office.  Late last week, a top FBI lawyer named James Baker was reassigned.  The Washington Post said it was part of FBI Director Christopher Wray's effort to assemble his own team of senior advisers.  But there's probably more to it.  The FBI has been accused — correctly, I believe — of partisanship, especially when it came to handling the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails.  As I explained in an October 2016 column, Baker was one of three people who "unanimously" decided not to prosecute Clinton.  Then-FBI head James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe were the other two at the meeting when the decision was made.

Did the FBI Conspire to Stop Trump?  The original question the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign was to answer was a simple one:  Did he do it?  Did Trump, or officials with his knowledge, collude with Vladimir Putin's Russia to hack the emails of John Podesta and the DNC, and leak the contents to damage Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump?  A year and a half into the investigation, and, still, no "collusion" has been found.  Yet the investigation goes on, at the demand of the never-Trump media and Beltway establishment.  Hence, and understandably, suspicions have arisen.  Are the investigators after the truth, or are they after Trump?

The Wrong Man.  In the fall of 2001, a nation reeling from the horror of 9/11 was rocked by a series of deadly anthrax attacks.  As the pressure to find a culprit mounted, the FBI, abetted by the media, found one.  The wrong one.  This is the story of how federal authorities blew the biggest anti-terror investigation of the past decade — and nearly destroyed an innocent man.  Here, for the first time, the falsely accused, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, speaks out about his ordeal.

Embattled FBI admits it can't verify dossier claims of Russia, Trump campaign collusion.  The FBI is declining to repudiate the Russia dossier on which it partially relied to start an investigation into the Trump campaign, but it concedes the document's major core charges of election collusion remain unsubstantiated.  Sources familiar with House and Senate investigations say this is the FBI's dossier talking point 17 months after agents were first briefed in July 2016 as Donald Trump battled Hillary Clinton for the White House.  The most recent FBI witness was Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who spent nearly eight hours last week in a closed session before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  Republicans believe they have unearthed a scandal inside the bureau's top echelons over its determination to target Trump associates based on flimsy evidence and improper Justice Department contacts.

How Trump Dominated Mueller and Tricked Democrats.  Mueller's character was definitively established when, as FBI director, he oversaw the Anthrax Letters investigation to find out who mailed anthrax, weeks after 9/11, to prominent political American figures with letters saying, "Death to America, Death to Israel, Allah is great."  Mueller's FBI quickly exonerated al-Qaeda, stating there was no direct evidence of guilt.  The FBI then persecuted two different American scientists, who had worked for the Army, without any direct evidence.  FBI tactics against their "people of interest" included spying; wiretapping; house raids; leaking identities in public ways with the help of Mueller's colleagues in the Department of Justice; bribing family members; and "bumper-locking," a delightful tactic where the FBI trailed their American suspect so closely that they ran over his foot.  In the swamp, Mueller is one of the King Alligators.  There is no path from his known conduct in the FBI to a point where he follows the Trump investigation wherever it may take him, even if that means taking Democrats down.

Senior FBI Official Is Removed From Duties As He Is Linked To Spreading Trump Dossier.  Another senior FBI official, this one is FBI general counsel James Baker, has been removed from his position and reassigned to make-work activities after he became a prime suspect as the source who leaked FBI reaction to the Trump dossier to the media.

New Report:  Was FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker Captured By New DOJ Leak Task Force?  Things are getting increasingly interesting and simultaneously obvious.  Thursday night the Washington Post reported that FBI Director Christopher Wray had relieved FBI Chief Legal Counsel, James Baker, of his responsibilities within the department.  Attorney James Baker accompanied FBI Asst.  Director "Andy" McCabe to the Tuesday congressional hearing with the House Intelligence Community.  Curiously, in addition to other lines of inquiry, during the questioning McCabe was asked about whether James Baker was authorized to speak to the media about the Steele Dossier and the underlying 'counterintelligence' operation.  Asst.  Director McCabe responded that Baker would not be authorized to take such action.

What The Liberal Media Is Not Telling You:  The FBI's Rank and File Love POTUS Trump.  The FBI has been run by Deep State elitists for far too long.  It's rank and file know this.  Donald Trump is working to restore the once-great FBI back to its former glory.  The globalist media knows this as well — and has been burying that truth.  Here is video to counter the media's narrative.  POTUS Trump receives a remarkably enthusiastic standing ovation from new FBI graduates.  They love this man and are hoping he can help to repair what is an institution that has veered off into anti-Americanism for far too long.

Top FBI official linked to reporter who broke Trump dossier story.  House Republicans are investigating contact between the FBI's top lawyer and a Mother Jones reporter in the weeks before the left-leaning outlet broke the first news story about the existence of a disputed dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump and the Kremlin, according to two congressional GOP sources who described documents linking the two men.  The GOP sources said the documents — made available recently to lawmakers by the Department of Justice — revealed that James Baker, the FBI's general counsel, communicated with Mother Jones reporter David Corn in the weeks leading up to the November 2016 election.  Corn was the first to report the existence of the dossier on Oct. 31 and that it was compiled by a former high-level western spy.

House Republicans quietly investigate perceived corruption at DOJ, FBI.  A group of House Republicans has gathered secretly for weeks in the Capitol in an effort to build a case that senior leaders of the Justice Department and FBI improperly — and perhaps criminally — mishandled the contents of a dossier that describes alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia, according to four people familiar with their plans.  A subset of the Republican members of the House intelligence committee, led by Chairman Devin Nunes of California, has been quietly working parallel to the committee's high-profile inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.  They haven't informed Democrats about their plans, but they have consulted with the House's general counsel.  The people familiar with Nunes' plans said the goal is to highlight what some committee Republicans see as corruption and conspiracy in the upper ranks of federal law enforcement.

What's really happening inside the DOJ and FBI.  Strzok is just going to be the beginning.  Strzok thinks he's now part of a cool team that's going to investigate & expose Trump, maybe even impeach him.  In fact, he's been put in a holding cell where he's kept busy & distracted while he's thoroughly investigated & evidence collected of his political fixing.  For the past 11 months, even before DOJ IG started his investigation, Trump & Co. likely knew who the political fixers in the DOJ/FBI were.  These political fixers needed to be [#1] removed from where they could do real harm and compromise real investigations [#2] given a cover story so they wouldn't realize they themselves are now being investigated.  Strzok was likely thunderstruck to realize the DOJ IG has been digging through his emails/texts/records of the past few years, investigating him quite throughly as Strzok was busy trying to find Trump/Russian collusion.

American Gestapo.  Any government agency with law enforcement and surveillance authority that uses those powers for political purposes is the definition of a secret police, no better than the Nazi Gestapo or the Soviet KGB.  There is indeed probable cause to conclude, meaning indictable offenses, that employees of the Department of Justice and/or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sympathetic to the Democrat Party, used the power of their offices and with the assistance of foreign nationals to influence the 2016 election in favor of Hillary Clinton, first to exonerate her and then obtain information to prevent the election of Donald Trump or to provide a basis for his impeachment should he win.  It is also abundantly clear from the Congressional investigations involving the Department of Justice and the FBI that those institutions of government are protecting themselves at the expense of transparency and accountability to the American people.  In other words, the government employees involved consider the survival of the Deep State more important than the survival of the Constitution.  That is the definition of tyranny.

Transparent Timing — NBC: FBI Counterintelligence Warned Candidate Trump July 2016.  This would be embarrassingly laughable if the underlying issue was not so serious.  Notice the transparency of the timing here; along with the justification angle.  Today NBC comes out with an "exclusive report" provided by "FBI counterintelligence sources" curiously pushing a story (NOW?) about a "high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials" for candidate Donald Trump in July 2016 "soon after the nomination".  Why this narrative now?

Was the FBI weaponized to take down the Trump presidency?  It appears the Obama Administration weaponized the Federal Bureau of Investigation just like they weaponized the Internal Revenue Service.  The Obama administration used government agencies to wage a covert war on their political enemies.  This is an all-out war.  We have a growing mountain of evidence to suggest the FBI was attempting to overthrow a duly elected president.  We have evidence to suggest the FBI was protecting Hillary Clinton so she might be elected president.  There is no smoking gun just yet — but the evidence is staggering — it is simply staggering.

Was the Steele Dossier Used to Obtain a FISA Warrant Against Trump's Campaign?  While urging that we have disclosure (with all due care to protect intelligence methods and sources), I have presumed that the FBI and DOJ would never fraudulently present the FISA court with fanciful claims attributed to anonymous Russian sources as if they were a refined product of U.S. intelligence collection and analysis.  This, after all, is a "dossier" that former FBI director James Comey dismissed as "salacious and unverified" in Senate testimony just six months ago.  When a court is asked for a warrant, the government must provide the judge with a basis to believe the information proffered is credible — by vouching that the source has been reliable in the past, by corroborating the information offered, or both.  If Comey adjudged Steele's information unverified in June 2017, it had to have been unverified ten months earlier.  That's when the FBI and Justice Department obtained a FISA warrant for Carter Page, who had been loosely described as a Trump campaign adviser.

The FBI Has Released New Info About Loretta Lynch's Tarmac Meeting With Bill Clinton.  The FBI released a series of email documents Friday afternoon detailing the Department of Justice response to the fallout of the secret Phoenix tarmac meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton in June 2016.  The dates on the emails range from July 1-3, 2016.  On July 5, 2016, FBI Director James Comey announced former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would not face criminal charges for mishandling classified information.  A series of emails show one FBI official, whose name and email are redacted, fuming over leaks to the media about the meeting and what happened on the tarmac.  The official received an email from a "layman" alleging a local Phoenix police officer who may have talked to a reporter "sounds like a security threat."  Officials went back and forth about finding out if the officer was SWAT or simply worked the motorcade and that "at a minimum" he should never work another detail again.  One asked if local law enforcement assisting the FBI on motorcades should sign non-disclosure agreements in the future.

Growing Evidence Of A Politically Tainted Clinton Investigation.  A series of new revelations about the FBI under James Comey has provided more evidence that partisan agents may have abused their agency positions for political purposes during the Hillary Clinton email investigation and 2016 presidential campaign.  Top FBI agent Peter Strzok, the public now knows, was removed from the Mueller investigation after a Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (IG) investigation revealed damning text messages between Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

How many of Robert Mueller's lawyers gave money to Democrats?  Since June, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been investigating whether the Russian government and the Trump campaign colluded in an effort to swing the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor.  To help with the task, Mueller assembled a team of seventeen accomplished lawyers, although in September, two of the seventeen were terminated.  The credibility of the Mueller team depends on the degree to which the public perceives it as being above politics.  No reasonable person would think Mueller and his team members lack a political position of some sort, but American society is justified in expecting that each of them will at least maintain the appearance of objectivity and that as a team, they will have a rough balance between left- and right-leaning political views.  Mueller's enterprise is "independent" only to the degree that it betrays no sign of favoring one political side over the other.

How Quickly Ye Forget.  Many people are understandably tentative about the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz.  How can this IG, or any IG, really be trusted to root out the rot that lies at the heart of the DC corruption?  Can we trust the IG to target the politicization of the FBI and DOJ, and do so with the righteous indignation necessary to tear out the corruptocrats?  After all, what would motivate Inspector General Horowitz to participate in such a righteous endeavor?

Digging Ugly Holes — Robert Mueller Team Illegally Obtained Trump Transition Team Emails.  According to reports, in August 2017 the Mueller team went around the Trump administration in their quest for documents, by directly demanding documents from the General Services Agency (GSA); the entity that hosted the communication network for the Trump transition team.  According to reports, the content of 12 email accounts was handed over to the Special Counsels' office; consisting of thousands of pages of transition team communication.  Innocuous, ordinary transition stuff, but the method of procurement is jaw-droppingly unethical, possibly illegal.

Comey Memo Edits Warrant Indictments.  Now we know that not only did Hillary Clinton show intent in her handling of classified materials routed through her private server, but that former FBI Director James Comey and his team showed intent in letting her get away with it to the detriment of American national security.  Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, in a Thursday letter to current FBI Director Christopher Wray, reveals how edits to Comey's exoneration memo went beyond changing "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless" but edited out content that shows the FBI knew Hillary was intentionally in violation of the Espionage Act but that, since the decision to exonerate her had already been made, they had to submit to the annals of history a lie they agreed upon: [...]

Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton: 'The FBI's Turned into a KGB-Type Operation'.  Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton argued on Fox News Wednesday evening that the FBI has been turned into a KBG-type operation that might need to be shut down.  Fitton was was on Fox News @Night with Shannon Bream to discuss one of the latest troubling revelations to come out of the Department of Justice amid Special Counsel Mueller's investigation into Russia's influence in the 2016 U.S. election.  According to Fox News, "Glenn Simpson, co-founder of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, acknowledged in a court document that his company hired the wife of a Justice Department official to help investigate then-candidate Donald Trump last year."

The Scheme to Exonerate Hillary Clinton Blows Wide Open:  Comey, McCabe and Strzok Implicated.  The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has discovered that edits made to former FBI Director James Comey's statement exonerating Hillary Clinton for transmitting classified info over an unsecured, private email server went far beyond what was previously known, as detailed in a Thursday letter from committee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) to FBI Director Christopher Wray.  The letter reveals specific edits made by senior FBI agents when Deputy Director Andr ew McCabe exchanged drafts of Comey's statement with senior FBI officials, including Peter Strzok, Strzok's direct supervisor, E.W. "Bill" Priestap, Jonathan Moffa, and an unnamed employee from the Office of General Counsel (identified by Newsweek as DOJ Deputy General Counsel Trisha Anderson) — in what was a coordinated conspiracy among top FBI brass to decriminalize Clinton's conduct by changing legal terms and phrases, omitting key information, and minimizing the role of the Intelligence Community in the email investigation.  Doing so virtually guaranteed one thing:  That then-Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton would not be prosecuted for her criminal actions.

Yes, Investigate the Investigators.  Everything that has happened in the Trump probe stands out against a backdrop of leniency in the Clinton investigation.  While Mueller has prosecuted two Trump associates for lying to the FBI, the Obama Justice Department gave a pass to Mrs. Clinton and her subordinates, who gave the FBI misinformation about such key matters as whether Clinton understood markings in classified documents and whether her aides knew about her homebrew server system during their State Department service.  Mueller's team conducted a predawn raid at gunpoint in executing a search warrant on Paul Manafort's home while Manafort was cooperating with congressional committees.  When it came to the Clinton case, though, the Justice Department not only eschewed search warrants, or even mere subpoenas, but they never even took possession of the DNC server alleged to have been hacked by Russian operatives.  The irregularities in the Clinton-emails investigation are breathtaking:  the failure to use the grand jury to compel the production of key physical evidence; the Justice Department's collaboration with defense lawyers to restrict the FBI's ability to pursue obvious lines of inquiry and examine digital evidence; immunity grants to suspects who should have been charged with crimes and pressured to cooperate; allowing subjects of the investigation to be present for each other's FBI interviews and even to act as lawyers for Clinton, in violation of legal and ethical rules; Comey's preparation of a statement exonerating Clinton months before the investigation was complete and key witnesses — including Clinton herself — were interviewed; and the shameful tarmac meeting between Obama attorney general Loretta Lynch and Mrs. Clinton's husband just days before Mrs. Clinton sat for a perfunctory FBI interview (after which Comey announced the decision not to charge her).

FBI Release Emails On 'Secret' Loretta Lynch-Bill Clinton Meeting Before FBI's Hillary Decision.  Friday afternoon [12/15/2017], the FBI released a 29-page document containing Department of Justice emails regarding the infamous meeting on the tarmac in Phoenix between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton just days before FBI Director James Comey gave his much-criticized announcement that he would not recommend charges against Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her "extreme carelessness" in handling classified material.  The emails, spanning from July 1-3, 2016, contain correspondence among various FBI and DOJ officials involving the leaking of the unscheduled private 30-minute meeting between Lynch and Clinton on June 27th that the AG insisted was merely a personal chat about their grandchildren and recent travels, but what many suspect had something to do with the ongoing investigation of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.  The press conference in which Comey announced that he would not request that Lynch pursue charges was held just over a week later, on July 5.

More about Friday night document dumps.

Did the FBI and the Justice Department, plot to clear Hillary Clinton, bring down Trump?  There is strong circumstantial evidence that an insidious plot unprecedented in American history was hatched within the FBI and the Obama Justice Department to help elect Hillary Clinton and defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.  And when this apparent effort to improperly influence the election did not succeed, the suspected conspirators appear to have employed a fraudulent investigation of President Trump in an attempt to undo the election results and remove him as president.  Such a Machiavellian scheme would move well beyond what is known as the "deep state," a popular reference to government employees who organize in secret to impose their own political views on government policy in defiance of democratically elected leadership.

Oh, Here We Go.  Democrats just realized the years-long DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation is about to bite them, hard.  We are now entering the political combat zone where congressional democrats will attack the IG, in advance of the pending report.  Ironically, the Inspector General investigation led by Michael Horowitz was originally a lame-duck request (January 12, 2017) by Democrats prior to President Obama leaving office.  That's one of the more brilliant aspects towards its value.  The resulting investigation into the politicization of the FBI and DOJ is revealing details of how both departments were corrupted by political operatives friendly to Democrats.  Consequently, their own demanded investigation now becomes a risk.

Forget Mueller, The Real Question Is "Do We Need To Shut Down The FBI?".  Echoing the thoughts that are undoubtedly running through the minds of many Americans following startling revelations of an "insurance policy" crafted by FBI agents Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok to prevent a Trump presidency at all costs (something we covered here:  FBI Texts Reveal "Insurance Policy" To Prevent Trump Presidency), Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appeared on Fox News last night to say it's time to move beyond discussing whether or not it's appropriate to shut down Special Counsel Mueller's investigation and move on to consider whether it's now time to consider shutting down the entire FBI after "it was turned into a KGB-type operation by the Obama administration?"

Timeline: How the DNC and FBI Leadership Tried to Fix a Presidential Election.  As an aside, this appears to be the biggest political scandal in the history of the country.  Never before has an outgoing administration attempted to fix a presidential election.

Obama Administration Turned FBI into KGB.  For all the calls of President Trump being a dictator and a Nazi, the Left really tell you what Barack Obama was.  And soon, they will no longer be able to hide from that fact.  The more we learn from the investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller about the inner workings of Obama's Department of Justice, the more we discover the absence of justice.  The FBI undoubtedly helped orchestrate what will soon be called the biggest political scandal in American history.  We now know that the FBI exonerated Hillary Clinton, who was guilty of multiple crimes.  Moreover, the FBI instigated the witch hunt by Mueller that has suddenly turned on the Left.

What is Going On with the DOJ and the FBI?  New documents have come to light indicating that former FBI Director James Comey sought to water down language in his eventual exoneration of Hillary Clinton for her email scandal.  It is now apparent that Peter Strzok, who was involved in the Clinton investigation, was responsible for some of the most significant edits.  The motivation for this lessening of language severity seems to have been directly related to concerns over implicating Clinton for criminal intent.  On Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) expressed his concerns to FBI Director Christopher Wray, writing that the original drafts "could be read as finding of criminality in Secretary Clinton's handling of classified material.  The edited statement deleted the reference to gross negligence — a legal threshold for mishandling classified material — and instead replaced it with an exculpatory sentence."  Johnson's letter continued, "This effort, seen in light of the personal animus toward then-candidate Trump by senior FBI agents leading the Clinton investigation and their apparent desire to create an 'insurance policy' against Mr. Trump's election, raise profound questions about the FBI's role and possible interference in the 2016 presidential election and the role of the same agents in Special Counsel Mueller's investigation by President Trump."  Indeed, there are profound questions about corruption in this investigation, which, at least in part, was started because of a phony dossier paid for by Clinton and the DNC.

The FBI's Ship of Fools.  Of the many astonishing revelations now emerging from the Russia investigation, not enough has been made of the fact that Peter Strzok — that Zelig of the FBI who mysteriously appeared at every controversial moment — was second in command for counterintelligence.  That's right, counterintelligence — that activity "designed to prevent or thwart spying, intelligence gathering, and sabotage by an enemy or other foreign entity."  And yet that same Mr. Strzok was conducting a clandestine extra-marital affair with an FBI colleague over thousands of text messages that could be and likely were intercepted by those same foreign intelligence agencies — or were, at the very least, recklessly exposed to them.

Senator Johnson Outlines Scope of FBI Officials Sculpting Clinton Exoneration Statement for Comey.  Senator Ron Johnson sends a letter to current FBI Director Christopher Wray questioning the surrounding investigative details about how the James Comey (July 5th, 2016) exoneration manuscript was changed and sculpted.  Within the letter Senator Johnson shares the changes that were made to the manuscript, and asks Wray if FBI officials are aware of who made the changes and why.  Prior revelations from within an ongoing IG report showed FBI Counterintelligence Agent Peter Strzok participating in both the investigation of Hillary Clinton, and changing some of the manuscript to shape the narrative away from criminal conduct and toward Clinton's favor.

Comey edits revealed:  Remarks on Clinton probe were watered down, documents show.  Newly released documents obtained by Fox News reveal that then-FBI Director James Comey's draft statement on the Hillary Clinton email probe was edited numerous times before his public announcement, in ways that seemed to water down the bureau's findings considerably.  Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, sent a letter to the FBI on Thursday that shows the multiple edits to Comey's highly scrutinized statement.  In an early draft, Comey said it was "reasonably likely" that "hostile actors" gained access to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email account.  That was changed later to say the scenario was merely "possible."  Another edit showed language was changed to describe the actions of Clinton and her colleagues as "extremely careless" as opposed to "grossly negligent."  This is a key legal distinction.

Congressman: There's Proof FBI Conspired Against Trump.  All of America knows the Obama administration colluded with the Clinton campaign to defeat Donald Trump.  Leftists know this is a certainty.  Now they dare us to prove it.  And we will.  As with Watergate, the cover-up is far greater than the crime itself.  And what we will eventually learn from this will make Bill Clinton's mea culpa with Lewinsky look like Disney.

House Judiciary Lawmakers Mull Subpoenas on FBI, DOJ After Text Messages Reveal 'Path' to Stop Trump.  Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said on Wednesday it was time to issue subpoenas to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department, following the release of texts from FBI officials that suggested they wanted to stop Trump's election.  "It's time for subpoenas from our committee, not just from the intelligence committee, but from our committee.  Subpoenas for documents that we rightfully should have an ability to see," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a senior member of the committee.  He also said he wanted to subpoena Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, FBI senior official Peter Strzok, and senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie Ohr.

Analyze This.  This morning Rep. Jim Jordan grilled Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on the red flags and anomalies that have turned up in the special counsel investigation under the direction of Robert Mueller.  The investigation is to focus on the mythical Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.  Among the red flags is the Steele Dossier commissioned by the Clinton campaign and involving actual collusion with Russian intelligence.  Also among the red flags is one of the just released text messages of senior FBI agent Peter Strzok, who has emerged as a key player in the fake Clinton investigation and the troubling Trump-related investigation of Russian interference in the campaign.  Having been detailed to Mueller's team earlier this year, Strzok has been returned to the FBI to push paper in the human resources department.

Is Jeff Sessions being blackmailed?  Let's begin with some accusations.  They are well founded and as credible as any against Roy Moore — perhaps more so.  The FBI's first director, J. Edgar Hoover, was reputed to have compiled incriminating dossiers on just about every top office-holder in Washington, D.C., up to and including the presidents, under several of whose tenures Hoover served.  Whenever there was talk of firing him, Hoover reportedly met with the contemporary chief of state and persuaded him to retain him (Hoover) in his post.  Regarding President Kennedy, there was surely a great deal in the dossier, especially as concerned his scandalous relationship with Marilyn Monroe.  Kennedy, who had been rumored to be planning to replace Hoover, quickly changed his mind after one of those meetings.

Yet another top FBI agent involved in Mueller's investigation is being accused of political bias.  Another lead FBI agent in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is being accused of political bias, the Wall Street Journal reported.  According to the Journal's report, FBI agent Andrew Weissmann, who is leading the probe's Paul Manafort and Rick Gates cases, both attended Hillary Clinton's election night party at the Javits Center in New York City and praised Sally Yates' efforts to thwart President Donald Trump.  The revelations are significant because Weissmann is considered to be the most senior agent in the investigation second only to Mueller.

Rep. Jordan Presses FBI Director to Release FISA Application for Trump Surveillance.  Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) drew blood this morning during his pointed questioning of FBI Director Christopher Wray at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.  Jordan's line of questioning concerned Peter Strzok, who was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team last July after he became a political liability to Mueller's investigation.  Jordan was particularly interested in seeing the FBI's application to the FISA court that allowed the Obama administration to surveil the Trump campaign.  As Jordan pointed out, it was Strzok who changed the criminal term "gross negligence" to the legally inconsequential "extreme carelessness" in former FBI Director James Comey's statement of findings on Hillary Clinton's email server.  Strzok also played a key role in Mueller's Russia investigation.

Christopher Wray Refuses to Say if Steele Dossier Was Used to Procure FISA Warrant.    [Video clip]

GOP lawmakers cite new allegations of political bias in FBI.  GOP lawmakers say they have heard new stories about political bias or interference within the FBI on the eve of new testimony Thursday [12/7/2017] by FBI Director Christopher Wray.  Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said Wednesday [12/6/2017] he interviewed a recently retired FBI supervisor who told him he was instructed by Deputy Director Andrew McCabe not to call the 2012 Benghazi attack an act of terrorism when distributing a report on the FBI findings to the larger intelligence community.  The agent found the instruction concerning because his unit had gathered incontrovertible evidence showing a major al Qaeda figure had directed the attack and the information had already been briefed to President Obama, the lawmaker said.

Did A Corrupt FBI Give Hillary Clinton A Free Pass?  Sure Looks Like It.  Among the many troubling revelations to have emerged regarding the FBI these days, one of the worst is finding out that an avowed Trump-hater softened language in a memo to exonerate Hillary Clinton.

Trump is bringing Mueller down.  Don't feud with Donald Trump.  Too many have and wound up worse for wear. [...] Mueller's unwillingness to back down will cost him everything because he is up against an innocent man who happens to be president.  Over the weekend, the results of Trump's investigation of Team Mueller surfaced.  Mueller had to fire his top investigator because that investigator left a trail of anti-Trump emails, and was caught destroying evidence and altering statements in that Fake Investigation of Hillary's emails.

Rosenstein 'Satisfied' with Mueller Witch Hunt.  Yes, Virginia, this is a witch hunt.  Robert Mueller III was appointed special counsel after his friend, the vindictive former FBI Director James Comey, committed a federal crime by leaking a memo which was a government record to the press.  Mueller has picked staff and prosecutors as if he were stocking Hillary Clinton's Department of Justice.  He has picked a bevy of Clinton donors, an attorney who worked for the Clinton Foundation, a former Watergate assistant prosecutor, and even a senior advisor to Eric Holder.  Objective professionals all.  Thanks to Rosenstein, Mueller is in fact colluding with Comey and Clinton moles to enact revenge on President Trump for Comey's firing, something which even Comey said Trump was constitutionally entitled to do.  There is no evidence of collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice.  It is not obstruction of justice for a President to exercise his legal and constitutional authority.

How an FBI official with a political agenda corrupted both Mueller, Comey investigations.  How is it possible that Hillary Clinton escaped criminal indictment for mishandling classified documents despite incriminating evidence that she violated the Espionage Act?  Why did Donald Trump become the target of a criminal investigation for allegedly conspiring with Russia to influence the presidential election despite no evidence that he ever did so?  The answer, it seems, comes down to one person who played a vital role in both cases:  Peter Strzok, deputy director of counterintelligence at the FBI.

Liberals Have Turned The FBI Into A Disgrace.  Add this infamy to all the other crimes of the liberal establishment — its poisonous influence has converted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the eyes of the American people, from a proud institution dedicated to upholding the law into just another suppurating bureaucratic pustule.  Where once we saw FBI agents as heroes — many of us ancients grew up watching Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., every Sunday night — now we see careerist hacks looking to suck-up to the Democrat elite while bending the law and subverting justice to do it.  Truly, everything liberals touch dies.

Smoking gun of FBI's bias.  The FBI must release the texts.  All of them, between Peter Strzok, the top FBI investigator that special counsel Robert Mueller removed from the Russian investigation in August, and his colleague Lisa Page, so voters can examine for themselves whether the probe is what many, including our president, believe it is ... a partisan witch hunt.

Top Investigator on Mueller's Team Extolled Yates for Defying Trump Travel Ban.  A top lieutenant to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia expressed his opposition to an early policy priority of President Donald Trump's by praising then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to enforce Trump's travel ban.  Andrew Weissmann served as the chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Fraud Section earlier this year and went on to become a top investigator on Mueller's team of prosecutors.  Weissmann sent an email in January, when he was still in his criminal fraud section role, to former acting Attorney General Sally Yates applauding her for her refusal to enforce Trump's temporary travel ban on people entering the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries.

GOP Lawmakers Press for Investigation of FBI's 'Special Treatment' of Hillary Clinton Probe.  Conservatives are calling for an investigation of what they say was the FBI's "special treatment" of Hillary Clinton ahead of the Dec. 7 testimony of FBI Director Christopher Wray before the House Judiciary Committee.  "I am proud to be joined by my fellow conservatives in the House to call for an investigation into the FBI's procedures that allowed Hillary Clinton to receive special treatment," Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said at a press conference Wednesday.  "We'll also investigate the unprecedented bias against President [Donald] Trump that exists when we allow people who hate the president to participate in the investigations against him."

Judicial Watch Releases 29 Pages of FBI Clinton-Lynch Tarmac Meeting Documents Previously Withheld by Justice Department.  The new FBI documents show FBI officials were concerned about a leak that Bill Clinton delayed his aircraft taking off in order to "maneuver" a meeting with the attorney general.  The resulting story in the Observer is seemingly confirmed and causes a flurry of emails about the source of the article.  FBI official(s) write "we need to find that guy" and that the Phoenix FBI office was contacted "in an attempt to stem any further damage."  Another FBI official, working on AG Lynch's security detail, suggests instituting non-disclosure agreements.  The names of the emails authors are redacted.  There are no documents showing concern about the meeting itself.  The FBI originally informed Judicial Watch they could not locate any records related to the tarmac meeting.  However, in a related FOIA lawsuit, the Justice Department located emails in which Justice Department officials communicated with the FBI and wrote that they had communicated with the FBI.

Mueller's 'Lieutenant' Applauded Official For Defying Trump.  Andrew Weissmann, an attorney working for special counsel Robert Mueller, praised former acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to enforce President Trump's travel ban, emails released Tuesday [12/5/2017] reveal.  "I am so proud.  And in awe.  Thank you so much.  All my deepest respects," Weissmann wrote to Yates on Jan. 30.  That same day, Yates told the Justice Department not to defend an executive order banning immigration from seven nations, an act that led to her dismissal by President Trump.

Report: FBI Inspector General Pursuing 27 Leakers, with Major Shakeup on the Way.  When I was a kid, the term Federal Bureau of Investigation represented the pinnacle of the American justice system: incorruptible, utterly fair, and ethically... above reproach.  My, how times have changed.  Under the Obama administration, the FBI (and former director Robert Mueller's investigation) appears to have been hopelessly politicized at its uppermost levels.  Consider:  A lead FBI investigator — Peter Strzok — has been removed from Robert Mueller's special counsel team for texting his mistress a series of various anti-Trump tweets (I'm old enough to remember when having a mistress disqualified you from a TOP SECRET clearance, but — hey — I'm an old man).  Furthermore, the upper echelons of the FBI have refused requests from Congress to release said texts.

Tucker Carlson:  FBI is 'out of control'.  Fox News Channel's Tucker Carlson commented on his show that the FBI is "out of control," following revelations that FBI agent Peter Strzok was involved in two politicized cases: the Clinton email investigation, and the Russian collusion probe, while he also oversaw interviews with former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.  "There are many examples of this, but the point is clear, the FBI is out of control and not just in the Trump investigation but much more broadly.  An agency charged with enforcing the law clearly considers itself above the law, and that is a threat to you and every American, no matter who you voted for," Carlson said on Monday night.

The connection between Antifa, Muslim terror, and the FBI.  What if I uncovered a major threat from a radical leftwing group to our national security, and documented it in my new book, All Out War:  The Plot to Destroy Trump?  Wouldn't you expect the mainstream media, for all their liberal bias, to check out such an important story?  Well, I did write about the threat — and the mainstream media totally ignored it.  Evidence of collusion comes directly from the FBI, which discovered that Antifa — the leftwing terrorist group that has thrown M-80 explosives at pro-Trump demonstrators and helped make college campuses virtually no-go zones for conservatives — has connections with foreign terrorists.

FBI Increasingly Politicized Under Comey and Mueller.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation, once America's storied crime fighting agency, is under fire for an increasing leftward politicization blamed on recent liberal directors and a bureaucracy operating with nearly unchecked power.  Once a bastion of conservative anti-communism under long-time director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI has become one of the more liberal political agencies of government, and some critics say appears increasingly to operate outside normal constitutional controls.  The shift is the result of a bureaucratic culture that emerged in the 1990s and was fueled by its two most recent former directors, James Comey and Robert Mueller, who ran the agency for the past 16 years.

GOP lawmakers cite new allegations of political bias in FBI.  GOP lawmakers say they have heard new stories about political bias or interference within the FBI on the eve of new testimony Thursday by FBI Director Christopher Wray.  Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said Wednesday he interviewed a recently retired FBI supervisor who told him he was instructed by Deputy Director Andrew McCabe not to call the 2012 Benghazi attack an act of terrorism when distributing a report on the FBI findings to the larger intelligence community.  The agent found the instruction concerning because his unit had gathered incontrovertible evidence showing a major al Qaeda figure had directed the attack and the information had already been briefed to President Obama, the lawmaker said.

Obstruction Of Justice Was Coming From Inside The FBI.  "There's always conflicting recollections of facts," FBI Director Comey said.  It was a year ago and Comey was explaining why Hillary's close aide, Cheryl Mills, not only received an immunity agreement in exchange for turning over her laptop, but a pass on lying to the FBI.  The FBI Director claimed that Mills had to receive immunity because the laptop might be protected by attorney-client privilege.  Mills, like Hillary Clinton, had worked as a lawyer.  But they were both government officials working for the State Department.  Hillary wasn't Mills' client.  The government was.  Comey and his people knew the law.  They chose to ignore it to protect a key Hillary aide from rolling over.  Mills was the woman Hillary would send in to clean up her dirty laundry.  Mills had taken point on the email server cover-up.  If anyone knew where the bodies were buried, she did.  Instead not only did she get an immunity agreement, but the FBI also agreed to destroy the computers after the search.

Top Clinton Aides Face No Charges After Making False Statements To FBI.  The FBI agent who was fired from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation team for sending anti-Donald Trump text messages conducted the interviews with two Hillary Clinton aides accused of giving false statements about what they knew of the former secretary of state's private email server.  Neither of the Clinton associates, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, faced legal consequences for their misleading statements, which they made in interviews last year with former FBI section chief Peter Strzok.

Why Weren't Huma Abedin And Cheryl Mills Charged When They Lied To Peter Strzok And The FBI?  A terrific catch by the Daily Caller's Chuck Ross, whose story you should read in full.  It was widely known that Peter Strzok, the FBI agent dismissed by Mueller from the Russiagate probe due to anti-Trump bias, had had a lead role in the Hillary Emailgate investigation.  But I hadn't realized until now that he was one of the agents who interviewed top Clinton cronies Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills.  Or, more importantly, that they pretty clearly lied to his face about when they found out that Hillary had her own email server.

FBI agent fired from Mueller probe interviewed Mike Flynn before his guilty plea AND Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills before Hillary was cleared.  The FBI agent who was dismissed from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe for sending his lover anti-Trump text messages is turning into a Forrest Gump character who figured in a number of key moments in the Bureau's recent history.  Peter Strzok was reassigned to the FBI's human resources department after the text messages between him and FBI lawyer Lisa Page were uncovered.  He was already known to be the agent who who edited then-Director James Comey's reprimand of Hillary Clinton for using an unsecured private email server for classified messages.

Mueller Credibility Plunges, Trump Probe Imploding.  Special prosecutor Robert Mueller was sold to America as an above-the-fray, non-partisan elder with the gravitas to handle investigating the President of the United States.  As it turns out, Mueller has put together a pack of partisan lawyers, many of whom contributed campaign cash to Hillary Clinton and other Democrats; stonewalled demands from House lawmakers for information; and, most recently, secretly demoted a heavily biased FBI agent who's a hater of President Trump.  The special prosecutor's probe, which has already cost taxpayers some $5 million, hit a massive speed bump last week — the kind that snaps the axles and blows out the transmission.  Reports emerged in both The Washington Post and The New York Times that a lead FBI investigator sent anti-Trump texts to a mistress.  Weirdly, the investigator, Peter Strzok, wasn't fired, just quietly demoted to the Bureau's human resources department.  Then the shoes kept dropping — like Imelda Marcos having a yard sale.  It turns out Strzok was one of former FBI Director James Comey's top lieutenants.  From that perch, he played a key role in the early probe of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Mueller's FBI Will Never Recover Its Good Name.  Robert Mueller just fired a senior FBI agent for openly twittering against POTUS Trump.  But if Mr. Mueller imagines that firing one guy will restore his shredded credibility to the public, fuggedaboudit.  The unprecedented witch-hunt against a newly elected Donald Trump will remain green in the public memory for years to come.  The FBI and DOJ will therefore have to live with a huge loss of public credibility.  The IRS will never recover among Trump voters.  Elected governments only work as long as they enjoy basic public confidence, and when that is gone — as it is in Italy and Greece — it can take many years to restore.  Even if most of our FBI people are honest patriots, a few rotten apples will ruin it for the rest.

A special counsel needs to investigate the FBI and Justice Department.  Now..  The [Washington] Post reported that a former top FBI official, Peter Strzok, who had been assigned to and then removed from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation, had "exchanged politically charged texts disparaging [President] Trump and supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton" and that Strzok was "also a key player in the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server."  This is a blockbuster revelation, carrying the possibility of shattering public confidence in a number of long-held assumptions about the criminal-justice system generally and the FBI and the Justice Department specifically.  The Justice Department should appoint a special counsel to investigate Strzok's actions as soon as possible.  The Strzok report comes on heels of the widely derided Justice Department investigation into IRS discrimination against conservative groups, including the disposition of allegations against IRS senior official Lois Lerner, and after the wildly erratic behavior of then-FBI Director James B. Comey during 2016.  It also follows the vote to hold then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress — the first ever against a sitting member of the Cabinet — with 17 Democrats voting in support.  Mix into this battering of the Justice Department's and FBI's reputations the still-murky charges and counter-charges of abuse of "unmasking" powers during the waning days of the Obama era.

Inspector General Probe Focuses on FBI's McCabe; Findings Could Warrant Criminal Referral to DOJ or Mueller.  The United States Office of the Inspector General's probe of FBI brass is yielding investigative fruits that may warrant a referral for criminal charges related to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, according the FBI and DOJ sources.  McCabe, who has been administratively sidelined and stripped of his responsibilities by new FBI Director Christopher Wary, has been the target of an OIG probe for months.  According to FBI sources, OIG investigators are finalizing its probe of the Bureau and McCabe's name keeps surfacing time and time again.  Federal law enforcement sources said the OIG's findings have eclipsed simple administrative breakdowns in the FBI's "front office" of its D.C. headquarters.

Clinton Aides Went Unpunished After Making False Statements To Anti-Trump FBI Supervisor.  The FBI agent who was fired from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation team for sending anti-Donald Trump text messages conducted the interviews with two Hillary Clinton aides accused of giving false statements about what they knew of the former secretary of state's private email server.  Neither of the Clinton associates, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, faced legal consequences for their misleading statements, which they made in interviews last year with former FBI section chief Peter Strzok.  But another Strzok interview subject was not so lucky.  Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, pleaded guilty last week to lying during an interview he gave on Jan. 24 to Strzok and another FBI agent.  Circa journalist Sara Carter reported on Monday [12/4/2017] that Strzok took part in that interview with the retired lieutenant general.

Nothing About Collusion.  There is a basic lesson here for anyone who enters government service:  do not ever talk to the FBI unless your lawyer is present.  Just ask Scooter Libby, who was punished for making allegedly false statements to FBI investigators.  In the Flynn affair, there was no need for the FBI to ask any questions about the telephone chats, since the transcripts were available from the get-go.  It is said that a skilled prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, and a special counsel has even greater powers.  Furthermore, prosecutors' motives are not limited to the pursuit of the truth.  The "accomplishments" of aggressive prosecutors often have very little to do with the facts, but rather with the number of scalps they can hang on their war belts.  Rare is the person who can insist on his innocence — of anything — if a special prosecutor is out to get him.  The prosecutor can catch you giving an incorrect or confused answer to questions ... about anything.

Anti-Trump Text Messages Show Pattern Of Bias On Mueller's Team.  For nearly four months, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office, the Justice Department and the FBI have kept secret the fact that the FBI agent who oversaw the Russia investigation exchanged anti-Trump and pro-Hillary Clinton text messages with an FBI attorney who was also his mistress.  Those messages, the existence of which were revealed in bombshell reports published over the weekend, highlight a pattern of the Mueller team.  Many of Mueller's prosecutors — it has been extensively reported — have made campaign contributions to Clinton and other Democratic political candidates.  And a review by The Daily Caller shows that Mueller lawyers involved in the cases against four Trump associates are Democratic donors.

Huma Abedin Lied to the FBI and Got Away With It.  If we had anything faintly resembling an evenhanded justice system, Huma Abedin would be pleading guilty right about now.  But of course we don't.  And so a series of Trump associates are forced to plead guilty to lying to the FBI.  While Hillary continues her Spite Across America tour.  Did close Hillary associates like Cheryl Mills, Hillary's right-hand woman, and Huma Abedin lie to the FBI?  As evidence assembled by Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller suggests, it rather looks like it.

DOJ failed to interview FBI informant before it filed charges in Russian nuclear bribery case.  While he was Maryland's chief federal prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's office failed to interview the undercover informant in the FBI's Russian nuclear bribery case before it filed criminal charges in the case in 2014, officials told The Hill.  And the prosecutors did not let a grand jury hear from the paid informant before it handed up an indictment portraying him as a "victim" of the Russian corruption scheme or fully review his extensive trove of documents until months later, the officials confirmed.  The decisions backfired after prosecutors conducted more extensive debriefings of William Campbell in 2015, learning much more about the extent of his undercover activities and the transactions he engaged in while under the FBI's direction, the officials said.

Trump's Right — the FBI Is in Tatters.  What're we supposed think when it's revealed the man running the Hillary Clinton email server investigation (Peter Strzok) was a married Hillary supporter conducting an adulterous affair with a government lawyer, while dissing Donald Trump in his clandestine billet-doux text messages? [...] As an FBI agent, Strzok's use of text messaging for such an enterprise was nothing short of moronic in this digital age, but nevertheless he was not fired but simply and quietly sent to FBI "Siberia" last summer, his activities only miraculously coming to public attention last week.  Why the secrecy?  Many reasons, probably yet to be determined, but it comes down to this:  the FBI, like the Mafia, practices omertà.

Another Hillary Mole.  How objective can an investigation into Hillary Clinton's email investigation be when the FBI agent who played a lead role was removed from it this summer for texting his pro-Hillary and anti-Trump sympathies?

New documents reveal FBI's Clinton cover-up.  In Washington, the ostensible story is rarely the real story.  We know, for example, that former President Clinton engineered a meeting with President Obama's attorney general, Loretta Lynch, on the tarmac of the Phoenix Airport on June 27, 2016.  That's the official story, replete with the charming and intentionally disarming detail that all they talked about was their grandchildren.  It was just coincidental, don't you know, that at the time the FBI was looking into Hillary Clinton's use of a "personal" email server to send, receive and store classified information.  And it was also simply coincidental that just a few days later, the director of the FBI — who served under Attorney General Lynch — announced that he wouldn't recommend a prosecution of Hillary Clinton.

Tom Fitton:  We're Going to Find Out the FBI and DOJ Were Ruined Trying to Protect Hillary Clinton.  President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton dropped a truth bomb — the FBI and DOJ were ruined trying to protect Hillary Clinton.  The root of this evil is Hillary and Obama.

DOJ And FBI Threatened With Contempt Of Congress For 'Hiding' Info On Anti-Trump FBI Investigator.  The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is threatening to hold the Justice Department and FBI in contempt of Congress for withholding details about why a top FBI investigator was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the presidential campaign.  "I have instructed House Intelligence Committee staff to begin drawing up a contempt of Congress resolution for DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray," California Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chair of the committee, said in a statement on Saturday night [12/2/2017].

Nunes blows up, threatens contempt after FBI stonewalls House on Russia investigator demoted for anti-Trump bias.  Stories in both the Washington Post and New York Times on Saturday reported that Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the original FBI investigation into the Trump-Russia matter, and then a key role in Mueller's investigation, and who earlier had played an equally critical role in the FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation, was reassigned out of the Mueller office because of anti-Trump texts he exchanged with a top FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an extramarital affair.  Strzok was transferred to the FBI's human resources office — an obvious demotion — in July.  The Post reported that Strzok and Page exchanged text messages that "expressed anti-Trump sentiments and other comments that appeared to favor Clinton."

The FBI's reputation is in sad decline.  The FBI lied to the court and Judicial Watch saying it had no discoverable documents of the June 27, 2016 tarmac meeting between then-attorney general Lynch and Bill Clinton while Hillary Clinton's misuse of classified emails was under investigation.  In a related case, it was disclosed the Bureau, in fact, had 29 such pages and they were turned over to Judicial Watch.  What they revealed was that the FBI's concern was not over the impropriety of the meeting but, rather finding and punishing the whistleblower who revealed the meeting.

Loretta Lynch Meeting With Bill Clinton Sparked FBI Mole Hunt.  A meeting last year between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton triggered a hunt within the FBI for a source who talked to a reporter about the controversial encounter, newly released government emails show.  The emails, released by the watchdog group, Judicial Watch, show that FBI agents in the bureau's security division were miffed about an article that appeared in the New York Observer detailing the logistics of how Lynch and Clinton came to meet on the tarmac at Phoenix's airport on June 27, 2016.  The FBI had initially told Judicial Watch that it did not have documents related to the Lynch-Clinton meeting.

A Story of Shocking FBI Scandal.  [Scroll down]  This is shocking and repulsive on many levels.  First private law firms are barred from directly soliciting victims of a crime like this.  Lawyers can advertise, but they CANNOT directly contact a victim of crime.  They can be disbarred for doing so.  So how can a trusted government law enforcement agency do it for them?  Secondly, how do you feel about a government agency acting as an agent or representative sending clients to a private business?  Third, does the FBI have a contract with these private law firms?  If so, what does the FBI receive for referring clients who will likely each be awarded multi-million dollar settlements?  Fourth, do the officials at the top of the FBI know that their employees are soliciting victims of crime and tragedy to private law firms for class action lawsuits?  Fifth, is this not a massive violation of the trust of crime victims?  Sixth, does this routinely happen for every crime victim in the hands of the FBI?  If so, this could be a billion-dollar scam.  Has the FBI become a telemarketing firm for ambulance chasers?  How many victims of crime in this country have been contacted by the FBI in recent years and solicited to sign contracts with private law firms?

Comey Got Rich Working with Hillary Clinton.  First off, Comey is not a hard-charging "Republican lawman" as many Members of Congress have referred to him.  Comey became an Assistant US Attorney for the Clinton administration in 1996. And get this:  At the time, Comey became good friends with Robert Mueller, the current Special Counsel conducting the Russiagate witch hunt against President Trump.  Comey and Mueller were described as "rising stars" in the Clinton Justice Department when they were both mentored by Eric Holder.  Yes, that Eric Holder.  Here's where things start to look really fishy.

Report:  Time To Investigate Obama's FBI.  President Obama weaponized the federal government to punish his political enemies and further the agendas of his supporters.  This climate of government intimidation and manipulation culminated in the 2016 Election that saw the FBI attacking one presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and favoring another, Hillary Clinton.  Clinton was of course Mr. Obama's former Secretary of State.  Trump was a political outsider who didn't even have the full support of the GOP but did have the support of tens of millions of voters both Republican and Democrat alike.  This popularity made Donald Trump the single greatest threat to the D.C. status-quo and as such, became Barack Obama's #1 target for political and personal destruction.  It is a scenario that has U.S. Congressman Mark Meadows demanding a full and independent investigation be launched into the Obama FBI and its connection to he false "Trump dossier" that was used as the justification for illegal surveillance of private citizens connected to the Trump campaign.  (And likely surveillance of Mr. Trump himself and his family.)

Special counsel needed as questions mount on Clinton, Comey, Russian Dossier and more.  Why in 2016 did FBI Director James Comey call the Clinton Investigation a "matter," not an investigation?  After all, Mr. Comey wasn't Director of the Federal Bureau of Matters.  Why in 2016 did FBI Director Comey begin drafting an exoneration letter for Secretary Clinton, whom he called "grossly negligent" in an early draft of the letter, before completing the investigation?  Before interviewing several witnesses?  And before interviewing Secretary Clinton?  Why in 2016 did James Comey and the Justice Department give Cheryl Mills, Secretary Clinton's Chief of Staff, an immunity agreement for turning over her laptop computer?

Former Asst.  FBI Director:  Clinton Crimes 20 Times Bigger than Watergate.  Former Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom unloaded on James Comey, Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama Thursday [11/9/2017], charging that major crimes "20 times bigger than Watergate" are being swept under the rug while Attorney General Jeff Sessions "is in a coma."  Appearing on Fox News' Varney & Co., Kallstrom told the host that it "was obvious to anybody that knows anything" that former President Barack Obama was not going to let James Comey indict Clinton.  "It turns out — unfortunately — he was a political hack," Kallstrom said flatly.  "I think he maybe started out in an honorable way.  His opinion of himself is sky high — just an unbelievable guy with just an arrogance about him...  It got him in trouble because I think he thought he was Superman and he found out that he wasn't."  Kallstrom blamed the Clintons for Comey's descent into hackery.

The Trump Collusion Case Is Not Getting the Clinton Emails Treatment.  [Scroll down]  Lest we forget, President Obama had endorsed Mrs. Clinton, his former secretary of state and his party's nominee, to be president.  Moreover, Obama had knowingly participated in the conduct for which Clinton was under investigation — using a pseudonym in communicating with her about classified government business over an unsecure private communication system.  Obama prejudiced the emails investigation.  Long before it was formally ended, he publicly pronounced Clinton innocent.

Why We Cannot Trust the FBI.  The FBI is discounting ISIS' claim that the Las Vegas attack was jihad.  But is the FBI really trustworthy?  The Islamic State says Steven Paddock converted six months ago.  He filmed himself killing; jihadis do that and post it online.  The attack was meticulously planned, as jihad attacks are, and Paddock likely had an accomplice.  Paddock made numerous trips to the Middle East.  Over 200 of his foreign financial transactions were flagged for possible "covert terrorism financing."  Contrary to the ignorant, misinformed and delusional talking heads in the media, ISIS does not take responsibility for events that are not theirs.  This has led even the New York Times' terrorism expert to give credence to ISIS' claims.

As fight enters second month, FBI still withholding dossier documents.  It has now been more than a month since a House Intelligence Committee subpoena set a September 1 deadline for the FBI and the Justice Department to turn over documents related to the Trump dossier.  Not a single document has been produced.  The first deadline was extended once, then again, then again, and is now on some sort of hold.  But no documents have been handed over.  Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein met with committee chairman Devin Nunes last Thursday — the committee can perhaps take comfort in the fact that it is being put off by progressively higher-ranking officials — but it is not clear if the committee is any closer to receiving the documents than when it first issued its subpoena on August 24.

FBI agent indicted, charged with lying about shooting during encounter with Oregon refuge occupier.  A special agent with the elite FBI Hostage Rescue Team has been indicted and accused of trying to cover up the firing of gunshots during an encounter with a member of an armed group who occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge last year.  The indictment — filed last week and made public Wednesday [6/28/2017] — does not accuse Special Agent W. Joseph Astarita of shooting the occupier, but it is a public black eye for the FBI group, which the bureau has described as unparalleled in its law enforcement capabilities.

Obama's FBI Passed Around Classified Information On American Citizens To People Outside Government.  shocking report from Circa.com revealed on Friday [5/26/2017] that the FBI under director James Comey "illegally shared raw intelligence about Americans with unauthorized third parties and violated other constitutional privacy protections, according to newly declassified government documents."

Severed Heads.  The head of the FBI (quite outside his purview as an investigatory official) announced in summer 2016 to the nation that he had decided not to seek an indictment of Hillary Clinton.  Then, again in the role of a presumed federal attorney, he seemed to reverse that judgment by reopening his investigation.  Then he appeared to re-reverse that decision — all at the height of a heated presidential campaign.  Throughout such a bizarre sequence, Comey stuck to a (flawed) exegesis about the nature of federal statutes in question (intent is not a mitigating circumstance in the felonious insecure transmission of classified federal documents).  Comey de facto had assumed yet another new role in addition to his newfound claims to be both an investigator and a prosecuting federal attorney — that of legislator and judge.

No, I Am Not a Moron but Half the Country is Deranged.  Let's consider the truth about the entire Comey affair.  By the time Comey held that press conference which was actually beyond FBI protocol; most voters had already decided whom to vote for so it had no impact on their vote.  Most of us deplorables were incensed that Hillary Clinton was getting a pass after breaking the Espionage Act but Comey testified in Congress that she was not going to be indicted because there was no intent to break the law.  WHAT?  Hillary Clinton's reckless and negligent e-mails included the names of CIA officers serving overseas and foreigners who are on the spy agency's payroll — potentially endangering their lives.  Remember Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, was jailed for allegedly outing Valerie Plame, who was a CIA desk jockey, not a spy in the field?  Hollywood sycophants even made a movie, "Fair Game" about the story that the Washington Post called full of distortions and outright invention.

Judicial Watch President:  Hillary Clinton Still Faces Legal Jeopardy Over Gross Mishandling of Classified Information.  Now that FBI Director James Comey has been fired, partially for his handling of the Clinton email scandal, many are wondering if a newly appointed director will take a second look at the case.  Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, whose attorneys have worked overtime to expose the extent to which Clinton and her aides went in mishandling classified information on an unsecured private server, says it's certainly a possibility.

Acting FBI Director:  Yeah, The Decision Not to Indict Hillary Clinton Caused Controversy Within The Bureau.  When former FBI Director James Comey walked out to television cameras on July 5, 2016, he announced the Bureau would not recommend charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for using an unsecured private email server despite "extremely careless" handling of classified information. [...] The announcement of a non-indictment came just days after former Attorney General Loretta Lynch was caught secretly meeting with former President Bill Clinton on her private plane in Phoenix.  When caught, Lynch claimed the meeting was about grandchildren and golf.  Media reports at the time indicated the decision not to indict Clinton, combined with the secret meeting, was highly disconcerting to many FBI agents.

FBI Director Comey appears to reverse his course again, November 5, 2016:
Once again, Election Day was November 8.

Editor's note:
Again, the items in this section are listed in the order in which they were discovered on the internet.

James Comey:  "We haven't changed our conclusions on Clinton".  [The most recent FBI letter] Does not apply to Clinton Foundation investigation, which is ongoing.  However, we would be remiss if we didn't remind everyone what we previously shared on October 28th about the original Comey letter to congress.

FBI: Review of new emails doesn't change conclusion on Clinton.  FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Sunday [11/6/2016] the agency hasn't changed its opinion that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges after a review of new emails.  "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July," Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen.

FBI Director James Comey reveals the department will NOT change its July decision.  Donald Trump blasted the FBI's director on Sunday night, telling a crowd of 8,000 people in Michigan that he rejects the bureau's latest move to exonerate Hillary Clinton.  FBI chief James Comey told leaders in Congress hours earlier that a review of 650,000 emails discovered on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner had reinforced his July 5 decision to let her off the hook.

'You can't review 650,000 new emails in eight days!' Furious Trump blasts FBI Director.  Donald Trump blasted the FBI's director on Sunday night, telling a crowd of 8,000 people in Michigan that he rejects the bureau's latest move to exonerate Hillary Clinton.  FBI chief James Comey told leaders in Congress hours earlier that a review of 650,000 emails discovered on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner had reinforced his July 5 decision to let her off the hook.  'The investigations into her crimes will go on for a long, long time,' Trump said in the Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights.

This headline could only mean one thing:  Mr. Comey is trying to sway the election!
White House:  Comey not trying to sway election.  The White House on Monday [11/7/2016] stressed its belief that James Comey is not trying to influence the outcome of the presidential election after the FBI director informed Congress this weekend he won't change his recommendation to not charge Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Wikileaks Releases 8,200 Emails From DNC Hack; Reveals Collusion Between CNN And Democrats.  [M]oments ago, Wikileaks announced the release of another huge batch of hacked DNC emails, which it dubbed #DNCLeak2, contained some 8,263 previously unseen, hacked DNC emails — a server penetration which had previously been attributed either to the Guccifer 2.0 hacker, or Vladimir Putin, and which over the summer cost Debbie Wasserman Schultz her job when it was revealed that the DNC was rigging the primary in HIllary's favor — going public for the first time.  While we expect the FBI to fully parse, scan and finalize it[,] report on this batch within the next 10 or so minutes, and to conclude there is nothing of significance in the pile, [...]

'Once a crook, always a crook' Hillary Clinton condemned after FBI clear her over emails.  US presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has been branded a "crook" by the former mayor of New York City after being cleared of any wrongdoings over the use of a private email server.  Rudy Giuliani hit out at the Democrat nominee over a Wikileaks expose which claimed Mrs Clinton used money from the Clinton Foundation to fund her daughter Chelsea's wedding to Marc Mezvinsky in 2010.  It was also alleged she had allowed classified emails to be handled by her maid.  The allegations surfaced after the FBI exonerated Mrs Clinton of criminal conduct after a fresh inquiry into her private email server during her time as secretary of state from 2009-13.

FBI clears Clinton — again.  FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Sunday the agency hasn't changed its opinion that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges after a review of new emails.  "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July," Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen.

The Editor says...
No, Mrs. Clinton has not been cleared.  There are multiple investigations underway, and she has not been fully exonerated, as the article above would have you believe.

Here's What The FBI Found In The Emails On Anthony Weiner's Laptop.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation determined that almost every email discovered in a laptop used primarily by the husband of an aide to Hillary Clinton was a duplicate of previously produced documents or personal emails, a person close to the case told Newsweek.  As a result, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress Sunday saying the new emails have not changed the bureau's earlier decision that no crime occurred with Clinton's use of a private server while she was secretary of state.

Will James Comey survive the Clinton email flap?  James Comey isn't going to get out of the Clinton email investigation unscathed.  After delivering yet another potentially game-changing missive — this one clearing Hillary Clinton of criminal wrongdoing in the email probe — the FBI director found himself caught in an unusual vortex, taking heavy flak from both sides of the aisle.  The almost certain result will be further congressional hearings into both his agency's investigation and his own decision-making, from his unusual July press conference to clear Clinton of charges but rebuke her nonetheless, to his public release of investigative materials, to his shocking revelation on Oct. 28 of new evidence, to yesterday's report that the evidence didn't amount to much, at least as far as Clinton herself is concerned.

Hillary Cleared As FBI Folds Again:  Comey Says "No New Conclusions" After Clinton Email Review.  And now the pendulum of Comey backlash swings the other way.  Which Republican politician will be the first to press charges against Comey under The Heath Act?  And will Harry Reid drop his charges?  In a letter to several committee chairmen released Sunday, FBI Director James Comey announced on Sunday afternoon that just over a week after the FBI reopened its probe into Clinton emails, the Bureau has not changed its July conclusion regarding Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Bongino: 'The Teflon Clintons got away with it again'.  Following the FBI's announcement over the weekend that Hillary Clinton is, once again, "in the clear" regarding her private email server, Conservative Review's Dan Bongino took to Facebook to share his reaction.  "So the Teflon Clintons got away with it again," the Renegade Republican announced on Facebook Live.  "Do you believe this?  I mean, does it ever end with these people?  Do you ever notice the Clintons and justice never intersect, ever?"  The only reason the former secretary of state is not in prison is because "something's going on behind the scenes" and "someone at the top did not want to find the answers," said Bongino.  [Video clip]

Question:  Are You Thoroughly Disgusted With The FBI?  A lot of Americans have had quite enough of political hacks setting up shop in American institutions only to hijack them to entrench their own political agendas or punish their political rivals. [...] We cannot even trust those people we pay to enforce our laws on our behalf to do so impartially.  Once we've lost that, can we truly say we still have a Republic?

Hey, Comey:  If There's 'Nothing' In Hillary's 650K Emails, Then Release Them.  If, as Comey has said, there is nothing in that email that would condemn Hillary, there should be nothing in it that the public cannot see.  After all[,] at least 5 foreign government agencies have already seen them, and the only people in the dark are the ones who have a right to access that information.  'We the People'.  In fact, when 'We the People' — by way of Congress — demanded she produce her email, she destroyed information that was under subpoena.  Apparently, that does not 'qualify' as noteworthy to Director Comey.

Agents Must Now Blow Whistle on Clinton/Obama Corruption.  We are in uncharted territory.  Unfettered corruption has metastasized to the highest levels of government.  FBI Director James Comey, a man once widely respected throughout all levels of law enforcement, has sadly sealed his legacy as a crooked shill for the Clinton crime family.  It's the theatre of the absurd.  Based upon his Sunday announcement that he intends to put the kibosh, for now at least, on Hillary Clinton's criminal investigations, Mr. Comey has asked the American people to believe that the FBI thoroughly reviewed 650,000 emails from Anthony Weiner's laptop in a whopping 691,200 seconds.  I suspect Comey may have come across details of his own impending "suicide" on Weiner's hard drive.  It's little wonder that trust for government is at an all-time low, and that the FBI has become a national laughing stock.

Breaking: Comey Caves Again, Lets Hillary OFF The Hook.  Have we been rope-a-doped? [...] So, they got everyone to 'turn the channel' by baiting us with a red herring.  The nation's attention focussed on FBI investigations ... 'generally'... most not following closely enough to distinguish between the pay-for-play and the email cases, which are being investigated by different arms of the FBI.  Meaning, the Pay-for-play investigation has NOT been 'closed', it was never discussed at all.  Don't let them get away with saying anything to the contrary.  The President praised Comey one day for his fairness, scolded him the next day for getting too involved in the political process, and now we have Comey announcing that we're back to square 1.  Remember that without cooperation of the DOJ, nothing Comey does will lead to prosecution.

Question: If All Questions Are Decided By Lynch, Comey & Obama, Why Have A Congress?  Obama has already shown us he doesn't need 'We the people' to start a war.  (Who needs Congress for that?)  There was [an] objection about how the proper roles of House and Senate were ignored for Obamacare.  Which is why some STILL maintain it is illegitimate.

Ashcroft: FBI Director James Comey Didn't Clear Clinton.  [Former U.S. Attorney General John] Ashcroft questioned Comey's decision to make an announcement on Sunday afternoon and asserted a major cynicism within the justice community.  "If you're supposed to believe that this is business as usual.  It's not business as usual for... announcements to be made on Sunday afternoon... Maybe this is mandated and required by the circumstances but I believe we've found ourselves in a situation where the people at the bottom of the social order in the United States don't believe the justice community can protect them and they believe that the people at the top of the social order are not subject to prosecution," he said.

When investigators go rogue:  James Comey and Hillary's emails.  In this new letter, Director Comey is clearly attempting to retract the impression he created 10 days ago that Mrs. Clinton may have violated the law.  In his earlier, vague letter to Congress, Comey suggested that he was renewing an inquiry into Hillary Clinton's emails after 650,000 emails were found on the laptop of the estranged husband of one of her closest aides, Huma Abedin.  While Mrs. Clinton's campaign spokesman quickly praised Comey's latest letter on Sunday — a clarification issued just 36 hours before polls open on Election Day across the nation — Comey's action has reinforced the perception that the FBI, indeed, the Justice Department, are two government agencies in chaos.  Both letters also suggest that Comey has yielded to intense criticism of his earlier conduct, which many critics excoriated as a dangerous departure from Justice Department tradition and procedure.

Johnson wants answers from Comey on FBI's latest Clinton investigation twist.  U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson wants to know how FBI Director James Comey arrived at his decision — again — that Hillary Clinton will not face criminal charges related to the former Secretary of State's email scandal.  Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent Comey a letter Monday asking the FBI director for additional details about the agency's examination of new emails "pertinent to the investigation" into Clinton.

Newt Gingrich Just Exposed The Real Reason Why James Comey Let Hillary Go.  So my question is this:  why even send the letter to Congress this close to the election if you only will announce 9 days later than it was much ado about nothing?  It seems highly suspicious and nearly unconscionable that the letter would be sent only to be totally contradicted just over a week later.  It really makes you wonder what is going on behind the scenes, what deals are being made that we don't know about, that is going to misshape this country.  The FBI and the government is doing everything they can to get Hillary in office and we all know it.

FBI Agents Must Come Forward to Confront Corruption.  We are in uncharted territory.  Unfettered corruption has metastasized to the highest levels of government.  FBI Director James Comey, a man once widely respected throughout all levels of law enforcement, has sadly sealed his legacy as a crooked shill for the Clinton crime family.  It's the theatre of the absurd.  Based upon his Sunday announcement that he intends to put the kibosh, for now at least, on Hillary Clinton's criminal investigations, Mr. Comey has asked the American people to believe that the FBI thoroughly reviewed 650,000 emails from Anthony Weiner's laptop in a whopping 691,200 seconds.  I suspect Comey may have come across details of his own impending "suicide" on Weiner's hard drive.  It's little wonder that trust for government is at an all-time low, and that the FBI has become a national laughing stock.

Now Five FBI Field Offices Are Probing Clinton Charity, Adding Fuel To The Fire.  FBI field offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Little Rock, Ark., are investigating the Clinton Foundation concerning allegations of pay-to-play financial and political corruption, according to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday [10/30/2016].  Mirroring information provided by a former senior law enforcement official that "multiple FBI investigations are underway involving potential corruption charges against the Clinton Foundation," the Journal confirms what The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group reported in August.

Exclusive: It's Full-Bore Ahead For FBI's Clinton Foundation Probe.  FBI agents across the country are continuing to actively pursue a broad political corruption investigation of the Clinton Foundation, a probe that is consuming the resources in the FBI's Little Rock, Ark., field office where every agent assigned to public corruption matters now is working on the case, The Daily Caller News Foundation's Investigative Group has learned.  "Everybody's working the foundation in Little Rock," a former senior FBI official told TheDCNF.  There at least 10 agents involved, but it's possible the Little Rock field office is "pulling bodies from other programs."

Bureau's ex-official says FBI chief may have to resign over Clinton email case.  FBI Director James Comey is likely to resign over his handling of the email scandal surrounding presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a former senior executive at the FBI told TASS Friday [11/11/2016].

Goodbye Huma Abedin, hello Keith Ellison.  [A]s the self-righteous liberal hysteria following Hillary's loss settles stateside, the former First Lady is blaming her defeat on none other than the FBI.  No, in Clinton's entitlement-state-of-mind, it was never her fault.  Not even her questionable deletion of 30,000 emails or the hammer-mode destruction of her multiple cellular phones to destroy evidence.  It was always someone else's fault.

Comey FBI letter 'almost certainly' cost Hillary Clinton the election, figures reveal.  FBI director James Comey's letter announcing the FBI was reopening its probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server may have played a key role in her election loss, figures suggest.  Renowned pollster Nate Silver said Ms Clinton would "almost certainly" be President-elect of the US if the election had been held on 27 October, the day before Mr Comey's announcement.

The Editor says...
Hillary's criminal acts, her reputation, her greed, her evasiveness and her lies cost her the election — not Mr. Comey's appraisal of those acts.

Harry Reid claims 'partisan' Comey 'ignored' reports of Russian meddling and 'single-handedly'cost Clinton the election.  Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid repeated his insistence that Hillary Clinton would have been president and the Democrats would have a majority in the Senate had it not been for the 'partisan' actions of FBI Director James Comey.  Reid, the Democrat from Nevada who is retiring this year, told CNN on Monday that Clinton would have defeated the eventual winner of the race, President-elect Donald Trump, if Comey was not 'heavily involved as a partisan.'

The 5 Stages Of Losing An Election To Donald Trump.  Weeks after the election, conventional wisdom had coalesced around the idea that FBI Director James Comey's letter informing Congress that the bureau had found new evidence relating to the criminal investigation had irreversibly changed the election.  Many Democrats accused Comey of attempting to win the election for Trump.  After hammering Trump with one accusation after the next — some of them legitimate and some of them completely unproven — Democrats seemed to believe their candidate should be immune from news of her own doing.  Clinton, after all, was the one who used a secret server to circumvent transparency.  She was the one who sent unsecured classified documents on that server.  She was the one who attempted to destroy the evidence related to this investigation.  She was the one who lied to the American people about it.  And Clinton was nominated by Democrats, who never seriously entertained any another candidate.

The Left's never-ending war.  The push among the American Left to discredit the results of last month's presidential election entered a new phase last Friday [12/9/2016] with the White House's announcement that outgoing US President Barack Obama has ordered US intelligence agencies to review evidence of Russian hacking in last month's elections on behalf of President-elect Donald Trump.  The investigation itself is unlikely to lead to any conclusive results.  The FBI, which is responsible for carrying out this sort of investigation, saw no evidence that Russian hacking was aimed specifically at assisting Trump's campaign against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Federal judge asks to see FBI search warrants used to access Hillary Clinton emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop and hints that he may unseal documents.  A federal judge has directed the US government to show him any search warrant application used to gain access to a new batch of Hillary Clinton's emails just before the election.  Judge P. Kevin Castel on Tuesday asked a government lawyer to turn over any pertinent documents by late Thursday [12/15/2016] in case he decides any portion of the materials must be made public.  He also recommended the government advise what redactions are necessary should he rule that portions of documents must be disclosed publicly.

FBI to release search warrant detailing why it reopened investigation into the Hillary Clinton emails.  The FBI will be forced to reveal details on Tuesday about why it decided to suddenly reopen its investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails during the final days of the election, a move that many Democrats have blamed for costing Clinton the election.  Judge P. Kevin Castel ordered a court to unseal the FBI search warrant for Clinton-related emails that were discovered on a laptop belonging to disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner in October.  The warrant, the FBI's application for the warrant, and an affidavit justifying the warrant will be released to the public on Tuesday [12/20/2016].

U.S. judge orders unsealing of Clinton email probe search warrant.  A U.S. judge on Monday [12/19/2016] ordered the unsealing of the application used to obtain a search warrant that allowed the FBI to gain access to emails related to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's private server before the Nov. 8 election.  U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan directed the release by Tuesday of redacted materials used to obtain a search warrant after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28.  Comey's letter drew new attention to a damaging issue for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and roiled the campaign 11 days before the Nov. 8 election, won by Republican Donald Trump.

Judge orders unsealing of search warrant in Clinton email probe.  A federal judge has ordered the unsealing of a search warrant that played a role in the controversial public renewal of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email just before the presidential election.  The warrant was issued by a federal magistrate in late October, after the FBI requested permission to search emails contained on a laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.  The FBI discovered the Clinton-related emails after initially seizing the laptop during a probe over Weiner's alleged sexually explicit online exchanges with a minor.

Now Bill Clinton blames the FBI for his wife's defeat claiming Comey cost her the election.  Former President Bill Clinton, caught in his own wilderness of a small town New York bookstore, pointed a finger at FBI Director James Comey for his wife's election loss — while casting the winner, President-elect Donald Trump, as a know-nothing.  'James Comey cost her the election,' Clinton said, according to a column in The Record-Review, a weekly newspaper that covers the towns of Bedford and Pound Ridge, New York — communities close to the Clintons' Chappaqua.

Bill Clinton's sad excuses for Hillary's defeat.  Most grumpy old men don't draw a crowd, let alone make national news, by ranting in a bookstore about how their family's been wronged.  But Bill Clinton is an ex-president, and the hubby of Hillary.  So now everyone knows he sounded off in Pleasantville about how FBI chief Jim Comey "cost her the election" by announcing less than two weeks before Nov. 8 that he was re-opening the probe of her private e-mail server. [...] The FBI probe began in the first place because Hillary opted to conceal her work records — shielding her communications from Freedom of Information requests and from goverment investigations into the Benghazi attacks.

The FBI reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails days before the election based on little more than a hunch, according to a newly unsealed search warrant.  The FBI reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server days before the election based on little more than a hunch, according to a search warrant in the case unsealed on Tuesday [12/20/2016].  Authorities said in the warrant request that they suspected a Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series used by senior Clinton aide Huma Abedin contained classified email exchanges with Clinton, but claimed they had not actually looked at the content of the messages.

FBI warrant released in Clinton case, revealing extent of classified info on laptop.  A federal court on Tuesday released the search warrant documents filed by the FBI to access a laptop used by disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, revealing new details about why the bureau revisited the email case just days before the presidential election.  The FBI's investigation found "27 email chains containing classified information" on a laptop that "was never authorized for the storage or transmission of classified or national defense information," according to the application for the warrant, which was partially redacted.

FBI feared Abedin's laptop had been hacked, contained secret emails: warrant.  The FBI believed Huma Abedin's laptop computer did have evidence she and her boss, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, mishandled classified information, according to a search warrant released Tuesday that shows the basis agents had for upending the presidential election with their controversial election-season probe.  Agents were also hoping to see if anyone had used the laptop to hack into the Clinton emails, according to the affidavit agents filed to justify the warrant.  Ms. Abedin, one of Mrs. Clinton's top aides from her time in the State Department and again on the campaign trail, shared the laptop with her now-estranged husband Anthony Weiner.  The FBI seized the laptop in a probe of Mr. Weiner, but discovered it also had messages between Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Abedin.

Court releases search warrant in Clinton email probe.  Search warrant filings made public for the first time Tuesday [12/20/2016] provide a new look at controversial actions the FBI took shortly before the presidential election as the law enforcement agency revived its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email set-up.  The warrant was issued by federal magistrate Kevin Fox in Manhattan on Oct. 30, after the FBI requested permission to search emails contained on a Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin.  The FBI discovered Clinton-related emails on the computer after initially seizing the device during a probe over Weiner's alleged sexually explicit online exchanges with a minor.

Emails between Clinton and top aide, but little else, spurred FBI to resume controversial probe.  The FBI told a federal judge that it needed to search a computer to resume its investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server because agents had found correspondence on the device between Clinton and top aide Huma Abedin — though they did not have any inkling what was being discussed, according to newly unsealed court documents.

Here It Is:  The Full FBI Search Warrant of Huma Abedin's Weinerputer.  Bear with me: it's in PDF format and partially redacted.  But it's still very interesting reading.

FBI Search Warrant In October Cited "Criminal Investigation" In Hillary E-Mail Scandal.  It turns out that the FBI had not yet given up on 18 USC 793 (e) and (f) in October.  A federal judge unsealed the warrant that authorized the search of Anthony Weiner's laptop after a lawsuit from an attorney who specializes more in unearthing stolen art.  The FBI had told the judge who issued the warrant that they believed it would unearth evidence relating to a criminal investigation: [...]

FBI search warrant:  Hillary Clinton put US at 'exceptionally grave' risk.  Paragraph 20 of the affidavit states that Hillary turned over to the State Department 30,499 emails in response to a records request from the State Department.  The Department then reviewed these emails in response to a FOIA request.  After review, the State Department announced on February 20, 2016 that 2,115 emails contained "classified" information; 2,028 of the 2,115 contained "confidential" information; 65 of the 2,115 contained "secret" information; and 22 of the 2,115 contained "top secret" information.  Paragraph 21 of the affidavit states that the U.S. government concluded that the unauthorized disclosure of the 2,028 "confidential" emails could cause "damage" to national security, unauthorized disclosure of the 65 "secret" level emails could cause "serious damage" to national security, and unauthorized disclosure of the 22 "top secret" emails could cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security.  We do not know the contents of the 33,000 emails Hillary destroyed.  But the inference is she destroyed them because she considered them damaging to her.

FBI director under pressure to explain Clinton bombshell.  Six weeks since Hillary Clinton's surprise loss in the presidential election, FBI Director James Comey is under pressure to justify the bombshell announcement that rocked the final days of the campaign.  Democrats, still smarting from the Nov. 8 loss, have lashed out at Comey as the architect of the Democratic nominee's defeat.  "James Comey cost her the election," former president Bill Clinton has said.  Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has accused the director of being a "Republican operative" who helped President-elect Donald Trump win the White House.

Bill Clinton, Who May Have Cost Hillary the Election, Passes the Buck to James Comey.  Former President Bill Clinton is quick to apportion blame for his wife's defeat.  "James Comey cost her the election," Clinton was quoted telling a group of holiday shoppers during an impromptu chat in a Westchester County bookshop last week.  But he has yet to place any blame at all on an otherwise great man with a great fault who bears considerably more responsibility for Hillary Clinton's loss.  That man is Bill Clinton himself.  His great fault is one he shares with his wife; they too often act as if rules that apply to you or me do not apply to them.

The attorney general could have ordered FBI Director James Comey not to send his bombshell letter on Clinton emails.  Here's why she didn't.  Twelve days before the presidential election, FBI Director James B. Comey dispatched a senior aide to deliver a startling message to the Justice Department.  Comey wanted to send a letter to Congress alerting lawmakers that his agents had discovered more emails potentially relevant to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.  The official in Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates's office who received the FBI call immediately understood the explosive potential of Comey's message, coming so close to the presidential election.  Federal attorneys scrambled into offices on the fourth and fifth floors of Justice Department headquarters, where they huddled to figure out how to stop what they viewed as a ticking time bomb.

The Vast Cognitive Gulf between the Left and the Right.  From the top of the legacy media chain, the New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, CNN, MSNBC, there is nothing but anger and accusations.  Someone must be blamed for their loss and it must not be their candidate.  No way.  There has to be a nefarious, outisde-of-the-campaign cause.  It was Comey, it was Russia, it was Wikileaks.

What if Obama dropped Hillary's email bombs?  Obama is a major narcissist who always wants to expand his personal power.  Being president has not satisfied his power-hungry ego; nothing ever will.  For months he has been talking about running for a third term, and he's back at it today.  Washington speculation has long focused on Obama's ambition to become SecGen of the U.N., an office he could try to expand into a genuine power center to achieve the utopian fantasy of the left, a world order in which everything is "properly" controlled from a dictatorial center.  This is consistent with the worst kind of Marxism, but it is also the dream of jihad:  world conquest.  Obama has shown time and time again that he is a sort of Marxo-jihadophile.

What if Obama dropped Hillary's email bombs?  So Obama's motive for (possibly) dropping Hillary's email bombs?  His quest for power.  If Hillary were president for the next eight years, as the Democrats confidently expected, Obama might be dwarfed by the second Clinton administration.  Hillary and Obama are not friends; it was Obama who accused the Clintons of racism to destroy them at the Democratic Convention eight years ago, which reportedly outraged Bill and Hillary.  Obama won that fight, but he left a lot of anger and resentment.  So Obama's motive for undermining Hillary would be their hot competition for power.  Obama is the biggest backstabber in U.S. politics, a true genius at the art of gaining trust and then betraying it.

FBI Never Looked At DNC Servers Before Announcing They Were Hacked By Russia.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation did not inspect the servers of the Democratic National Committee before declaring Russia responsible for last year's hacking, according to a report from Buzzfeed.

Comey: FBI denied repeated requests to access DNC servers, Podesta's device.  FBI Director James Comey acknowledged Tuesday that his agency failed to get access to Democratic National Committee servers and the smartphone of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman allegedly hacked by Russia in the 2016 presidential race.  Thousands of emails from the servers and Chairman John Podesta's device were stolen, then made public during the race, which Clinton lost to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.  But the FBI's repeated requests for access to the devices were denied.  So the agency instead had to rely on the findings of a "highly respected private company," Comey said.

Reports: FBI, CIA Not On The Same Page About Russian Hacking.  Contrary to claims made by Democrats about Russian interference helping President-elect Donald J. Trump, there is no definitive proof that the Kremlin ordered such cyber attacks.  It's all based on circumstantial evidence, innuendo, and anonymous sources that are bound by an apparent inter-agency feud between the CIA and the FBI.  On December 10, The Washington Post reported that both agencies were not on the same page, which seemed to have angered Democrats:

Comey Letter on Clinton Email Is Subject of Justice Dept.  Inquiry.  The Justice Department's inspector general said Thursday [1/12/2017] that he would open a broad investigation into how the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, handled the case over Hillary Clinton's emails, including his decision to discuss it at a news conference and to disclose 11 days before the election that he had new information that could lead him to reopen it.  The inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, will not look into the decision not to prosecute Mrs. Clinton or her aides.  But he will review actions Mr. Comey took that Mrs. Clinton and many of her supporters believe cost her the election.

Now it's Comey's turn to get probed:  FBI boss to be investigated on scandal of secret server.  In yet another explosive twist to the Clinton email scandal, the Justice Department's inspector general has announced an investigation of the FBI's actions in the months leading up to the elections — including extraordinary public actions taken by FBI Director James Comey.  The IG will examine whether Comey followed department policies when he rocked the presidential campaign by announcing the bombshell decision not to prosecute HIllary Clinton in connection with her email scandal.  Then, he made it known that he was sifting through additional email evidence just 11 days before the election — only to reveal that nothing new of importance had turned up.

Dems 'outraged' with Comey after House briefing.  A number of House Democrats left Friday's confidential briefing on Russian hacking fuming over the actions of FBI Director James Comey and convinced he's unfit to lead the agency.  "I was nonjudgmental until the last 15 minutes.  I no longer have that confidence in him," Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said as he left the meeting in the Capitol.  "Some of the things that were revealed in this classified briefing — my confidence has been shook."  Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, delivered a similar condemnation.

The Editor says...
"My confidence has been shook," he says.  Must be a public school student.

If The Comey Letter Sunk Hillary, It's Her Own Fault.  Democrats have reacted to Donald Trump's victory in a number of ways:  they've demanded the Constitution be retroactively changed; they've pinned the blame on "fake news;" they've allowed paranoia about Russia to corrupt their thinking; and they've blamed the loss on the FBI, specifically the "Comey letter," which is most perplexing excuse of all.  In response to pressure from congressional Democrats, the Justice Department inspector general will now review how the FBI and Justice Department handled certain aspects of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.  (Perhaps the inspector general could also look into why Attorney General Loretta Lynch reportedly asked Comey not to send the letter even though she had promised not to get involved in the investigation.  While they're at it, maybe the inspector general can find out why Lynch attended an off-the-record meeting on a tarmac with the husband of the person under investigation?)

Judge: FBI Release is "Smoking Gun" Against Hillary Clinton.  Could Hillary Clinton still be facing some extreme legal problems, even though the campaign season is over and her opponent was victorious?  If the latest information released by the FBI can be trusted, she has reason to worry.

Trump trolls Left with FBI Director Comey.  The left has a list of people they blame for Hillary's defeat.  The FBI boss is near the top of that list.  When Comey announced that the FBI was taking another look at Hillary, the same hacks who had been praising him for giving Hillary a pass, turned on him.  Since then everyone from Bill Clinton on down blames him for Trump's win.  And Trump, knowing it, decided to have some fun with them.

Trump Is Keeping FBI Director Comey.  The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told his top agents from around the country that he had been asked by President Trump to stay on the job running the federal government's top law enforcement agency, The New York Times reports, according to people familiar with the matter.  The political fallout from this decision will make the news cycle buzz today, since Hillary Clinton, the mainstream media, and many Democrats blame Mr. Comey for her defeat, and it is not clear whether she would have kept him on had she won.  [B]ut a decision to retain Mr. Comey would spare the president another potentially bruising confirmation battle.

Trump plans to keep Comey as FBI director in move certain to infuriate Democrats convinced that he aided Clinton's defeat.  President Trump intends to keep FBI Director James Comey in his post, a person familiar with the decision said on Tuesday [1/24/2017], amid reports that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are scrutinizing Trump associates over their ties to Russia.

News and commentary prior to the re-opening of the FBI investigation on October 28, 2016:

Clinton headlined fundraiser for campaign group which gave $500,000 to wife of FBI boss who investigated her emails.  Hillary Clinton headlined a major fundraiser for a political action committee shortly before the group steered nearly $500,000 to the wife of the FBI official who oversaw the Clinton email investigation, DailyMail.com has learned.  Clinton's ties to the Common Good VA — a Virginia state PAC run by Clinton's long-time friend and advisor Terry McAuliffe, its governor — came under scrutiny this week after the Wall Street Journal reported that the group donated heavily to the state senate campaign of Jill McCabe.  Her husband Andrew McCabe led the FBI investigation into Clinton's emails.

O'Reilly Explodes at Comey Over New Emails.  One of the new John Podesta emails getting a lot of play today concerns what President Obama did or didn't know abut Hillary Clinton's private server, and Bill O'Reilly tonight pointed a very angry finger at FBI Director James Comey over it.

What happened to the FBI? It's been corrupted by Obama and his team.  When FBI Director James Comey announced on July 5 that the Department of Justice would not seek the indictment of Hillary Clinton for failure to safeguard state secrets related to her email use while she was secretary of state, he both jumped the gun and set in motion a series of events that surely he did not intend.  Was his hand forced by the behavior of FBI agents who wouldn't take no for an answer?  Did he let the FBI become a political tool?

Democrat Corruption is Much Worse Than Trump.  This week the [Wall Street] Journal revealed that Clinton crony Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe — no stranger to suspicious fund-raising irregularities — funneled more than half a million dollars to the unsuccessful state senate campaign of the wife of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.  McCabe, whom the Journal describes as FBI Director James Comey's "right-hand man," was deeply involved in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server — an investigation that found Mrs. Clinton in clear violation of the law but unindictable because... well, just because.  Fortunately, Mr. McCabe has investigated himself and found himself completely innocent of any wrongdoing!

High Level FBI Official Dined with Podesta Night After Hillary Testified.  The day after Hillary Clinton testified in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi last October, John Podesta, Hillary's campaign chairman met for dinner with a small group of well-connected friends that included Peter Kadzik, the Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs.  In a Wikileaks email 27938 from October 23, 2015, sent by Vincent Roberti, a lobbyist tied to the Podesta brothers, Roberti refers to the dinner, one day before Hillary's testimony to the Benghazi Committee.  Then in another email 30970 on May 5, 2015, Kadzik's son asked Podesta for a job on the Clinton campaign.  This is a conflict of interest between the Clinton campaign and the FBI assigned to investigate her illicit use of the bathroom server for State and confidential emails.

Yes, There Is a Coup On in America.  [Scroll down]  Then there's the fact that Hillary's guilty of perjury, destroying evidence, obstruction of justice, and that whole pay-to-play thing.  I know — she hasn't been charged, much less convicted of those crimes, but that brings me back to my original point.  Hillary wasn't charged or convicted because the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) served as accessories after the fact to cover up her crimes and enable her to avoid prosecution.  The FBI flat-out took a dive.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) tried to be more clandestine, but Bill Clinton's meet-up with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac got caught on video.  The meeting might have been to influence Comey but more likely to dot their Is and cross their Ts on the upcoming non-indictment.  So we have a woman, Hillary Clinton, who should be in jail but is instead cruising to the presidency; a Justice Department that openly assists Hillary in her cover-ups, and a complicit media that hides all these facts from the public.

Richard Nixon could only wish he got Hillary's FBI treatment.  Oh, for the good old days of Watergate and of public servants like Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus.  We should be so lucky now.  Instead, we have a sitting president, Barack Obama, who presided over a corrupt Justice Department and the FBI.  And instead of public servants of principle, we have a gaggle of quislings, including Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who put partisanship and their careers ahead of duty.  Rather than ending a national nightmare, a transfer of power from Obama to Clinton would start a new crisis of confidence.  Consider the threshold question of whether the Justice Department could ever be trusted to prosecute anyone in public office.

More Politicized Justice to Protect Hillary.  A recently revealed connection between Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a local Virginia politician and the FBI exposes, at the very least, another deceptive conflict of interest that was likely intended to help protect the viability of Hillary Clinton's presidential ambitions.  These politicians believe they can get away with such actions because they trust that they can count on a complicit mainstream media to cover for their corruption.

A Retired FBI Agent Addresses James Comey on the Hillary Clinton Investigation.  Sir, I am writing regarding your public statement in July, 2016 informing the American people that the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton was being closed without referring it to a Federal Grand Jury or the Attorney General of the U.S. for a decision whether or not to indict her.  Strangely, you eloquently laid out enough of the evidence deduced from the investigation to strongly indicate there was abundant evidence uncovered during the investigation and interview of her to not only indict but to convict her in Federal Court.  However, you personally re-worded and soft-pedaled the actions she took as Secretary of State describing her actions as "extremely careless" in using a personal email and un-secured server for her communications while Secretary of State.  You rewrote the statute, which is not your job.

Clinton ally reportedly helped fund campaign of key FBI official's wife.  The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night on the connection.  According to the Journal, finance records show Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's PAC gave $467,500 to Dr. Jill McCabe's 2015 state Senate campaign.  The Virginia Democratic Party spent an additional $207,788 on the campaign, the Journal reported.  McCabe, who ended up losing to Republican incumbent Dick Black, is married to Andrew McCabe — the FBI's deputy director.  At the time of the campaign and of McAuliffe's support, McCabe was associate deputy director.  He later was promoted to deputy after the campaign ended, assuming an oversight role in the Clinton email investigation.

FBI No. 2 pressured to resign over McAuliffe donations to wife.  The FBI's second in command is facing pressure over donations Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a top Clinton ally, made to the official's wife who was running an uphill battle against a popular conservative Northern Virginia state senator.  That senator, Dick Black, on Monday [10/24/2016] called for the resignation of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.  Black said that McCabe, who later oversaw the probe into the Hillary Rodham Clinton email scandal, should have known McAuliffe was one of Clinton's closest advisers and friends and recused himself from the probe of the Democratic presidential candidate.

Trump demands probe into Clinton allies' donations to campaign of FBI official's wife.  Donald Trump demanded an investigation Monday after revelations that Hillary Clinton's allies invested heavily in the state Senate campaign of a Democrat at a time when her husband oversaw part of the FBI's investigation into Mrs. Clinton's secret email account.  Mr. Trump said the revelations about now-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and his wife, Jill McCabe, a Democrat whose campaign collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from organizations overseen by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, are the latest example of corruption that pervades the nation's capital.

Clinton ally gave $500K to wife of FBI agent on email probe.  Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton confidant, helped steer $675,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an FBI official who went on to lead the probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email system, according to a report.  The political action committee of McAuliffe, the Clinton loyalist, gave $467,500 to the state Senate campaign of the wife of Andrew McCabe, who is now deputy director of the FBI, according to the Wall Street Journal.  The report states Jill McCabe received an additional $207,788 from the Virginia Democratic Party, which is heavily influenced by McAuliffe.  The money directed by McAuliffe began flowing two months after the FBI investigation into Clinton began in July 2015.  Around that time, the candidate's husband was promoted from running the Washington field office for the FBI to the No. 3 position at the bureau.

Trump hits FBI and links 'rigged' Hillary email investigation to $675,000 in contributions to top investigator's wife's own campaign.  Donald Trump lashed out at the FBI on Monday, and at Democrats who he claims corrupted the agency's investigation into Hillary Clinton's classified email scandal.  A PAC controlled by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, one of Bill and Hillary Clinton's most consistent backers, donated $467,500 to the Virginia state Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe.  Her husband is FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who runs the Washington Field Office — the subagency in charge of investigating Clinton.  The Virginia Democratic Party, normally at McAuliffe's beck and call, also donated $208,000.

Hillary Ally Gave $$$ to Wife of FBI Agent on Email Probe, Nets Censor.  Democratic Governor Terry McAullife's PAC donated almost $500,000 to the wife of an FBI agent leading the probe into Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal.  This stunning revelation, despite being reported in a front page story in Monday's [10/24/2016] edition of The Wall Street Journal, didn't receive any time on the Big Three network (ABC, CBS, NBC) morning shows.

Clinton ally funneled money to wife of FBI agent who oversaw emails.  Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an important ally of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, funneled nearly $700,000 in donations and support to the campaign of the spouse of an FBI official who then oversaw Clinton's email investigation.  The Virginia governor's office was full of denials about the connection on Sunday [10/23/2016].  "Any insinuation that his support" for state Senate candidate Dr. Jill McCabe, wife of FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, "was tied to anything other than his desire to elect candidates who would help pass his agenda is ridiculous," a spokesman for the governor told the Wall Street Journal.

Clinton Ally Aided Campaign of FBI Official's Wife.  The political organization of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an influential Democrat with longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton's email use.

Fmr. FBI Assistant Director:  James Comey Let Down the Citizens of This Country.  With Hillary Clinton's email scandal continuing to weigh on her campaign, former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom weighed in on the allegations of negotiations between the State Department and the FBI for a 'quid pro quo' deal to declassify emails and FBI Director James Comey's handling of the investigation into the email scandal.  An FBI agent now claims that the State Department's Undersecretary for Management, Patrick Kennedy, asked him directly to declassify certain Hillary Clinton emails in exchange for FBI posts overseas.  "This is the same guy, Kennedy, that refused all the security requests for Benghazi, this is that same guy," Kallstrom told the FOX Business Network's Stuart Varney.  According to Kallstrom, on the surface the deal looks to be illegal.

The FBI's Own Investigation Summary Proves Hillary Clinton Broke The Law.  According to documents released today, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy pressured a senior FBI official into unclassifying emails sent from Hillary Clinton's illegal private server.  The FBI official notes that Kennedy contacted the organization to ask for the change in classification in "exchange for a 'quid pro quo.'"  More specifically, "State would reciprocate by allowing the FBI to place more agents in countries where they are presently forbidden," according to a conversation relayed by The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, who broke the story this weekend.  The FBI did not take Kennedy up on his offer.

FBI Files Reveal 'Blatant Disregard' For Classified Information.  At the last presidential debate, Hillary Clinton again apologized for setting up an unauthorized private email server in her basement, while assuring voters she has the utmost respect for classified information:  "I take classified material very seriously, and always have."  But FBI investigators who interviewed her and those assigned to protect her and the classified material that came into her orbit tell another story.  They say she exhibited a blatant disregard for the classification process and security procedures in general.  Newly released FBI notes quote a member of the former secretary of state's protective detail who complained that Clinton "frequently and blatantly disregarded" security protocols, including refusing to follow a standard rule to leave her unsecured cell phone outside secure facilities known as SCIFs.  Such electronic devices pose a threat to security, because foreign intelligence agencies can take remote control of them and use them to conduct surveillance inside the SCIF.

More FBI Agents Turn On Comey: 'He Stood In The Way'.  [Scroll down]  So between these two agents, and the agents who spoke to diGenova, there appears to be a growing lack of confidence within the FBI in the integrity and even competence of the man who occupies the same office of J. Edgar Hoover.  At what point does congress, using their oversight role, issue subpoenas and get these agents under oath and on the record to help save the image and reputation of their historic agency?

FBI official at center of alleged Clinton email 'quid pro quo' speaks out.  FBI official Brian McCauley had been trying for weeks to get his contact at the State Department to approve his request to put two bureau employees back in Baghdad.  Around May 2015, Patrick Kennedy finally called back.  "He said, 'Brian.  Pat Kennedy.  I need a favor,' " McCauley recalled in an interview Tuesday.  "I said, 'Good, I need a favor.  I need our people back in Baghdad."  Then Kennedy, a longtime State Department official, explained what he wanted:  "There's an email.  I don't believe it has to be classified."  The email was from Hillary Clinton's private server, and Kennedy wanted the FBI to change its determination that it contained classified information.

FBI agents let Hillary's aide offer to bribe them to tamper with evidence in probe.  Fox News' senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano had a hard-hitting question for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in response to the release on Monday [10/17/2016] of over 100 new documents related to the probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.  One of documents appears to prove the undersecretary of state purportedly offered a deal to the FBI in exchange for the bureau agreeing to reclassify documents in order to protect Hillary Clinton, a "quid pro quo" as described by an FBI agent.  Appearing on "America's Newsroom," Napolitano said the document points to several potential offenses.  "I've never seen this in my career, where an effort is made to change a document after it is evidence in a criminal prosecution," he said.

MSNBC Panel Rips Hillary Clinton For Quid Pro Quo.  Following revelations that the FBI offered the State Department a "quid pro quo" for reclassifying Hillary Clinton's emails, the panel on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Tuesday [10/18/2016] ripped Clinton for her email practices.  "The reason we are here and the reason we are having this unbelievable conversation starts somewhere.  So it doesn't look good," MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski told the panel, referring to Clinton's private email server.

State Department tried to bribe FBI to unclassify Clinton emails.  A top State Department official offered a "quid pro quo" to an FBI investigator to declassify an e-mail from Hillary Clinton's private server in exchange for allowing the bureau to operate in countries where it was banned, stunning new documents revealed Monday [10/17/2016].  The FBI documents show that Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy pitched the deal to the unnamed agent, allegedly as part of an effort to back up Clinton's claim that she did not send or receive classified documents on the server in her Westchester home.

Hillary Clinton's email problems just came roaring back.  For the past few months, Hillary Clinton's decision to exclusively use a private email server while at the State Department has receded as a campaign issue as Donald Trump's comments about women have come to dominate the daily chatter about the 2016 race.  On Monday [10/17/2016], however, the various issues associated with Clinton's email setup came roaring back.  According to emails released by the FBI, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy asked the FBI to ease up on classification decisions in exchange for allowing more FBI agents in countries where they were not permitted to go.  The words "quid pro quo" were used to describe the proposed exchange by the FBI official.

The great Clinton cover-up:  FBI's Hillary email files are covered in redactions which leave some pages unreadable.  The FBI released a trove of information on its investigation of Hillary Clinton on Monday — but it would take a forensic investigation to try to make sense of many of the heavily-redacted documents.  Some pages that were technically released have their contents entirely redacted.  Others are redacted piecemeal so as to make them almost completely unreadable.  The documents consist of summaries and notes from the agency's long investigation into Clinton's private email server and whether she mishandled classified information.

Exclusive: FBI Agents Say Comey 'Stood In The Way' Of Clinton Email Investigation.  FBI agents say the bureau is alarmed over Director James Comey's decision to not suggest that the Justice Department prosecute Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information.  According to an interview transcript given to The Daily Caller, provided by an intermediary who spoke to two federal agents with the bureau last Friday, agents are frustrated by Comey's leadership.  "This is a textbook case where a grand jury should have been convened, but was not.  That is appalling," an FBI special agent who has worked public corruption and criminal cases said of the decision.  "We talk about it in the office and don't know how Comey can keep going."

Hillary Clinton Ran a "Shadow Government" Inside the State Department.  We already knew — based upon FBI director James Comey's egregious decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton or her aides for multiple felonies — that there's one set of laws for the oligarchy and another for the little people.  A tranche of FBI documents released earlier today under FOIA request reveal that Hillary Clinton was also running a "shadow government" inside the State Department.

Trump Challenges Media To Cover Story About FBI/State Department "Collusion".  Donald Trump released a video statement this afternoon [10/17/2016] about allegations contained in documents released by the FBI Monday morning suggesting that there was a "quid pro quo" between the FBI and State Department to declassify a Benghazi-related email found on Hillary Clinton's private email server.

Hillary Clinton email saga:  What you need to know about the latest revelations.  The FBI released a batch of new files from its investigation into Clinton's private email system on Monday [10/17/2016].  The most damaging aspect for Clinton is an allegation from an unnamed FBI employee who claims that Patrick Kennedy, the State Department's under secretary of state for management, reached out to the bureau in the summer of last year to ask for an email to be changed from classified to unclassified as part of a "quid pro quo" (an exchange of goods or services).  The email was in relation to the 2012 attack on a US compound in Benghazi, Libya which left Ambassador Christopher Stephens and three other Americans dead.  The alleged deal would have allowed FBI agents to operate in more countries.

Top Clinton aide offered FBI a funding 'quid pro quo' if agents helped him bury a Benghazi email — 'never to be seen again'.  A senior State Department official pressured the FBI to declassify one of Hillary Clinton's emails related to the Benghazi terror attack so he could use a loophole in the Freedom of Information Act to make sure it would never see the light of day, according to notes from an FBI interview released Monday [10/17/2016].  State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, the FBI file shows, discussed the possibility of approving the FBI's request for funding 'to place more agents in countries where they are presently forbidden.'  The FBI agent who interviewed him during the investigation into classified documents housed on Clinton's now-infamous secrt email server called the proposal a 'quid pro quo.'

The Editor says...
Apparently there was something in that email message that Hillary Clinton wanted to permanently suppress — at the risk of committing an act of bribery — and it had something to do with Benghazi.

US official wanted FBI to alter findings in Clinton probe, documents allege.  Documents have shown that a top State Department official tried to change a key finding regarding Hillary Clinton's use of a private server.  The investigation continues to spell trouble for the presidential nominee.

Lawmakers Allege "Quid Pro Quo" Between FBI And State Over Altered 'Classified' Clinton Emails.  About a week ago we wrote about newly released FBI interviews with numerous references to State Department officials, including Patrick Kennedy, applying pressure to subordinates to change classified email codes so they would be shielded from Congress and the public (see "Two Boxes Of Hillary Emails Mysteriously Disappear").

The Selling of America — by the Clinton Campaign.  While the American public is having their brains numbed by endless retellings of Donald Trump's decades-old putatively unwanted sexual advances, the media is almost entirely, in many cases deliberately, ignoring the far more significant revelations being made by WikiLeaks.  What does the media care?  It doesn't affect them, just the common folk.  And the disclosures might impede the coronation of Queen Hillary.  Many stories have drifted by almost without notice — including confirmation that the president of the United States lied when he claimed he learned of Hillary Clinton's private email server only when the public did.  He had been communicating with her on it for over a year on multiple occasions under a pseudonym.  (If a President Trump had done such a thing, the cries for his impeachment would drown out the Super Bowl.)  Andrew McCarthy has cited this as the reason the FBI was prevented from recommending the prosecution of Clinton.  To have done so would have implicated the president himself.

FBI confirms:  Officials discussed deal to cover up Clinton emails.  Newly released documents from the FBI's year-long investigation of Hillary Clinton's server indicate a State Department official proposed a "quid pro quo" aimed at getting the FBI to cover up classified emails discovered on Clinton's server.  In return, an unnamed FBI official said it might be open to a deal if the State Department could agree to boosting the FBI's presence in Iraq.  The FBI notes released Monday [10/17/2016] show that Patrick Kennedy, State's undersecretary for management, pressured the FBI to change the classified markings on an email that had been upgraded to "secret."

New FBI files contain allegations of 'quid pro quo' in Clinton's emails.  FBI interview summaries and notes, provided late Friday to the House Government Oversight and Intelligence Committees, contain allegations of a "quid pro quo" between a senior State Department executive and FBI agents during the Hillary Clinton email investigation, two congressional sources told Fox News.  "This is a flashing red light of potential criminality," Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who has been briefed on the FBI interviews, told Fox News.  He said "there was an alleged quid pro quo" involving Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy and the FBI "over at least one classified email."

An Attempted Hillary Email Coverup?  A senior State Department official repeatedly pressed the FBI to change the classification of emails stored on Hillary Clinton's private server, according to FBI interview summaries set to be released in the coming days.  Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary of state for management, discussed providing additional overseas slots for the FBI in exchange for revisions to classifications of the sensitive emails.  The 34 summaries, known as FBI "302s," will be released in connection with a Freedom of Information Act request and after pressure from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  Two additional 302s are being withheld because they contain information classified at the Top Secret/SAP level.

Senior Clinton aide may have tried to cut a deal with FBI agents.  FBI interview summaries and notes, provided on Friday [10/14/2016] to the House Government Oversight and Intelligence Committees, indicate that Senior Clinton aid Patrick Kennedy tried to make a deal with FBI agents to reclassify emails that were marked as "classified," two congressional sources told Fox News.  "In return for altering the classification, the possibility of additional slots for the FBI at missions overseas was discussed," Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who was briefed on the FBI interviews, told Fox News.  Previously this month, Fox News reported that Kennedy pressured his subordinates to change classified email codes in order to hide them from congress.

Trump should start demanding the resignation of FBI's James Comey and AG Loretta Lynch.  In these last weeks of the 2016 presidential race, why not hit as hard as possible in all the ways that a Republican candidate is not supposed to hit? [...] Publicly demand that FBI Director James Comey immediately resign his post and also call for the resignation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  Both of these people are despicable and shameless and reek of corruption.  Or

Former U.S. Attorney:  Agents See FBI Chief Comey as a 'Dirty Cop'.  Comey maintained in July that he came to the decision to recommend not indicting Clinton for the inclusion of classified material in 110 emails stored on a private server based on an "entirely apolitical and professional" investigation despite conceding that others in a similar spot would face "consequences" and that "evidence of potential violations" existed.  He insisted then, "No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear."  But agents trained to sniff out malfeasance smell something rotten here.  "When the director said that it was a unanimous decision not to recommend prosecution, that was a lie," [Joseph] diGenova points out.  "In fact, the people involved in the case were outraged at his decision, which he made by himself.  When people realized that he was lying publicly about their role and when they knew he had approved of the destruction of laptops that were subject to congressional subpoena, that flipped the switch."

Free the FBI 100!  [Scroll down]  [O]ne anonymous insider said it was unanimous that Hillary should be prosecuted and a "high-ranking official" said the "vast majority" felt that way.  Whichever is accurate, there were more than a hundred agents and analysts working with six lawyers on the case, but let's round that off to an even 100.  What're we to do about all those agents, analysts and lawyers who are not allowed to speak their minds and tell the American public they serve what they think about what happened?

Did the FBI chief lie to Congress about the Hillary email probe?  Congressional leaders investigating the FBI's suspiciously inept investigation of ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails are turning their attention to FBI chief James Comey's truthfulness.  Did he mislead them?  Did he perjure himself?  Two days after clearing Clinton of criminal wrongdoing, Comey went to Capitol Hill and explained his reasons for coming to that stunning conclusion.  Testifying under oath, he claimed to be an open book:  "I think transparency matters tremendously."  But he not only held back critical details about his investigation, he repeatedly misrepresented his actions and findings.

Clinton Emails:  Comey Lied And The Scandal Died.  When FBI Director James Comey [...] made his statement about the case in July, he painted a devastating portrait of Hillary Clinton's reckless use of a private email server while Secretary of State.  Clinton knew little to nothing about handling classified material.  She sent and received top secret information on an unsecured private email system and was otherwise extremely careless with national security secrets.  She likely exposed sensitive material to enemies, and hid thousands of work emails that were supposed to have been turned over.  And she or her top staff probably broke the law.  Then, Comey simply shrugged his shoulders and said that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

If FBI Agents and DOJ Lawyers Were 'Floored' Hillary Wasn't Charged, Will Anyone Resign?  A follow-up to Matt's post, which covered a report that shouldn't go unnoticed, in spite of the Trump maelstrom dominating most headlines.  In short, two Fox News sources familiar with the federal criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton say career agents and lawyers attached to the case were "floored" when FBI Director James Comey announced his decision not to recommend criminal charges against the former Secretary of State in July.  The "vast majority" of these people are said to believe that based on the evidence they reviewed, an indictment was warranted.

FBI Source:  Majority Of Staff On Clinton Case Wanted Her Prosecuted.  The decision at the FBI to not prosecute Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information was solely from the top down, a source told Fox News.  "No trial level attorney agreed, no agent working the case agreed, with the decision not to prosecute — it was a top-down decision," said the source who is described as an official close to the Clinton case.

FBI Leaks Reveal Disgust With Politicization of Agency and DOJ.  CTH readers will remember how far we researched the transparent politicization of criminal cases as they related to the DOJ (Eric Holder and Tom Perez) in the Zimmerman trial.  Specifically how entities within the DOJ/FBI colluded with State Attorney Angela Corey about extracting then hiding Trayvon Martin's phone metadata.  That level of coordinated DOJ/FBI corruption only worsened with Darren Wilson (Ferguson) and beyond.  The same manipulative tentacles became more evident with the IRS targeting scandal and later the email investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  In essence, the bottom line is:  the politicization and weaponization of government has been going on for more than just a few years.

Immunity deals stopped FBI from investigating BleachBit use in Clinton email case.  In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch Wednesday, four Republican committee chairmen demanded to know why Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, two witnesses who also served as Clinton's personal attorneys, were granted such expansive protections despite the FBI's awareness that they had participated in potentially illegal activities.  For example, the FBI agreed to limit its search to emails written after June 1, 2014, but before Feb. 1, 2015.  By doing so, investigators were barred from looking at emails authored around the time Mills and David Kendall, Clinton's lead attorney, held a pair of conference calls with technology contractor Paul Combetta that immediately preceded his use of BleachBit to erase thousands of Clinton's emails.

Yes, the Fix Was In.  With concerns about Hillary Clinton's health intensifying, Congress is poised to revisit the FBI's investigation of her e-mail scandal.  As the Washington Examiner's Byron York reports, the House Government Oversight Committee chaired by Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) will begin hearings this week.  The committee is especially troubled by the facts that (a) unbeknownst to Congress, the Justice Department gave immunity to a key witness; yet, (b) prosecutors and the FBI indulged that witness's refusal to answer critical questions.  Specifically, Paul Combetta, a technician at Platte River Networks (the Colorado firm retained by the Clintons to handle the private e-mail system), is the person who destroyed Clinton's e-mails despite the fact that they were under congressional subpoena.  Nevertheless, he was permitted to invoke attorney-client privilege — not his own, mind you, but Mrs. Clinton's — in declining to discuss any instructions he received before (and after) carrying out the mass deletion of tens of thousands of Clinton e-mails, a task for which he used the "BleachBit" program in an effort to ensure that the deleted e-mails would be irretrievably lost.

FBI agents blast decision not to indict Clinton.  Agents and ranking officials in the Federal Bureau of Investigations overwhelmingly rejected FBI chief James Comey's decision not to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified government documents on a private email server, bureau officials told Fox News.  One source closely involved in the case said agents and attorneys in the bureau were unanimously opposed to the decision not to indict Mrs. Clinton.  The announcement in July that the FBI would not recommend an indictment reportedly disgusted the team of investigators involved in the case.  "No trial level attorney agreed, no agent working the case agreed, with the decision not to prosecute — it was a top-down decision," the source said.

Sad and infuriating — FBI director's tortured interpretation of the law.  As evidence mounts that the Director of the FBI subverted justice, damaged the reputation of the Bureau and squandered the support of his agents, calls for his resignation will surely escalate.  Can there be any confidence in his future judgments and decisions, as long as he continues to preside over the once-venerated Federal Bureau of Investigation?  That is the plight James Comey now faces in light of the exclusive story published by foxnews.com in which a person closely involved in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails revealed that career FBI agents and attorneys who dedicated themselves to the year-long probe unanimously believed she should have been criminally charged.  More than 100 agents and analysts were assigned to the case.  They all thought Clinton committed crimes.  And maybe Comey believed it, too.  But he chose to ignore both the evidence and the law.  It is sad and confounding and infuriating, all at the same time.

Career FBI, DOJ agents wanted charges for Hillary over deleted emails.  The decision to let Hillary Clinton off the hook for mishandling classified information has roiled the FBI and Department of Justice, with one person closely involved in the year-long probe telling FoxNews.com that career agents and attorneys on the case unanimously believed the Democratic presidential nominee should have been charged.  The source, who spoke to FoxNews.com on the condition of anonymity, said FBI Director James Comey's dramatic July 5 announcement that he would not recommend to the Attorney General's office that the former secretary of state be charged left members of the investigative team dismayed and disgusted.

FBI Source:  Majority Of Staff On Clinton Case Wanted Her Prosecuted.  The decision at the FBI to not prosecute Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information was solely from the top down, a source told Fox News.  "No trial level attorney agreed, no agent working the case agreed, with the decision not to prosecute — it was a top-down decision," said the source who is described as an official close to the Clinton case.  The FBI official said that Director James Comey's announcement on July 5 angered and disgusted members of the investigative team which included over 100 FBI agents and analysts worked who worked overtime with six DOJ attorneys from the department's National Security Division and Counter Espionage Section.

FBI Leaks Reveal Disgust With Politicization of Agency and DOJ.  CTH readers will remember how far we researched the transparent politicization of criminal cases as they related to the DOJ (Eric Holder and Tom Perez) in the Zimmerman trial.  Specifically how entities within the DOJ/FBI colluded with State Attorney Angela Corey about extracting then hiding Trayvon Martin's phone metadata.  That level of coordinated DOJ/FBI corruption only worsened with Darren Wilson (Ferguson) and beyond.  The same manipulative tentacles became more evident with the IRS targeting scandal and later the email investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  In essence, the bottom line is:  the politicization and weaponization of government has been going on for more than just a few years.

FBI, DOJ roiled by Comey, Lynch decision to let Clinton slide by on emails, says insider.  The decision to let Hillary Clinton off the hook for mishandling classified information has roiled the FBI and Department of Justice, with one person closely involved in the year-long probe telling FoxNews.com that career agents and attorneys on the case unanimously believed the Democratic presidential nominee should have been charged.  The source, who spoke to FoxNews.com on the condition of anonymity, said FBI Director James Comey's dramatic July 5 announcement that he would not recommend to the Attorney General's office that the former secretary of state be charged left members of the investigative team dismayed and disgusted.  More than 100 FBI agents and analysts worked around the clock with six attorneys from the DOJ's National Security Division, Counter Espionage Section, to investigate the case.

Trump:  A Hillary presidency means the destruction of America.  We said the same thing here yesterday.  My only quibble would be that Hillary doesn't have to be elected to turn America into a banana republic.  She's already making it happen just by being around and causing the criminal justice system to violate its usual procedures for her protection.  We argued the day of the Comey presser that Bananaville had opened for business — and that's just with the DOJ and the FBI giving Hillary special treatment.

Only One Way for the FBI to Regain Its Lost Reputation.  Using federal agencies as tools of political oppression or leftist activism is the best case yet simply abolishing the Department of Justice completely and devolving the enforcement of all federal laws to the fifty state attorney general offices.  In the same vein, one might think we should leave the FBI only for the purpose of supporting state law enforcement efforts with technical support, but that was before the incredible stream of new revelations, never volunteered by Comey and discovered only by insistent probing, that show intimate collusion between the Clinton campaign and the FBI, with sleazy actions so blatantly bad that no serious person can doubt the wrongness of it all. [...] If this presidential election is fixed by an utterly politicized FBI, then the reputation of that agency will never recover.  No serious American, in that case, should ever believe anything the FBI tells us about anything at all.

Along with the EPA, IRS, NLRB, FDA ...
Is The FBI Now An Arm Of The Democratic Party?  The FBI once was known as incorruptible, a legendary enforcer of American law that fought traitors, spies, organized crime and government corruption with equal fervor and fearlessness.  Recent revelations about the FBI's moves during its investigation of Hillary Clinton's rogue email server suggest that that FBI no longer exists.

FBI agents are ready to revolt over the cozy Clinton probe.  Veteran FBI agents say FBI Director James Comey has permanently damaged the bureau's reputation for uncompromising investigations with his "cowardly" whitewash of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information using an unauthorized private email server.  Feeling the heat from congressional critics, Comey last week argued that the case was investigated by career FBI agents, "So if I blew it, they blew it, too."  But agents say Comey tied investigators' hands by agreeing to unheard-of ground rules and other demands by the lawyers for Clinton and her aides that limited their investigation.

Comey Should Resign.  But He Won't.  In National Review, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy does for James Comey something akin to what Comey did for Hillary Clinton in July.  Just as Comey effectively indicted Clinton for extreme carelessness in her email scandal but fell short of recommending referral to the Department of Justice in July, McCarthy essentially indicts the FBI director for extreme incompetence in his handling of the investigation of the email scandal but will not call Comey corrupt or call for his resignation.  Yet the convincing case against Comey that McCarthy makes proves the former and should compel the latter.

The FBI's Defense of How the Clinton Interview Was Conducted Is Full of Holes.  In a nutshell, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department permitted Hillary Clinton's aide Cheryl Mills — the subject of a criminal investigation, who had been given immunity from prosecution despite strong evidence that she had lied to investigators — to participate as a lawyer for Clinton, the principal subject of the same criminal investigation.  This unheard-of accommodation was made in violation not only of rudimentary investigative protocols and attorney-ethics rules, but also of the federal criminal law.  Yet, the FBI and the Justice Department, the nation's chief enforcers of the federal criminal law, tell us they were powerless to object.

No More Accidental Criminals.  Hillary Clinton supporters should have a new appreciation for the legal concept of mens rea — usually translated as "guilty mind" — because it saved her from federal prosecution for using a personal email server as secretary of state.  In recommending that the Justice Department not bring charges against the former first lady, FBI Director James Comey differentiated her "extremely careless" handling of "very sensitive, highly classified information" from other cases involving "intentional and willful mishandling."  Not everyone gets the benefit of such distinctions.

Hillary's Email Case Got Reopened And James Comey Asked For Immunity.  Trey Gowdy Says [...] No .  Here we go again, but this time it could be the end for both Hillary Clinton and FBI Director James Comey.  James Comey, the current FBI director that let Hillary off the hook for her clear violation of many laws with her email scandal, has now asked for immunity from congress for his involvement in the scandal and the subsequent findings.  What what!?  Immunity?  That's right.  What Comey is asking for is to be absolved of what he's done and anything that may happen in the future from any further investigations.  How does that not throw up the biggest red flag in American history?!

Judge Nap:  It Appears FBI Was Told to Exonerate Hillary 'at All Costs'.  FBI documents related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server show an employee at Platte River Networks, the company that managed the server, refer to the "Hillary cover-up."  That unnamed employee apparently satisfied FBI agents with the explanation that his 2014 email reference to the "cover-up" was merely a joke.  Judge Andrew Napolitano said on "America's Newsroom" today [9/26/2016] that he — like many Americans — is not satisfied with the FBI's investigation.

FBI Used Agents As Pawns To Insulate Hillary, Aides & Clinton Foundation From Prosecutions.  In mid-summer a wave of panic and despair began to wash over key rank-and-file FBI agents who were doggedly working the Hillary Clinton investigations.  Agents reluctantly pondered a potential, brutal reality that was creeping into the fabric of the high-profile case.  What if their collective work wasn't meant to bring this case to a grand jury for indictments and justice?  What if they themselves, FBI agents sworn to uphold the law, were being used as intelligence pawns by superiors and higher powers to actually shield Clinton and her inner circle from ever seeing a pair of handcuffs and a jail cell?

Trey Gowdy to Comey:  What more would Hillary Clinton have had to do to get you to prosecute her?  Gowdy's point [at a hearing in July] was simple:  18 U.S.C. 793(f), the statute that makes mishandling classified information a felony, applies if the suspect showed "gross negligence" in how they handled the info.  You don't need to show that they intended to mishandle it in order to get a conviction.  (Who besides an actual spy would intentionally mishandle state secrets?)  All you need to prove is that they were grossly deficient in their duty to handle the information responsibly.  Which, very clearly, was true in the case of Hillary "Private Server" Clinton.  Comey, however, declined to charge her because, he said, only once in the many decades since that law was passed has someone been charged under it.  Supposedly it would be unfair to prosecute Hillary for showing gross negligence when other people hadn't been prosecuted — never mind that, as a cabinet official, her recklessness involved information at the highest levels of secrecy.

The Editor says...
I believe I can answer the parenthetical question above, "Who besides an actual spy would intentionally mishandle state secrets?" There are several categories of malevolent actors who would tend to mishandle such information, including those who sell information to the highest bidder, potential presidential candidates attempting to advance their careers, and outright traitors.

Comey on Clinton email probe: 'Don't call us weasels'.  FBI Director James Comey is passionately defending the integrity of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email setup, arguing that critics are unfair to suggest that agents were biased or succumbed to political pressure.  "You can call us wrong, but don't call us weasels.  We are not weasels," Comey declared Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.  "We are honest people and ... whether or not you agree with the result, this was done the way you want it to be done."

FBI's Comey rejects call to reopen Clinton email case, refuses to say she's truthful.  FBI Director James Comey said he's not going to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, telling Congress on Wednesday [9/28/2016] that none of the recent revelations since he closed the case in July "would come near" to triggering that extraordinary step.  He also refused to say if he's investigating whether Mrs. Clinton lied in her testimony to Congress about her emails — but said they have received referrals from Congress asking for a new probe.  Appearing before Congress for yet another marathon session, Mr. Comey was badgered by Republicans who said the more they see, the less they understand his decision to clear Mrs. Clinton of criminal wrongdoing in her mishandling of classified information.

FBI chief downplays immunity grants in Clinton email case.  Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff, was one of those who received limited "act of production" immunity as part of a deal under which she gave her laptop to investigators.  Agents found classified emails on Mills' hard drive.  Aside from Mills, two other State Department staffers, John Bentel and Heather Samuelson, were also given immunity agreements, along with Bryan Pagliano, Clinton's former IT aide, and Paul Combetta, an employee at the company hired to manager her server.

FBI Director James Comey Has His Glenn Beck Moment.  Just how much Comey and the FBI punted on "EmailGate" has become painfully obvious, as noted by former National Security Agency analyst John Schindler:  "Redacted FBI documents from that investigation, dumped on the Friday afternoon before the long Labor Day weekend, revealed that Hillary Clinton either willfully lied to the Bureau, repeatedly, about her email habits as secretary of state, or she is far too dumb to be our commander-in-chief.  Worse, the FBI completely ignored the appearance of highly classified signals intelligence in Hillary's email, including information lifted verbatim from above-Top Secret NSA reports back in 2011.  This crime, representing the worst compromise of classified information in EmailGate — that the public knows of, at least — was somehow deemed so uninteresting that nobody at the FBI bothered to ask anybody on Team Clinton about it."

Nothing James Comey Says About The Hillary Clinton Investigation Makes Any Sense.  Rather than striking immunity deals with virtually every person who had intimate knowledge of Hillary Clinton's illegal private server and emails, the Justice Department would have saved everyone some time by offering Hillary protection instead.  FBI Director James Comey, who testified in front of two congressional committees this week, still maintains he was unable to recommend that the Justice Department charge Clinton with mishandling classified documents because of insufficient evidence proving "intent" — although the actions themselves are irrefutably illegal.

James Comey:  I Am a 'Deeply Flawed and Fallible Human Being' Who Did Not Stop Terrorists.  FBI director James Comey conceded that he is a "deeply flawed" person who failed to stop some terrorist attacks before they happened.  Comey made the admission while being interrogated Tuesday [9/27/2016] before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  Comey faced pointed questions about recent terrorist shootings and bombings in the United States and about his failure to recommend indictment for Hillary Clinton in her private server scandal.  Comey is under fire in the public for these failures, with Breitbart News recently reporting on his financial links to the Clinton Foundation.

The Editor says...
If Mr. Comey recognizes his shortcomings so vividly, as the rest of us have for several weeks, perhaps he should resign.

Former NSA analyst:  FBI may reopen investigation if Clinton loses.  The FBI could reopen its investigation into Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information if she fails to win the November election, according to a former National Security Agency analyst, especially in light of revelations made public in a Friday document dump by the agency.

Fact-Checking: Hillary's 'The FBI Has Exonerated Me' Claim.  In point of fact, the FBI merely drew the conclusion that Clinton should not be charged with a crime.  Even if we assume for argument's sake that this was a valid conclusion (in fact, it is hugely suspect), finding that someone should not be indicted is far from exoneration.

Obama's Colossal Email Lie Final Test for Tarnished MSM.  That Barack Obama communicated in 2012 — under a redacted pseudonym — with Hillary Clinton on the then secretary of State's permeable home-brew email server and then claimed he did not know of that server's existence until it was reported in the press in 2014 is far more than the usual politician's prevarication.  Since the fish rots from the top — and in this case it stinks to high heaven — the surfacing of this particular presidential lie calls to question the entire FBI inquiry into the Clinton server, an investigation whose credibility was paper thin in the first place and has now completely vanished.

The FBI Investigation of EmailGate Was a Sham.  From the moment the EmailGate scandal went public more than a year ago, it was obvious that the Federal Bureau of Investigation never had much enthusiasm for prosecuting Hillary Clinton or her friends.  Under President Obama, the FBI grew so politicized that it became impossible for the Bureau to do its job — at least where high-ranking Democrats are concerned.  As I observed in early July, when Director James Comey announced that the FBI would not be seeking prosecution of anyone on Team Clinton over EmailGate, the Bureau had turned its back on its own traditions of floating above partisan politics in the pursuit of justice.  "Malfeasance by the FBI, its bending to political winds, is a matter that should concern all Americans, regardless of their politics," I stated, noting that it's never a healthy turn of events in a democracy when your secret police force gets tarnished by politics.

The Justice Department's Hillary Investigation Reeks Of Corruption.  According to an Associated Press report, the Justice Department reached criminal immunity deals with three of Hillary Clinton's close advisers in exchange for information — information that could normally be obtained through subpoenas or search warrants, or, perhaps, simply by asking.  I'm not a lawyer, so I'll assume someone somewhere has a perfectly rational, completely non-corrupt explanation for why the FBI surrendered its leverage by granting immunity to Cheryl Mills and two other high ranking staff members — all potential co-conspirators in a criminal case surrounding illegal servers and the mishandling of classified emails.  Question is:  Does the Justice Department regularly grant immunity for mere cooperation?

Scandal Management with the FBI.  Like everything touched by the Clintons, the FBI has now been compromised and slimed.  We saw it in FBI Director James Comey's absurd statement announcing Hillary Clinton's get-out-of-jail-free pass.  We saw it in the FBI's holiday weekend document dump of 302 interviews in the case.  We saw it again again late yesterday afternoon with more of the same.  These Friday afternoon document dumps come straight from the scandal management playbook perfected under the (Bill) Clinton administration.  They remind us, in case any reminder was necessary, of how much we have to look forward to in the event the Clintons return to the White House.  I nevertheless find it shocking that the FBI itself has now adopted the routine, acting as a party with much to be ashamed of.  With some 190 pages of interview notes to digest, the work isn't done yet.

Why did feds grant immunity to Hillary's 'highly improper' aide?  If anyone would know Hillary consigliere Cheryl Mills' reputation for obstructing investigations, it's FBI Director James Comey.  He complained about her lack of cooperation while probing Clinton scandals in the 1990s.  Yet he agreed to give Mills immunity from prosecution in his probe of Hillary's illegal e-mails as secretary of state, where Mills was chief of staff.  As a Whitewater investigator for the Senate in the mid-1990s, Comey sought information from Mills; but wouldn't you know, the then-deputy White House counsel claimed a burglar stole her notes.  Comey concluded that Hillary Clinton ordered Mills to block investigators.  The obstruction, the Senate committee found, included the "destruction of documents" and other "highly improper ... misconduct."

FBI gave top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills immunity in email probe, rep says.  Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff Cheryl Mills and two other staffers were granted immunity as part of the now-closed FBI probe into the former secretary of state's email practices, according to a top House Republican who questioned whether the numerous deals hindered the bureau's ability to build a case.  "This is beyond explanation," House oversight committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said in a statement Friday.  "The FBI was handing out immunity agreements like candy.  I've lost confidence in this investigation and I question the genuine effort in which it was carried out."  The arrangements detailed by Chaffetz bring the total number of publicly known immunity deals in the Clinton case to five.

What Is the FBI Hiding?  Ever since FBI Director James Comey announced on July 5 he was recommending that the Department of Justice not seek charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a result of her failure to safeguard state secrets during her time in office, many in Congress have had a nagging feeling that this was a political, not a legal, decision.  The publicly known evidence of Clinton's recklessness and willful failure to safeguard secrets was overwhelming.  The evidence of her lying under oath about whether she returned all her work-related emails that she had taken from the State Department was profound and incontrovertible.

Former Judge:  James Comey Was Determined "To Exonerate Hillary Clinton" and Shred the Rule of Law.  Former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can't remember certain details on her emails and on many issues she remains evasive.  On the other hand, for some observers, FBI director James Comey has clarified recent actions in regard to the Democrats' presidential candidate.  Comey released documents concerning Hillary Clinton's emails on September 2, the afternoon before the Labor Day weekend, as Paul Ryan observed, the time when they were least likely to command attention.  Comey defended the action and told reporters the FBI released the documents when they were ready.

Don't Let Comey Put a Criminal in the White House.  [Scroll down]  Hey, Jim.  Something about your memo doesn't ring true — and it's not just your prickly tone.  I carried a Top Secret clearance for three decades so I got all the briefings and I signed all the papers and I know [very] well that Hillary's grossly negligent handling of classified information — which your investigation documented — is criminal.  And somewhere in your Washington-shrunken-soul, you do, too.  What we'll call the revelation of the BleachBit Timeline gives you a shot at redemption.  The BleachBit Timeline documents obstruction of justice that you cannot ignore.

FBI Official Admits to Congress:  The Clinton Case Was 'Different in a Lot of Ways'.  House Oversight Committee member Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio got results Monday with his performance at a rare evening hearing to probe details of the FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation, which did not result in an indictment.  Just days after Breitbart News' bombshell report on FBI Director James Comey's crony-capitalist financial relationships, including his links to the Clinton Foundation, Jordan interrogated FBI acting assistant director for congressional affairs Jason Herring.

The Case Against James Comey.  Since taking office, Comey has repeatedly injected his views into executive branch deliberations on issues such as sentencing reform and the roots of violence against police officers.  He has undermined key presidential priorities such as crafting a coherent federal policy on cybersecurity and encryption.  Most recently, he shattered longstanding precedent by publicly offering his own conclusions about the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's email.  (The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.)  It would be difficult to argue — in terms of temperament, manner, or motivation — that he is, or ever will be, the next J. Edgar Hoover.  But increasing numbers of critics believe he has displayed a worrying disregard for the rules and norms that have constrained all but one of his predecessors, straying with blithe confidence — and with increasing regularity — across the fine line that separates independence from unaccountability.

Exposed: FBI Director James Comey's Clinton Foundation Connection.  A review of FBI Director James Comey's professional history and relationships shows that the Obama cabinet leader — now under fire for his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton — is deeply entrenched in the big-money cronyism culture of Washington, D.C. His personal and professional relationships — all undisclosed as he announced the Bureau would not prosecute Clinton — reinforce bipartisan concerns that he may have politicized the criminal probe.  These concerns focus on millions of dollars that Comey accepted from a Clinton Foundation defense contractor, Comey's former membership on a Clinton Foundation corporate partner's board, and his surprising financial relationship with his brother Peter Comey, who works at the law firm that does the Clinton Foundation's taxes.

FBI Director Comey refused to testify on Clinton emails.  FBI Director James Comey refused to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Monday [9/12/2016] despite receiving an invitation to testify about the bureau's reluctance to disclose thousands of pages of evidence compiled in its year-long investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email use.

For Hillary, Laws Are like Cobwebs.  [Scroll down]  What are Americans to think now about the FBI?  It seems that the most prestigious law-enforcement institutions in the country have been thoroughly compromised by the Left; the DOJ since Obama took office and refused to prosecute the Black Panthers for voter intimidation and its refusal to reveal the facts of the Fast and Furious scheme that sent thousands of guns into Mexico, a perverse attempt to undermine our Second Amendment.  The FBI's "investigation" into Hillary's private server and deleted emails was obviously a sham, not a real investigation at all.  The notes of her short interview at which she was not even placed under oath, are a joke, the final confirmation of the sham theory.  People are currently incarcerated for miniscule violations compared to Clinton's multiple subversions of the law.

Comey defends Clinton private email server investigation in FBI memo.  In the wake of fierce criticism over the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server and release of related documents, FBI Director James Comey issued an internal memo Wednesday to employees regarding the agency's "commitment to transparency" while also taking time to hit back at critics.  Comey defended the bureau's release on Friday of documents from the Clinton server investigation, writing "we don't play games."  "I almost ordered the material held until Tuesday because I knew we would take all kinds of grief for releasing it before a holiday weekend, but my judgment was that we had promised transparency and it would be game-playing to withhold it from the public just to avoid folks saying stuff about us," Comey wrote.

FBI director defends Clinton email decision in memo to employees.  FBI Director James Comey defended the work of his agents Wednesday [9/7/2016] in a memo to staff, arguing the decision to spare Hillary Clinton and her aides from prosecution for their mistreatment of classified information was not a difficult one.  "I have no patience for suggestions that we conducted ourselves as anything but what we are — honest, competent, and independent," Comey wrote in the memo, first obtained by CNN.  "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)."  The FBI director faced renewed criticism Friday after his agency published a scathing 58-page summary of the Clinton email investigation just hours before the Labor Day weekend commenced.

James Comey Should Resign Now for the Good of the Country.  If were I an FBI agent, I would despise James Comey.  He has humiliated the FBI and all its employees.  The institution will never be the same, at least not for decades to come.  The FBI is no longer an instrument of justice.  It is the reverse.  It is an obfuscater of justice and an enabler of the rich and powerful. [...] If he doesn't resign, I predict he will soon have a full-scale mutiny on his hands from within the ranks of the FBI.  Rumors have already surfaced.  That humiliation, institutionally and personally, is too great for honorable men and women to take.  And there are many honorable men and women in the ranks of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

FBI director James Comey defends bureau's decision not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton over long-running email scandal.  FBI Director James Comey has defended the agency's investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.  In an internal memo, Comey said the bureau was right not to recommend criminal charges and to release documents summarizing Clinton's FBI interview.  He wrote:  'The case itself was not a cliff-hanger, despite all the chest-beating by people no longer in government, there really wasn't a prosecutable case.

How the FBI went easy on Hillary Clinton.  It's clear now the FBI conducted a sweetheart investigation into Hillary Clinton's email shenanigans that appears to have been fixed from the start to go nowhere.  Far from exonerating Clinton, the nearly 60 pages of documents expose both the systematic destruction of subpoenaed evidence by Clinton's aides and the curious lack of interest by investigators in recovering it.  Agents also failed to resolve unanswered questions, reconcile contradictory testimony or sweat uncooperative witnesses.  Comey declared the investigation free of undue influence three days after his agents interviewed Clinton at FBI headquarters under special terms.  What's more, Comey made the two FBI agents who interviewed Clinton — along with all agents and forensic analysts involved in the so-called investigation — sign non-disclosure agreements gagging them from talking about the case even with other employees.

FBI managers instructed to exonerate Hillary Clinton.  The interrogation was in some respects standard and in others very troubling.  It was standard in that she was confronted with emails she had sent or received and was asked whether she recalled them, and her judgment about them was challenged.  The FBI was looking for gross negligence in her behavior about securing state secrets.  The failure to secure state secrets that have been entrusted to one for safekeeping is known as espionage, and espionage is the rare federal crime that does not require prosecutors to prove the defendant's intent.  They need only prove the defendant's gross negligence.

He's toast!  FBI director to be fired?  I've spent about half of my career in public relations.  And if you've ever worked in the field, you know that on the first day, they show you where your desk and the coffee machine are.  And on the second day, they teach you all about "taking out the trash."  That's an old industry trick PR professionals have been using for decades.  When you have bad — or potentially embarrassing — news, you put it out late on a Friday afternoon, when many journalists have left for the weekend and news organizations are running on skeleton crews.  It's designed to minimize press coverage, at least as much as possible in today's 24-hour news cycle.

Halperin: FBI Director Acting Like Arm of Clinton's Campaign.  [Scroll down]  Among the revelations on Friday [9/2/2016] were that Clinton used up to 13 different mobile devices to send email and her aides destroyed some of them with hammers.  "There's so much to say about the FBI's conduct here," Halperin said.  "Those who are skeptical about how he's done this, look at the Friday release.  The guy's not had a press conference.  He talks about transparency.  I've become increasingly critical of him.  I know he's got a sterling reputation."  "Not anymore with me.  This was pathetic," Scarborough said.

FBI's 302 Report Proves Complicity in Clinton Email Scandal.  [T]here is no indication that in the course of the interview, FBI agents once asked the former secretary of state about emails to and from Clinton aides regarding Clinton Foundation business.  Clinton's lawyers deliberately withheld these emails from the public and forced the FBI to recover them.  They clearly demonstrate Clinton's motive in setting up the server, thereby intentionally endangering the classified material that she and her cohorts knew would inevitably be sent through it.  This motive and intent is further demonstrated by Clinton's obfuscations, lies, and destruction of evidence that followed in the course of over a year.  FBI agents never inquired about any of it during the interview.

All the Lies:  They've Turned Us Into a Rotting Banana Republic.  The newly-released FBI documents on the investigation of Hillary Clinton make it clear beyond argument that the fix was in and that the FBI never had any intention of recommending that she should be prosecuted for her crimes.  That is very hard to write.  I have had very good friends among the agents of the FBI, men of unshakeable dedication to the fair enforcement of the law.  But that is no longer the FBI's goal, as just a few references to the documents published last week reveal.  First, you had to notice that the FBI agreed that there would be no videotape of its interview of Clinton.  Not only would there not be a videotape, but no court reporter would be present to record a transcript.  That itself is highly unusual, but there is far more, and far worse.

Gowdy: FBI barely asked Hillary about intent.  Remember when James Comey announced that he would recommend no prosecution for Hillary Clinton for transmitting classified information through an unauthorized private e-mail system?  The FBI director declared that the former Secretary of State and her inner circle acted "extremely careless" in handling classified material, but that the FBI found no malicious intent.  "All the cases prosecuted," Comey intoned, "involved some combination of:  clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice."  Comey concluded, "We do not see those things here."

Completely Improper:  FBI Interviewed Hillary With Her "Fixer" Cheryl Mills By Her Side.  Many of the stories we covered today show issues with Hillary Clinton, but this one also raises a question as to what the FBI was doing by allowing this, when they knew Mills was a potential witness, even a potential defendant.

Report: FBI Found Ample Evidence That Clinton Violated Federal Records Act.  FBI investigators compiled enough evidence during their investigation of Hillary Clinton's rogue email server to show that the former secretary of state violated federal records-keeping laws.  She was also informed in 2009, her first year in office, that she had an obligation under the Federal Records Act to forward her State Department work emails to the agency's record preservation system.  But, according to the news website Circa, Clinton opted against that option because she wanted control over "sensitive" messages.

Really Disappointing:  The FBI's Conduct of the Interview with Hillary Clinton.  Hillary's lies are to be expected, and so are no longer disappointing or surprising.  But we still have the capacity to be appalled and shocked — and that should be fully directed at the FBI.  The records of Hillary's FBI interview were released yesterday and written about here on Victory Girls.  Hillary's answers to questions ranged from:  I don't know, I don't recall, I bumped my head, I lost my Blackberry, to the IPad malfunctioned a lot which required my staff to go the Apple Store to get me a new one, five separate times.  The shocking part about these answers is the apparent acceptance of the superficial responses and complete lack of follow through from the questioners.  How completely disappointing.  It's almost as if they didn't want to find anything.

Impeach James Comey.  For the sake of the nation, to preserve the Rule of Law, the corrupt crony-protecting cover-up apparatchik James Comey must be impeached.  Even if he cannot be removed from office, his reputation should be blackened forever with an impeachment from the House. [...] America will not survive Congress' failure to punish such an obviously corrupt individual for failing in his most basic and most important function — patrolling govermnent [sic] officials for corruption and safeguarding America's secrets.  The FBI is, after all, the nation's counter-intelligence service, the service charged (more than any other) with protecting American secrets from foreign pilferage.  If he gives a Secretary of State license to flout the law for her own self-serving interests of keeping her emails about her Foundation, speaking gigs, and other sundry forms of bribery from a public with the right to specifically know such things, then he is unfit to hold any position of trust in the American government, and completely unfit to lead the FBI.

Rick Perry calls on FBI director to resign over lack of Clinton indictment.  Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Wednesday [8/31/2016] called on FBI Director James Comey to resign over his recommendation not to press federal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a personal server while secretary of State.  The demand from Perry, who suggested Comey might have a political motivation for going soft on Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, is a step across a line that no other prominent Republican has so far been willing to take.

Comey's Corrupt and Shameful Conduct Revealed.  James Comey's rationale for not referring Hillary Clinton's email crimes to the Justice Department rested almost entirely on a single, quite thin, legal and ethical plank, which was that she did not act intentionally when she sent and received classified emails over her home-brew server.  Though his argument for deferring prosecution was mostly specious, it did contain at least a shred of credibility in that as Comey described the situation to the American public and Congress, Hillary had no motive to intentionally put American national security at risk.  However, the recent evidentiary revelation (many would say confirmation) that Hillary established the server with the deliberate intent of shielding her illicit influence-peddling for her family "Foundation" while secretary of state shows that the issue of her motivation could not be seen by any "reasonable" prosecutor as exculpatory.  Comey's refusal to recommend prosecution, while knowing these facts at the time, proves he was not reasonable, and also that he is incompetent and culpable for not doing so.

Hillary's newly discovered emails raise questions about Comey's report.  The news shows reported yesterday [8/23/2016] that the FBI discovered 14,900 emails that Hillary had not turned over to the State Department.  This news again focuses attention on the July 5, 2016 report by FBI Director Comey that no criminal charges be pursued against Hillary, although he criticized her handling of the emails as "extremely careless."  In his report, Comey said there were "several thousand work-related emails" that Hillary did not turn over to the State Department.  The question is, are those "several thousand" part of the 14,900, and if so, why didn't Comey say on July 5 that there were 14,900 emails not turned over to the State Department and further explain the nature of the balance of the "several thousand emails"?  It again raises the issue of Hillary's intent in using a private server.

Comey's legal error undermines law enforcement with 'Clinton Defense'.  As I read the recent comments of FBI Director James Comey regarding his recommendation not to pursue criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over the use of a private email server, I naturally wondered why an investigator was making final judgments on the interpretation of the law when that function has always been assigned first to the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney.  In doing so, he ignored one statute (18 USC 793 (f) related to gross negligence — see the recent The Hill article on the execution of an Iranian spy) — apparently disregarded the knowing destruction of government documents, and then, perhaps of equal legal concern, he added the wrong mental state to the statute prohibiting knowing removal of classified documents with intent to retain them at an unauthorized location.  (18 USC 1924).

The FBI Always Gets Its Man (or Woman) and May Still Get Hillary Yet.  A month has passed since FBI Director James Comey ripped into Hillary Clinton for the "extremely careless" way she handled classified emails while she was secretary of state, but stopped short of recommending that criminal charges be brought against her.  However, that doesn't mean Hillary is out of the FBI woods.  According to a source close to Comey, Hillary is still the target of an active FBI criminal investigation, but this time around, the media aren't paying much attention.

Why She Should Have Faced the Music.  You know why Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted.  FBI Director James Comey laid out the factual predicate in his press conference annoucning his findings and his recommendation against prosecution.  Forrmer Attorney General Michael Mukasey concisely explains the legal basis for concluding that Comey erred in the brief interview below with AEI's Marc Thiessen. [...] Like everything the Clintons touch, the case of Clinton's email server leaves a lasting stain — in this case, among other things, on the integry of the FBI.

Breaking: NSA Snitch Unleashes Unfathomable Blow On Hillary!  Hillary's scandal has been blown wide open!  The media was in an uproar about Trump's remarks over Russia hacking Hillary's server, meanwhile, while no one was paying any attention, this whistle-blower from the NSA let out a deadly secret, that has the potential to DESTROY Hillary and anything that stands in her path.  Looks as if the NSA is good for something other than unnecessary spying on Americans.  They can also retrieve say... 30,000 deleted emails deleted by Clinton.  Why then did the FBI not take advantage of this amazing opportunity?

Alphabet Soup Corruption.  Clinton's conduct has been described as "extremely careless" and yet neither Comey nor progressive legal gymnasts have been able to explain why that's not synonymous with the statute's standard of "gross negligence" for indictments — as if the adverb "extremely" is not a synonym for the adjective "gross," or the adjective "careless" is not equivalent to the noun "negligence."  In other words, Comey laid out a case for wrongdoing but then erroneously reinterpreted the law to largely exonerate Clinton, the all but certain Democratic nominee for president.  His conclusions followed the bizarre meeting on the Phoenix airport tarmac between the private jets of Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton.  The two allegedly serendipitously met and yet ordered the private meeting to be kept from the media.  Surely two Ivy League trained lawyers know that the spouse of someone under investigation does not consult privately with the principle prosecuting attorney in an ongoing case.

The Hillary Standard:
15 FBI Findings and Why It's Not All About Hillary.  [Scroll down]  Any federal employee is now free, despite what the law may say, to make personal arrangements to communicate the public's business using private servers, administrators, accounts and devices.  They may send and receive classified material using these servers, even in hostile territory subject to hacking by sophisticated adversaries.  They may routinely destroy the public-owned records they create — some of them permanently — and, if their actions are discovered, they may provide false public statements about their content.  They are free to violate public records law and fail to turn over public records upon request (making Freedom of Information law meaningless and toothless).  And prosecutors will view questionable acts in the most innocent light and one that's the most favorable to the subject of the investigation.  Unless they can find what they term "clear evidence" of "intent to violate laws," you're off the hook!

Was Hillary's Email Server Simply a Cover Up for The Biggest Washington Scandal Ever?  Given the evidence and the explanation from FBI Director James Comey, it sure seems like the case against Hillary Clinton is a slam dunk.  She failed to properly secure classified information.  She communicated classified information using an unsecure channel.  She lied about it.  She destroyed evidence.  She obstructed justice.  So, why wasn't Hillary indicted for these crimes?  It's pretty obvious when you really think about it.

FBI Agents In Clinton Investigation Have All Been Gagged With A "Very, Very Unusual" NDA.  FBI agents involved in the probe of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails were required to sign unusually-extensive nondisclosure agreements — forcing them into silence unless they're called to testify in the matter.  FBI insiders surmised there may have been an 'inside deal.'  "This is very, very unusual," said an unnamed, retired FBI chief, cited by the New York Post.  "I've never signed one, never circulated one to others."  According to the Post's anonymous 'sources,' these "Case Briefing Acknowledgement" forms went beyond the nondisclosure agreements agents initially sign in order to gain security clearance.  "I have never heard of such a form," an FBI agent currently on the job told the Post.  "Sounds strange."  But suspicions didn't stop there.

Krauthammer: Comey failed to indict because he didn't want to 'change the course of American political history'.  Charles Krauthammer told viewers Thursday [7/14/2016] on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that FBI director James Comey decided not to prosecute Hillary Clinton because he "didn't want to be remembered as the guy who changed the course of American political history."  "She would have been out of the race.  The entire campaign would have been upended," the syndicated columnist said.

What really happened at Comey's press conference?  What really happened at FBI director James Comey's press conference this week?  After giving a textbook case of why Hillary Clinton should be charged, he surprised everyone by saying she should not.  Did he simply blow it?  Did he wimp out, knowing the wrath he would face?  Unquestionably, Hillary committed offenses for which the average Joe would be arrested.  Was he blackmailed or bought off?  Was he politically motivated?  There's truth somewhere in or around those guesses.

Comey Ran True to Form.  When President Obama in 2013 named James Comey to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the president must have sensed that he had picked someone who could be trusted to have his back, even if Mr. Comey had served in the George W. Bush administration.  This week, Mr. Obama's bet paid off when the G-man let Hillary Clinton skate.

The FBI Exonerated Clinton, But The Public Hasn't.  If Hillary Clinton and her supporters figured that the email scandal had finally been put to rest when the FBI recommended that no charges be filed, they got several bits of unwelcome news this week.  Not least of which is a new poll showing Hillary's support sagging in the wake of the FBI's decision.

The Editor says...
No, Hillary Clinton has not been exonerated in any way.

No Reasonable Prosecutor Would Bring Such a Case?  A good investigation should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that the template provided and the process followed were thorough and complete.  Having briefed my findings, conclusions, and recommendations to senior leaders, I found FBI director Comey's conclusion statement to be simply bizarre.  "Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."  This statement defies logic and the available information in the public domain.  There should have been sufficient evidence for any prosecutor to charge Hillary Clinton on violating a number of statutes.  If a real investigation had been performed, the Findings and Facts would have demonstrated clearly which violations of the statutes, directly and tangential, were attributable to her mishandling of classified information.  They would have been unambiguous, and the preponderance of the information would have outlined those easily proven and documented violations of the statutes.

Hillary's FBI interview.  It now appears that those in charge of the justice system have decided to allow guilt or innocence to be decided by the vagaries of the election process for selected powerful people. [...] People continue to attempt to place James Comey in a positive light, but the bottom line is that he is as corrupt as all the other agency heads in the Obama government. [...] Comey's complicity in this abuse of power and his contempt for the oath he swore to uphold the Constitution is exemplified by his staging of the charade called the Hillary Clinton FBI interview.

A Trustworthy Executive Branch Requires a Trustworthy President.  With a presidential election four months away and with two cases of executive discretion just out of the news, it may be a good time to reflect on the nature of presidential power.  The first case concerns a lack of executive discretion: last week the Supreme Court unanimously vacated the conviction of Robert McDonnell on corruption charges, finding that federal prosecutors had indicted the former governor of Virginia under an unacceptably broad interpretation of the term "official acts" used in federal legislation to define the crime of bribery.  And the second case concerns an abundance of executive discretion:  the FBI's decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state, making the narrow semantic distinction between her "extremely careless" behavior and the "gross negligence" required for criminal prosecution.

Comey and the Will to Power.  Just how was this so-called "investigation" into Hillary's private server and her missing and deleted emails conducted?  Did anyone at the FBI or the DOJ really care that she sent all manner of national security information via unsecured servers or was it a pseudoinvestigation? [...] One possible scenario:  there never was an investigation at all.  From the outset, the administration, the DOJ and the FBI knew it was a can of worms that must not be opened.  So they simulated an investigation when there was none.  For months we have been hearing that there were 150 agents working on it.  But Comey said there were "fifteen or twenty."  None have come forward as yet.  None have resigned in protest of clearing a guilty target as some of the "leaks" suggested they would.  Was the inquiry a sham for public consumption?  Possibly.  We learned Thursday [7/7/2016] that Hillary was not put under oath for her "interview" with the FBI last Saturday.  Comey did not attend that interview and there is no recording nor is there a transcript.

Comey's Hillary decision requires "the willing suspension of disbelief".  As [FBI Director James] Comey went through the litany of Hillary's misdeeds, lies, defalcations of duty, extreme carelessness, cunning and risks to national security, Comey made the case for any of a series of charges against Hillary.  Then, with the reputation of the FBI about to be vindicated, Comey dropped the dreaded "however."  In House testimony, Comey again confirmed every factual point demanding prosecution, yet defended his decision not to recommend charges because he was treating Hillary just like he would any other citizen.  Can anyone seriously claim, as Comey has, that Hillary was treated as any other citizen would?  It's laughable and requires the suspension of disbelief.  Either Comey is the dumbest person on earth, or he thinks we are.

The lawbreaker 'too big to jail'.  James Comey continues to supply the champagne at Hillary Clinton's headquarters, after making sure she wouldn't have to spend Election Night in a 5 by 7 jail cell.  That wouldn't be big enough to accommodate her pants suits.  Mr. Comey continues to shred what's left of his reputation as a fearless tough guy eager to do the right thing.  His diagnosis of Hillary's character and competence stopped just short of doing anything about her breaking of the law.  President Obama says Hillary would be the most qualified president since Thomas Jefferson, greater than Madison, Monroe, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts and presumably even his own magnificent self.  But Mr. Comey says Hillary was nevertheless not "sophisticated" enough to know that she shouldn't put the nation's security secrets at the mercy of Russian and Chinese hackers.

The Law Is Dying because Morality Is Dying.  I don't think Comey's presser heralds the end of law in the U.S., but he surely did put another nail in the coffin.  Like the Supreme Court rulings on abortion and marriage, few should be surprised at this outcome.  America has been on a long, ugly road when it comes to law and justice, reason and logic, morality and truth.

Clinton Implies Comey is a Liar.  Hillary Clinton still denied in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Friday that she ever sent or received classified information on her private email server, despite FBI Director James Comey's recent statements to the contrary.  Blitzer pointed out that Comey did say there were 110 emails that contained classified information on her server.  "But, the FBI director did say about 110 emails were classified, various forms of classification," Blitzer said.  "Even if they had not been marked, he said someone in your position as Secretary of State should have known better.  Here is the question — should you have known better?"  Clinton did not give a straight answer and shifted the focus to the people she was communicating with over email.  She said that since they did not think the information was classified, she had no reason to believe it was.

How can someone "unwittingly" make the same mistake 110 times?
Clinton says she relied on State staff for classification decisions.  Hillary Clinton disputed a scathing assessment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that she was "extremely careless" with classified government secrets, saying on Friday [7/8/2016] she relied on the judgement of her subordinates at the U.S. State Department.  After maintaining for more than a year that she did not send or receive classified information through her unauthorised private email system, she acknowledged in a string of interviews on Friday she may have at least unwittingly done so, three days after the FBI concluded this happened at least 110 times.

Three 'extremely careless' individuals who faced charges.  Hillary Clinton may not have faced criminal charges for her "extremely careless" treatment of classified information, but other government officials who mishandled sensitive secrets have suffered severe consequences.  FBI Director James Comey indicated this week that he declined to recommend an indictment against the former secretary of state because his team found scant evidence of her intent to break the law, despite the series of misstatements she made regarding her private email network.  The legal community has since commenced a heated debate over the question of whether intent is a requirement for criminal charges involving the improper storage of classified documents.

7 Key Takeaways From FBI Director's Hearing on Clinton Email Use.  [#2] [Jason] Chaffetz plans to file a referral to the FBI to look into whether she lied to Congress under oath.  While questioning Comey on Clinton's statements regarding her handling of classified information, Chayetz asked Comey if the FBI looked into whether the former secretary of state lied under oath about receiving and sending classified information.  During an October hearing before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, asked Clinton about classified information sent in emails stored on her server.  "There was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received," Clinton told Jordan during the hearing.  Comey told Chaffetz that, although he was aware of Clinton's exchange with Jordan, the FBI hadn't investigated whether she lied under oath because the agency never received a referral to do so from Congress.  Chayetz confirmed the committee would send a referral to the FBI to probe Clinton's testimony.

White House dodges on possible Clinton email hack.  The White House's top spokesman sidestepped a question about whether President Obama is concerned that Hillary Clinton may have exposed sensitive information to foreign hackers while using a private email server as secretary of state.  In explaining his decision not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday [7/6/2016] that there is a possibility that hostile actors could have invaded her email communications on her private server.  Asked about the vulnerability caused by Clinton's email server, White House press secretary Josh Earnest only repeated Comey's findings.

Republicans Shredded James Comey's Case for Hillary Clinton.  Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform turned in a strong performance on Thursday as they dismantled FBI director James Comey's arguments against prosecuting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  It was a fine moment for committee chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) — and perhaps the finest moment ever for Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who has come in for criticism here and elsewhere for mishandling the media in the Benghazi investigation.  Crucially, Chaffetz established at the outset that Clinton had lied to Gowdy and the House Select Committee on Benghazi in October 2015, and revealed that the House intended to refer her to the Department of Justice for investigation for perjury.

Comey: A theory.  Why did he do it?  FBI Director James Comey spent 14 minutes laying out an unassailable case for prosecuting Hillary Clinton for the mishandling of classified material.  Then at literally the last minute, he recommended against prosecution.  This is baffling.  Under the statute (18 U.S.C. section 793(f)), it's a felony to mishandle classified information either intentionally or "through gross negligence." The evidence, as outlined by Comey, is overwhelming.  Clinton either sent or received 110 emails in 52 chains containing material that was classified at the time.  Eight of these chains contained information that was top secret.  A few of the classified emails were so marked, contrary to Clinton's assertion that there were none.  These were stored on a home server that was even less secure than a normal Gmail account.  Her communications were quite possibly compromised by hostile powers, thus jeopardizing American national security.

Is FBI Director James Comey Blinking "C-O-E-R-C-I-O-N"?  The evidence we have discussed here in specific instances of criminal and terrorist incidence, has continually led us to believe there is an ideological shadow war within our current U.S. government.  IRS targeting, DOJ racial emphasis, the rise of the CRS, Jonathan Gruber ("grubering"), Benghazi aftermath, executive orders classified as "executive action", Fort Hood terrorist attack framework/narrative, Philadelphia Naval Yard attack, San Bernardino terrorist attack and subsequent leaks, Dangerous political correctness, damaging rules of engagement, Orlando terrorist attack etc.  In essence, the White House and appointed upper level administration cabinet officials (writ large) on one side, and those tasked with trying to maintain law, order and national security on the other.

For Any 'Reasonable' Prosecutor, Damage to National Security Would Outweigh 'Extremely Careless' Hillary's (Largely Irrelevant) Intent.  After masterfully marshaling facts that showed Hillary Clinton was grossly negligent in mishandling the nation's defense secrets — i.e., after demonstrating that she was patently indictable for a felony violation of federal law — Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey recommended against prosecution.  His rationale is even more difficult to justify on close examination than it appeared at first blush.

"Mr. Comey, You're the Fool.".  On Thursday [7/7/2016] FBI Director James Comey appeared before the House Oversight Committee regarding his agency's investigation into Hillary Clinton for use of a private email server while Secretary of State.  And it didn't go well.  Comey made news Tuesday [7/5/2016] when he recommended no charges against Clinton despite calling her "extremely careless."  The decision enraged Republicans who lashed out at Comey during the hearing Thursday.  Mark Levin called him "the biggest politician in the room" and a "fool."  Rightfully so.  [Audio clip]

More Than Carelessness.  In the wake of FBI director James Comey's blistering public condemnation of Hillary Clinton's handling of secure materials as Secretary of State, most of Clinton's defenders — and even her critics — are treating this as a story about judgment, or, echoing Comey, "carelessness."  For Democrats, the story is that she was sloppy, she apologized, and it's time to move on.  For Republicans, it's that she showed such reckless disregard for the rules that she is unfit to serve as President.  The debate over her transgressions is one of degree, not kind.  But this narrow focus on the extent of Clinton's carelessness in handling classified information — and whether classified materials were properly marked, and whether they should have been classified in the first place — obscures what is surely a more important question:  Why did she go to such great lengths to set up a private email server in the first place — and then, once it became public, order her attorneys to wipe the server before turning it over to the FBI?  One reason is that a level of secrecy and deceit may be necessary to grease the wheels of the sophisticated enterprise Walter Russell Mead has called the Clinton Machine — the international, multimillion dollar operation that dispenses patronage, rewards loyalists, and sustains the ultimate power couple's permanent campaign.

Five panels to grill FBI on Clinton.  Furious congressional Republicans are launching a multipronged attack against the FBI and Hillary Clinton.  A total of five congressional committees will either hold hearings with high-profile law enforcement officials over the next week or have already begun inquiries to the FBI about its investigation of the former secretary of State.  Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called for Clinton to be barred from the intelligence briefings typically given to presidential nominees and said that State Department officials should be subjected to administrative penalties for support of the former secretary's use of a private email server.  Senate GOP leaders, meanwhile, are pushing for the FBI to release the transcript of its 3½-hour interview with Clinton over the July Fourth weekend.

FBI chief's testimony about Clinton emails torpedoes the bureau's reputation.  There is the bipartisan pretense that the FBI is the only government agency in Washington that is above reproach.  Yet, this is the agency that collaborated with Lois Lerner and the IRS in an effort to criminally prosecute opponents of Barack Obama.  Then, unsurprisingly, this same FBI (and Justice Department) found nothing worth prosecuting in their own blatant malfeasance.  Again, this is the same FBI whose Keystone Cops approach to counter-terrorism failed to prevent eminently preventable terrorist acts ranging from the Boston Marathon bombing to the Orlando massacre.  In fact, we now know that an FBI supervisor actually told one Florida police department investigating Omar Mateen, "We do NOT believe he is a terrorist" [Emphasis in original]  How does an agency with this sort of record escape accountability?  Quite simply, by doing favors for the likes of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

State Department to restart internal review of Clinton's email use.  The U.S. Department of State will restart its internal investigation into former chief Hillary Clinton's email use, now that Justice officials have declined to pursue charges against the Democratic presidential candidate.  "Given the Department of Justice has now made its announcement, the State Department intends to conduct its internal review," spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Thursday [7/7/2016].

FBI Pros Question Decision Not to Charge Hillary Clinton.  This week, FBI Director James Comey testified that Hillary Clinton and her aides had compromised classified information in an extremely careless fashion, exposed it to hostile adversaries, violated public records law, destroyed public documents (some permanently, so that they cannot be forensically recovered) and that Clinton made repeated false statements in public about her actions.  But, he concluded, no charges should be filed.  Clinton apparently told the FBI she didn't understand classified markings and all the technology at issue, and that she didn't know she was doing anything wrong.  And the FBI takes her at her word.  Comey is well-respected by politicians in both political parties and by many within his own ranks.  But there is new dissent after his Clinton decision, which some FBI insiders found baffling and contrary to normal practices.

Thug-ocracy.  [Scroll down]  The law is for the Dirt People and it will be enforced by the Cloud People, but, the Cloud People will do as they please.  There's another way to look at it.  That is, the ruling class has lost control of the reigns and they can no longer police themselves.  Hillary Clinton has no business being president.  It's absurd even without the massive corruption and criminality.  Hillary's crowning achievement was marrying Bill Clinton 50 years ago.  Even a deeply corrupt and incompetent ruling class should be able to filter out the likes of Hillary Clinton.  The fact that they cannot bring themselves to flush her from the system when they have an iron clad criminal case against her is ominous.  There's another angle here.  The whole "Arkanside" thing is a fun gag, but it does appear that the ruling class is playing much tougher with one another.  Judge Roberts was either blackmailed or threatened into reversing his opinion on ObamaCare.  That's incandescently obvious.  FBI Director Comey's erratic performance yesterday suggests there's more here than just a man suddenly changing his mind about law enforcement.  He has prosecuted many others for these exact same crimes.  A lesson of history is that when ruling elites become unstable, they become thuggish.

Sen. Cornyn demands DOJ hand over Clinton FBI interview transcript.  In a letter sent to Lynch, the Texas senator urged the department to release both the FBI's report on Clinton's use of a private email server for official business when secretary of state, and the transcript of the three-and-a-half hour interview conducted with Clinton by the FBI on July 2.  "The American people deserve the facts underlying former-Secretary Clinton's FBI interview to evaluate the Department of Justice's conclusions and the public statements that the former-Secretary Clinton and her supporters have made regarding her use of a personal email system and her egregious handling of classified information," Cornyn wrote.

Clinton email decision seen as lifeline for those facing similar charges.  FBI Director James Comey recommended Tuesday that no charges be filed against Clinton or her team for their handling of classified information while she was secretary of state, even though she was "extremely careless" in using a private email address and servers.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Wednesday [7/6/2016] that she agreed with Comey's assessment.  Lawyers who specialize in representing government and military officials who've had security clearances revoked said Comey's recommendation offered them a new tactic in seeking to rehabilitate their clients, especially if Clinton is elected president in November.

Attorneys Intend to Ask for 'the Clinton Deal'.  Attorneys for people who allegedly mishandled classified information say the outcome of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton could be good news for their clients.  Though many see a double standard in FBI Director James Comey's decision not to recommend charges against the former secretary of state who used a personal and unsecured email system for official business, others see possibilities.  Mark Zaid, a defense attorney for national security whistleblowers and people accused of mishandling secrets, says he plans to ask for "the Clinton deal" in the future.  And Zaid says he probably can get it.

Hillary Clinton, James Comey and the Department of Political Justice.  Is it worth impairing the reputation of the FBI and the Department of Justice to save Hillary Clinton from a deserved criminal prosecution by playing word games?  What has become of the rule of law — no one is beneath its protections or above its requirements — when the American public can witness a game of political musical chairs orchestrated by Bill Clinton at an airport in a bizarre ruse to remove the criminal investigation of his wife from those legally responsible for making decisions about it?

The 'FBI primary' is over:  Hillary dodged criminal charges for one simple reason.  Hillary Clinton likely dodged criminal charges Tuesday [7/5/2016] for a simple reason:  the bar for bringing criminal charges against a politician, particularly a high public official, is so much higher than they are for anyone else. [...] The reputational loss public officials face from criminal charges can be so great that prosecutors feel that they need to be sure of a conviction before going forward.  For someone running for president, such as Hillary, that loss of reputation would be tremendous. — It isn't as if she will be able to pick right back up where she is now in the 2020 presidential race.  So much of debate during this election has been over a different standard applying to the Clintons.

Hillary Clinton (and her aides) should never have a security clearance again.  FBI Director James Comey dropped a bombshell Tuesday, and as a result, is testifying before Congress on Thursday [7/7/2016].  While admitting Hillary Clinton was "extremely careless" in handling highly classified information, and then outlining the ways in which she was extreme in her carelessness with highly classified information, Comey announced that the FBI recommends no charges against her.

Obama and Comey Clinton Email Comments Sound Eerily Similar.  Conservative talker Rush Limbaugh argued that the fix was always in to protect Hillary on EmailGate and presented a video montage comparing comments made by President Barack Obama in April regarding the investigation to the statement made by FBI Director James Comey during his press conference on Tuesday [7/5/2016].

Hurd Slams Dems At Hearing On Clinton Email.  An angry and frustrated Congressman Will Hurd got his chance to question FBI Director James Comey about the investigation in to Hillary Clinton's email server during a hearing before the U.S. House Oversight Committee Thursday Morning [7/7/2016].  "I'm offended" Hurd said, opening his time for questions — after listening to Democrat after Democrat on the Committee use their time to question Comey instead make long statements casting questions over the investigation as nothing more than "political theater."

FBI's Comey:  Hillary Clinton not 'sophisticated enough' to understand classified markings.  FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may not have been "sophisticated enough" to understand the classified markings on emails she sent and received, which explains why she didn't know she was breaking the letter of the law.  Under intense questioning from Republicans, Mr. Comey said Mrs. Clinton's public explanations of her behavior were not true.  But he said his investigators couldn't find evidence that Mrs. Clinton intended to break the law, which he said is the key to making a criminal case.

Comey testifies Clinton email claims 'not true' at heated Hill hearing.  FBI Director James Comey testified Thursday that Hillary Clinton's claims — some made under oath — about her use of a private email server were "not true," fueling Republican questions about whether in doing so she committed a felony.  In a wide-ranging appearance before the House oversight committee, Comey also said Clinton's email practices put America's secrets at risk and her actions constituted the "definition of carelessness."  At the same time, Comey staunchly defended the bureau's decision not to pursue charges.  He also said, "We have no basis to conclude that [Clinton] lied to the FBI."

FBI Director:  Clinton Gave Non-Cleared Individuals Access to Classified Information.  Hillary Clinton gave people without a security clearance access to her private server that contained classified information, FBI director James Comey told a congressional panel on Thursday [7/7/2016].  The FBI director said between two and 10 individuals without clearances had access to the server, including Clinton's attorneys who sorted her emails before they were turned over to the State Department.  Comey was testifying before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee regarding his announcement on Tuesday that he would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton or her aides related to the mishandling of classified information on the private email server.

Chaffetz: 'Did Hillary Clinton Do Anything Wrong?' Comey: 'What Do You Mean by Wrong?'.  Did former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton break the law?  Did she lie to the FBI?  Did she lie under oath?  Did she do anything wrong?  Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, put those questions to FBI Director James Comey at Thursday's [7/7/2016] hearing.  Comey said he has "no basis" to conclude that Clinton lied to the FBI.  He said he was "not qualified" to say if Clinton lied to the public.  He said in his judgment, Hillary Clinton did not break the law in connection with her use of a personal email server.

Hillary Clinton Was NOT Placed Under Oath During FBI Interview, Which Was Not Transcribed.  The American public will not be able to read a transcript of Hillary Clinton's recent interview with the FBI because the bureau did not transcribe it, FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Thursday.  Clinton was also not placed under oath during the interview, which was conducted Saturday at FBI headquarters.  The three-and-a-half hour session was also not recorded, Comey told Florida Rep. John Mica during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing.

FBI Director James Comey Testifies To Congress — Clinton Never Questioned Under Oath.  During FBI Director James Comey testimony today he stunningly revealed the July 3rd, 2016 interview with Secretary Hillary Clinton was not conducted under oath, was not recorded, there is no transcript of her question and answer session, he was not present, and he did not talk to all of the questioning agents.

Republicans threaten perjury probe of Hillary Clinton over congressional testimony that 'nothing marked classified' was on her email server.  The Republican chairman of a powerful congressional committee said Thursday [7/7/2016] that he will ask the FBI for a new criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's classified email scandal, focusing on the possibility that she perjured herself in sworn testimony to Congress.  Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked FBI Director James Comey whether he had cause to charge her for lying in a statement she made to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan during a 2015 hearing on the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.  'There was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received,' Clinton said at the time.  Comey said in a hearing Thursday that the FBI had not investigated whether that statement was true, despite finding three documents with classification markings among the messages on her private server.

Marco makes his mark:  Leads Senate push to strip Hillary of security clearance.  Republicans officially petitioned the administration Thursday to deny Hillary Clinton access to secret information as Democrats' presidential nominee, and some GOP lawmakers said if the intelligence community won't do it, they'll pass a bill to do it themselves.  The White House has said it won't deny Mrs. Clinton access, saying it is a tradition for both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees to be briefed so they can effect an orderly transition if they are elected.  But Republicans said Mrs. Clinton's behavior with her private email server while secretary of state was so egregious that it should trump tradition and cost her the chance to see secret, sensitive material.  They cited FBI Director James Comey's admonition that while Mrs. Clinton's behavior wasn't criminal, it was "extremely careless" and would likely result in sanctions that could include loss of security privileges.

Clinton Email Scandal:  It's Far From Over.  The FBI's refusal to recommend an indictment is obviously a huge win for Clinton.  But her reluctance to take a victory lap is instructive.  She knows she will continue to face withering attacks — attacks she cannot wave off as ridiculous conspiracy theories.  After all, FBI Director James Comey publicly shredded all the defenses Hillary used for the past year.

Email Scandal:  Clinton Wins A Battle, But Did She Lose The War?  Hillary Clinton partisans might want to re-cork those champagne bottles after FBI Director James Comey let her off the legal hook for her reckless use of an unsecured email system while secretary of state.  The reaction to Comey's decision from otherwise erstwhile friends has been vicious.  While protecting Clinton from being charged with any crime, Comey made it painfully obvious to anyone but the most blinkered Hillary supporter that she has been lying about her email set-up for more than a year, that she recklessly exposed national security secrets to prying eyes, and that the whole affair calls her qualifications for being president into question.

FBI Resignations:  Where Are They?  Roughly 150 FBI agents were assigned to the Hillary Clinton email case.  It was a criminal investigation to determine if the Secretary of State violated any laws when she a) installed an unauthorized email server in her home, b) conducted State business on that server, c) sent and received classified information on that server, and d) stored classified information on that server.  If it was determined that any of the above were crimes, then a criminal indictment would apply.  Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey, announced that no charges would be sought.  Where are the FBI agent resignations?

Comey's FBI Helped Convict Navy Reservist who "Handled Classified Materials Inappropriately".  Illustrating that FBI Director James Comey is a liar and a fraud, his agency helped convict a Navy reservist last summer of the same crime that he just cleared Hillary Clinton of committing.  In that case the reservist from northern California got criminally charged — as per FBI recommendation — for having classified material on personal electronic devices that weren't authorized by the government to contain such information.  The FBI investigation didn't reveal evidence that the reservist intended to distribute classified information to unauthorized personnel, so he was just being "extremely careless" like Clinton and her top aides.  Similar offenses, vastly different outcome.  The key factor, of course, is that one subject is a regular Joe without Clinton-like political connections.  His name is Bryan H. Nishimura and last July he pleaded guilty to unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials after the FBI found such materials were copied and stored in at least one "unauthorized and unclassified system." Clinton had droves of classified and top secret materials in an "unauthorized and unclassified system."

Here's Mud in Your FBI.  FBI Director James Comey officially announced yesterday the findings of his agency's extensive criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of an unauthorized, secret, private email server.  He basically confirmed that everything Hillary has said since the discovery of the email server has been a blatant lie.  Yes, she repeatedly sent confidential, Top Secret, and Above Top Secret correspondence on an unsecured system.  In fact, her "security" was less than that which would have been provided by a free gmail account.  Hillary lied about wanting the system strictly for "convenience" (not wanting to carry two devices), she lied about turning over all required State Department emails, she lied about not having destroyed official documents, and she could not demonstrate that her system hadn't been hacked by foreign enemies (which Comey conceded was likely) thereby putting lives, policy, and our national security at risk.

Where's The Morality In Hillary's Moral Universe?  [Scroll down]  Yet how can Clinton keep her security clearance now that she's found to have been reckless with national secrets?  I don't know how that's possible, which makes running for president somewhat difficult.  Obama has endorsed her and campaigned for her.  And he hasn't demanded the head of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who met secretly with Bill Clinton in a private plane where they talked, Lynch said, "primarily" of grandchildren and golf.  Any young federal prosecutor who'd meet privately with the spouse of someone under federal investigation would be fired.  Any young foreign service officer who'd dare put government secrets on a private basement email server — where they could easily be hacked by Russian, Chinese or other intelligence services — would be dismissed, if not prosecuted.  And they'd never be able to keep their security clearance.  But Clinton will keep hers.

Hillary Clinton:  The OJ Simpson of National Security Violations.  Although it was announced Tuesday that she escaped an F.B.I. indictment, everyone knows Hillary is guilty of putting her personal paranoia above her country's security, guilty of putting her secrecy above the lives and safety of agents in the field, guilty of the kind of crimes only Democrats protected by Social Justice Warriors can get away with.  Oddly enough it was the corrupt man who handed Hillary her Get Out of Jail Free card, F.B.I. Director James Comey, who proved her guilt just before handing her that card.  What's so fascinating about all of this is that the one and only time I started to believe Hillary might be brought to justice was during Comey's statement late Tuesday morning.  For about 20 minutes, as he laid out the case against her, a case as open and shut as that 20 year-old DNA evidence, he made it sound as though he had no choice but to indict.  But in the end, Comey was just trolling and things were returned to their natural state when he announced she was free to become president of the United States.

Five Clinton email talking points that were debunked by the FBI.  FBI Director James Comey's announcement Tuesday that he would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her "extremely careless" handling of classified information rankled Republicans who were hoping the Justice Department would indict the presumptive Democratic nominee.  "Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," Comey said of his decision not to recommend an indictment to prosecutors at the Justice Department.

Cillizza: Comey Statement Creates a Number of Issues For The Story Clinton Has Been Telling About Server.  Washington Post's Chris Cillizza notes FBI director James Comey "directly disputed" several statements Hillary Clinton has made in the past about the private server she maintained during her tenure at the State Department.  "He directly disputed the fact that she said she had never sent or received a classified e-mail," Cillizza said Tuesday on MSNBC.  "He directly disputed the idea that it is possible that her account has been attacked.  He directly disputed the idea that her lawyers and she had deleted only those e-mails that were personal, entirely personal in nature, saying they had found e-mails that contained sort of professional information in there as well."  "What James Comey did today creates a number of issues for the story she's been telling about her e-mail server for the last 15 months," Cillizza added.  [Video clip]

Trump: Bernie Just Lost The FBI Primary; Today Proves He Was Right About The Rigged System.  Donald Trump comments on the end of what he called the "FBI Primary," saying that Bernie Sanders has so far refused to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination in hopes that Clinton might be indicted.  He says that the FBI's recommendation not to indict proves Sanders was right when he said the Democratic primary was "rigged."  "Today is the best evidence ever that we have seen that our system is totally, absolutely rigged," Trump said at a rally in North Carolina.

Can Hillary Survive?  [Scroll down]  In essence, Comey said today that if American voters are dumb enough to elect as president a woman who was "extremely careless" in handling "very sensitive, highly classified information," so that it is "possible that hostile actors gained access to" her email account, and then lied repeatedly and shamelessly about what she had done, it's on the voters.  I suspect that Comey thinks he has done what he can or should do to blow the whistle on Hillary.  What will the political impact be?  By rights, it should be devastating.  If the Director of the FBI made similar findings about another candidate — Donald Trump, for example — it would be considered the end of that candidate's career.

Loretta Lynch, James Comey Set To Testify Before Congress About Email Investigation.  Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI director James Comey will testify in front of Congress, two House committee chairmen announced Wednesday [7/6/2015].  Comey will appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday specifically to discuss the FBI's Clinton email investigation, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz said.  And according to Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Lynch will appear next Tuesday, July 12, at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Two More Ways Hillary Clinton Committed Perjury at Benghazi Committee.  Hillary Clinton appears to have perjured herself before the House Select Committee on Benghazi in at least three ways:  first, by stating that she had turned over "all my work related emails" from her private email server to the government; second, by insisting there was "nothing marked classified on my e-mails"; and third, by telling the committee that her attorneys "went through every single e-mail."  FBI director James Comey's statement Tuesday [7/5/2016] suggests none of those statements were true.  On Tuesday, Breitbart News published the relevant portion of the transcript of Clinton's testimony dealing with the question of whether she had turned over her work-related emails.  The other two instances in which Clinton perjured herself arose in her statements to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

Did the FBI just sink Clinton over emails?  The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state has concluded with a recommendation that she not face criminal charges.  While the fevered dreams of some on the right (and left) that Mrs Clinton would be frog-marched from campaign stage to jail cell have been dashed, the presumptive Democratic nominee's political pain is far from over.  But how bad is it, exactly?  Here are some reasons why it could be a grievous wound — or nothing but a scratch.

House Speaker Paul Ryan calls for blocking Hillary's access to classified information.  House Speaker Paul Ryan is calling on the nation's spy chief to strip Hillary Clinton of her access to classified government information because of the way she mishandled classified information laid out by FBI director James Comey.  Ryan, who receives top level information as speaker and who got classified briefings as Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate in 2012, said Clinton should have her access to classified information stripped because of her actions.  'Comey said short of prosecution some kind of administration action should occur bringing consequences.  I think the DNI, the director of national intelligence, should block her access to classified information given how recklessly she handled this during the presidential campaign,' Ryan said.

Ryan: Congress could strip Clinton of access to classified material.  House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Wednesday [7/6/2016] that Congress could step in and try to deny Hillary Clinton access to classified information during the presidential campaign, if the Obama administration doesn't take that step itself.  Given that the FBI found Mrs. Clinton "careless" in handling top secret information, Mr. Ryan said Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should deny her the regular intelligence briefings a party's presidential and vice presidential nominees get.  But he said if Mr. Clapper doesn't do that, Congress could step in.

The Editor says...
What's he trying to say?  Does this mean Hillary still has her own clandestine email server?

Lemon Characterizes Clinton FBI Investigation As Sexist Attack.  Just hours after the FBI recommended Hillary Clinton not be criminally charged by the DOJ, CNN was already dredging up sympathy for Hillary.  On CNN Tonight July 5, anchor Don Lemon repeatedly brought up Clinton's gender in an attempt to show that Clinton was somehow getting harsher treatment than she would if she was a man.  Lemon began by comparing the hearing to "fireworks," claiming that "the men at the top" were trying to keep Clinton from becoming President[.]

Judicial Watch Statement on Decision by FBI Director James Comey Not to Recommend Indictment of Hillary Clinton.  FBI Director James Comey detailed Hillary Clinton's massive destruction of government records and grossly negligent handling of classified information.  Frankly, there's a disconnect between Comey's devastating findings and his weak recommendation not to prosecute Hillary Clinton.  Federal prosecutors, independent of politics, need to consider whether to pursue the potential violations of law confirmed by the FBI.

FBI's baffling rescue of Hillary is turning America into a banana republic.  Maybe FBI chief James Comey didn't want to hand the 2016 presidential election to the erratic Donald Trump when he decided not to recommend any charges against Hillary Clinton for her insanely dumb and so obviously improper use of a private e-mail server to receive top-secret documents as President Obama's secretary of state.  Or maybe, in some odd way, this longtime gumshoe really believes that what Clinton did — sending and receiving sensitive information on a private and very hackable e-mail account — isn't so bad and thus doesn't deserve to be addressed with even a slap-on-the-wrist charge like a misdemeanor.  Either way, by ignoring the findings of his agents — which have been documented on these pages, and which he documented in a bizarre press conference Tuesday — Comey has done his best to move rule of law in this country one big step closer to that of a banana republic.

Now FBI director Comey [will] be in the hot seat as House GOP prepares to grill official who recommended letting Hillary off.  FBI director James Comey, who had Hillary Clinton's fate in his hands as the person who led the determination of whether to recommend prosecution, now will have to answer for his decision before Congress.  The House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing Thursday where Comey will testify, a GOP aide confirmed.  House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday night [7/5/2016] that, 'We're going to have hearings' into the matter.  'There are a lot of unanswered questions here ... that need to get answers,' he told Fox News' Megyn Kelly.

WH: 'We Have Gone to Great Lengths to Avoid the Appearance of Interfering' With FBI's Clinton-Email Probe.  No one at the White House knew that FBI Director James Comey was going to speak on Tuesday [7/5/2016], never mind what he'd say, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Tuesday.  "With regard to a reaction from the White House, I don't have an official reaction to share," he said.  "The reason for that is simply that, while the FBI is completing their investigation, the career prosecutors at the Department of Justice still have to make a final determination about how and whether to proceed.

Ted Cruz Drops Truth Bomb After FBI Decision on Hillary Clinton.  Today, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a statement regarding FBI Director Comey's decision not to charge Hillary Clinton with criminal wrong doing even with clear evidence she broke the law. [...] ["]If we are to remain a beacon of hope and freedom for the rest of the world, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that we remain a nation of laws, and that our laws apply equally and fairly to us all.  Under President Obama, we have seen the most politicized Department of Justice in history; I very much hope that politicization has not similarly corrupted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  I join my Senate Judiciary colleagues, including Chairman Grassley, in calling for public transparency of, and full access to, all the information that the FBI used to come to today's dubious decision.["]

What FBI's Comey could not say — but Rashi did.  Let's read between the lines on what Comey could not say, but perhaps wanted to say:
  •   Anybody else would have been prosecuted.  But for Hillary and the rest of the Clintons, the rules do not apply.
  •   I am FBI.  That's big.  But the White House is bigger and that's who's boss.
  •   I tried my best, but nobody has a chance against a system run by corrupt politicians.
  •   The system is rigged.  So rigged that even the FBI can't get out from under.
  •   Liberals run the show.  It's their world and we are only visiting as their uninvited guests.  They can do with us whatever they want.
  •   Mr. and Mrs. America:  Get used to the idea that the most corrupt politician ever may be your next president.

Comey's Game.  Yesterday [7/5/2016], the Director of the FBI offered 15 of the most puzzling minutes in the history of American law enforcement.  James Comey spent the first 12 minutes or so laying out a devastating case dismantling Hillary Clinton's email defense.  Then, in a whiplash-inducing change of narrative, he announced that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring the case he had just outlined, an assertion that was contradicted within hours by luminaries including former US Attorney (and Mayor) Rudy Giuliani and James Kallstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office.  How can we possibly explain the FBI Director deliberately inducing mass cognitive dissonance?

WSJ Editorial:  Comey Refused to Press Charges to Spare Us President Trump.  In a scathing Wall Street Journal editorial, the newspaper coined a new term for FBI Director James Comey's decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton — They called it "Jim Comey's Clinton Standard."  The editorial board ripped apart Comey's rationale for not pursuing charges based on Clinton's "reckless conduct" which included sending classified emails, and using her email extensively in regions with hostile actors.  But, probably most shocking, at the end of the piece, the board asserts that Comey may have dodged the indictment to spare us all a President Donald Trump.

The Explanation Americans Deserve From FBI on Clinton's Server Use.  "I am confident that I never sent or received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received." That is what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters last July.  At least we now know that was not true. [...] Eight of these communications contained "top secret" information, and 37 contained "secret" information, while the remainder contained "confidential" information.  While stating that the bureau's investigation did not uncover evidence of intentional mishandling of classified information or of disloyalty or an attempt to obstruct justice, Comey's remarks reflected the FBI's conclusions that Clinton's conduct was hardly in keeping with her previous statement that she took "classified information very seriously."

I Don't Get It.  I'm on vacation but I had to watch FBI Director Comey's statement.  I was not surprised that he opted not to recommend prosecution.  I was surprised by his explanation. [...] He began by saying intent didn't matter under the law.  But even so, do we believe that she didn't intend to set up the server?  Do we believe that she didn't intend to put her privacy and political security above national security?  She'd been warned about the server and did it anyway.  I'm obviously no lawyer but that looks like intentionality and willfulness to me.  As for the strength of the evidence ... what more evidence do you need?  There were not one but apparently several unsecured servers set up and paid for by Mrs. Clinton to house and transmit classified information.

#NeverTrump Needs To Learn From Clinton Email Whitewash.  If anyone still thought the law actually applies to the powerful as well as the powerless, that a semblance of justice still remained in the country founded upon the principle of equal justice for all, surely those illusions were dashed for good on Tuesday when FBI Director James Comey announced that neither Hillary Clinton nor anyone else would be charged in the State Department email scandal.  If anyone, especially those who remain anti-Trump, thought an indictment might save the nation from the churning tornado that is Hillary Clinton, that maybe she'd be replaced by a slightly more palatable Democratic candidate, the finality of Tuesday's news should settle the matter for good.

Endorsing Lawlessness.  Surprise, surprise:  President Barack Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.  He wants someone to follow him who will protect his disastrous legacy.  He couldn't have made a better choice.  "I know how hard this job can be.  That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it," he explained.  He provided plenty of joke lines for the late night shows.  But he made clear that he won't remain on the sidelines during the campaign: joint political appearances are now being planned.  None of this should surprise anyone.  It won't be the first time an incumbent attempted to help elect his successor.  But never before has the conflict been so great, with the current president presiding over a criminal investigation of his party's presumptive nominee.

The Teflon Hillary Standard.  FBI Director James Comey told us Monday what many of us have already known and long suspected:  Hillary Clinton serially lied about her homeland security-jeopardizing homebrew email server, and the Obama administration is letting her get away with it.  After Comey hammered the final nail in the classified-information coffin, the enabler in chief promptly whisked Clinton out of D.C. on his taxpayer-subsidized winged chariot for a joint campaign event in North Carolina and plopped her in front of a lectern carrying the presidential seal — where she stood and hurled her invective against GOP presidential rival Donald Trump, whom she called "unqualified and temperamentally unfit" to occupy the White House.

FBI Proves Hillary Clinton Committed Perjury Before Benghazi Committee.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified under oath before the House Select Committee on Benghazi last October that she had turned over "all my work related emails" from her private email server to the State Department.  But on Tuesday, FBI director James Comey revealed that the agency had found "several thousand" work-related emails Clinton had not turned over, including three that included information that had been classified at the time that they had been sent.

FBI's Comey indicts Clinton character, competence.  [Scroll down]  So Hillary skates?  Not hardly.  In fact, this could be the worst outcome possible.  Had a recommendation for indictment come down, it would not have slowed Hillary's march to the nomination.  Democrats have demonstrated they will support her no matter what.  And had actual charges been filed, the process is so slow that she would probably not have faced significant court proceedings before the election.  If the topic ever arose on the campaign trail, she would have said it was an ongoing process in the hands of her attorneys and declined to comment.  Instead she is left with an investigation that found her perilously incompetent, calling into question her fitness for office.

Rush Limbaugh:  Hillary escaping charges shows 'institutions crumbling before our very eyes'.  Mr. Comey said just after 11 a.m.  EST. that "no reasonable prosecutor" would seek charges against the former secretary of state, despite calling her "extremely careless" with the nation's most important intelligence documents. [...] "If you want to be depressed, look, I understand it," the conservative said. "[...] He lays out all the violations.  He lays out all the irregularities.  He lays out all the problems, and there are a lot of people in jail for doing exactly what he's exonerated Hillary Clinton for today."

Mark Levin slams FBI, Justice:  Clinton would've been a 'slam dunk case'.  Conservative radio host Mark Levin slammed the FBI on Tuesday for not recommending the Justice Department take up what he said would have been an easy case against Hillary Clinton.  "They found several thousand emails that were not disclosed to the FBI," Levin said on LevinTV Tuesday night.  "You know what I call that?  A cover up.  She intended to cover up, she intended to unravel the security system that was put into place.  It's worse than gross negligence.  This is a slam dunk prosecution.  This is a slam dunk case."

Coward Comey Takes a Dive.  The FBI today officially becoming a willing Soviet-Stasi stooge and tool, even if under duress, brings home how fast things can change in a volatile political environment.  I judge 2016 as being as dangerous as 1860 or 1913.  In European terms, a "Night of Long Knives" is now not an impossibility.  Fast and Furious (300+ dead, no repercussions, media holding) emboldened them to betray Benghazi station, to write it off and lie about it, (no repercussions, media holding).  Now the perception, real or imagined, is that even the FBI has been forced to toe the party line.  No spin can erase this.  Bill Clinton meets Loretta Lynch in the "secret" Godfather tarmac rendezvous, then FBI director damns but refuses to pursue Hillary.  Loretta Lynch, who worked for the Clinton's law firm, before Bill appointed her US Attorney in New York, which set her up to become Attorney General, which Obama appointed her for.  Obama, who appointed FBI Director Bill Comey.  Director Bill Comey, who just made the FBI case to send her up for life, and then, blinking "t-o-r-t-u-r-e", Honest Bill said, "but... she skates anyway."  The intended and received message to the masses is that the gangsters are now firmly in charge, and nobody can or will stop them.  They have all the power.  Even the backing of the liberal media.

Clinton email claims collapse under FBI probe.  Key assertions by Hillary Clinton in defense of her email practices have collapsed under FBI scrutiny.

Even without charges, FBI rebuke leaves a heavy political cloud over Clinton.  Even as Comey lifted a legal cloud by announcing that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges, he systematically obliterated many of the key defenses Clinton and her advisers have offered to reassure the public in the 15 months since the discovery that she used a private email system.  For instance, Clinton had insisted that she did not send or receive classified materials, but Comey said the FBI found that 110 of her emails contained classified information.

'It Appears Damage is Being Done to the Rule of Law'.  [Scroll down]  House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) called the decision "unsurprising," yet something that "serves as yet another reminder that the integrity of this investigation has been politicized from start to finish."  "Instead of creating certainty and instilling faith in our justice system, the Director's statement only raised more questions about the process," Sessions said.  "The FBI's report found that Mrs. Clinton used not one but multiple private servers, transmitted 110 emails that were classified at the time, and deleted 'personal' emails that contained professional and most likely sensitive information.  Despite these facts, the FBI still concluded that Mrs. Clinton did not break the law or, at the bare minimum, know that her actions were completely irresponsible."

Did Comey Actually Destroy Hillary Clinton by 'Exonerating' Her?  I may be alone in saying this, but when the proverbial dust settles, James Comey may have hurt Hillary Clinton more than he helped her in his statement Tuesday [7/5/2016] concerning the Grand Email Controversy.  He may have let her off the hook legally, but personally he has left the putative Democratic candidate scarred almost beyond recognition.  By getting out in front of the Justice Department, the FBI director, speaking publicly in an admittedly unusual fashion, was able to frame the case in a manner that Attorney General Loretta Lynch in all probability never would have.

Former AG Mike Mukasey: 'Intent' Is Irrelevant, Hillary Clinton's 'Gross Negligence' Violated Text of Secrecy Law.  Mike Mukasey, who served as Attorney General from 2007 to 2009, says FBI Director James Comey wrongly excused Hillary Clinton during his press-conference by wrongly claiming that any prosecution requires strong evidence that she had the intent to violate classification laws.  But the law requires that cops and prosecutors show mere "gross negligence," Mukasey wrote in a Wall Street Journal column, titled "Clinton Makes the FBI's Least-Wanted List."  Moreover, Comey effectively showed during his prosecution-style press conference that Hillary Clinton's reckless use of her unprotected home-brew email network meets that "gross negligence" test for federal prosecution, Mukasey argues.

Fiorina: This Is a Shameful Day for Our Country, No Matter Your Political Beliefs.  Carly Fiorina slammed FBI Director James Comey's recommendation not to charge Hillary Clinton with a crime, calling it a "blow to the very heart of our democracy."  The former Republican candidate wrote that the FBI "admitted" that Clinton "endangered the American people — and confirmed that the worst things any of us imagined about Hillary's email server were true."

Rudy Giuliani:  "Today Hillary Clinton Was Put Way Above The Law".  The reactions to the FBI's shocking announcement in which it announced it would not seek charges against Hillary Clinton are coming in fast and furious, with House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing moments ago that, at least in his view, Trump was spot on when he tweeted over the holiday weekend that the system is rigged when he said that the FBI's decision not to suggest the Department of Justice brings charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "defies explanation."

In Clinton Case, Obama Administration Nullifies 6 Criminal Laws.  When the Obama Administration, on July 5th, ruled that in regard to Hillary Clinton's privatized email system while she was Secretary of State, "Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case" to a grand jury, because "We cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges," they ignored the following six U.S. criminal laws, each of which undeniably describes very well what she did:  [Beginning with] 18 U.S. Code § 2232 — Destruction or removal of property to prevent seizure.

Queen Clinton gets her way — again.  Let's be honest:  Nobody every really believed that the Obama administration was going to indict Hillary Clinton.  We all knew that it would do everything possible to avoid prosecution. [...] The American people are correct to be outraged by the Obama administration doing everything it can to protect her on her way to being coronated as our next president.

FBI director:  Clinton and aides were obligated to protect classified data even if not marked.  In his 15 minute condemnation of Hillary Rodham Clinton's "extremely careless" handling of emails while she was Obama's secretary of state, FBI director James Comey said the Clinton and her aides were obligated by law to protect classified information even if it wasn't labeled as such.  In short, Hillary and her cronies, who of course are so much smarter than us, should have known better, Comey said.

Meet The Man James Comey Indicted Over A 21-Word Email.  In April, 2003, investment banker Frank Quattrone was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice by then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York James Comey for one email sent to employees.  Quattrone voiced his discontent with Comey's recent announcement regarding Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's personal email server.

Crooked, Grossly Negligent Hillary Is Sprung By The DOJ.  If Donald Trump doesn't start using "Grossly Negligent" in addition to his "Crooked" descriptor of Hillary, he'll be missing a strong point to be used against her and will be passing up a ripe target that the DOJ itself has placed on her chest.  When the Department of Justice representative, in this case James Comey, the Director of the FBI, describes a presidential candidate that has undergone deep, extensive investigation as being "Grossly Negligent", he has hung her politically in the eyes of any citizen paying attention to current events.  In an age of constant and increasing terrorist attacks on America, who in their right mind would want a "Grossly Negligent" president?

ABC Hails 'Momentous Day' for Hillary with No Indictment; The 'Cloud Is Lifted' for Her, Obama.  In the moments following FBI Director James Comey's announcement on Tuesday [7/6/2016] that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges for her private e-mail servers scandal, the cast assembled by ABC News hailed the "extraordinary decision" as "a momentous day" signaling that "a cloud is lifted" for Clinton to continue on with the presidential race and President Obama to give his own thoughts on the matter.  Senior Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas dubbed Comey's recommendation an "extraordinary decision" and blistering for Clinton but emphasized the early spin that "they looked at precedent and found no case like it where prosecutors would have went [sic] for it and did not believe the Justice Department would have gone for it."

Too Big to Jail:  Hillary Clinton Not Charged by FBI.  It was always pretty obvious that Hillary Clinton would get off without any charged from the FBI.  With Obama and Loretta Lynch fixing the "investigation" you knew that Hillary Clinton would never be prosecuted.  It's the Clinton way.  They are above the law, unlike the rest of us.  Today, despite admitting Hillary Clinton had at least 36 classified e-mails on her unsecure e-mail server, Commie Comey let her off the hook.  Hillary Clnton is just too big to jail.

'So Discouraging': Giuliani Says Comey Made 'Special Exception for the Clintons'.  Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani explained this afternoon why FBI Director James Comey made a "special exception" in recommending no charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.  Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney who worked with Comey, said that Clinton violated federal statute 18 U.S.C., §793-F by mishandling classified information on her unsecured server.  [Video clip]

Why Comey Blinked.  FBI Director Comey indicted Hillary Clinton in the court of public opinion by laying out before the TV cameras, step by step, her gross negligence in handling classified material, including Top Secret information that would compromise our national security if made accessible to our enemies.  He told us Clinton sent classified information over servers not as safe as a simple gmail account.  He told us it is impossible for the FBI to ascertain what foreign hostile actors may have accessed her account, but there is good evidence to believe that the information was hacked. [...] And then, in an act of great cynicism, FBI Director Comey looked the American people directly in the eye and told us that no reasonable prosecutor would bring a case against Hillary Clinton.

Obama DOJ Prosecuted More Gov. Officials For Leaking Classified Info Than Past Admins Combined.  Barack Obama's Justice Department has prosecuted more government officials for alleged leaks of information under the World War I era Espionage Act than all his predecessors combined — yet Hillary Clinton managed to avoid becoming part of that statistic Tuesday morning [7/5/2016].  FBI Director James Comey decided the bureau would urge that charges not be brought against former Secretary of State Clinton for her mishandling of classified information on her private email servers.

James Comey and the Road to Tyranny.  [Scroll down]  There are other circumstances that cast suspicion on Comey's decision.  Is it a coincidence that Obama endorsed Hillary a month before Comey's announcement?  Or that Hillary in March confidently predicted she wouldn't be indicted?  Or that a few days before the announcement AG Loretta Lynch had a tête-à-tête with Bill Clinton, something she knew was inappropriate, but meaningless if the decision had already been made?  Or that Lynch's pledge to follow the FBI's recommendation was empty if she already knew what the recommendation would be?  Or that Hillary and Obama had scheduled their first joint campaign appearance on the same day of the announcement?  You don't have to be a grassy-knoll obsessive to smell something fishy, particularly give the 25-year history of Clintonian skullduggery, lies, and manipulation of the law.

Clinton cleared on email scandal by FBI — despite sending and receiving top-secret information on a server which was 'possibly' hacked by America's enemies.  FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday that the FBI will not recommend federal prosecution of Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server to store what turned out to be thousands of classified documents in her emails.  The U.S. Justice Department has the final say, but Attorney General Loretta Lynch said last week that she 'fully expects' to act on whatever the FBI recommends.  The FBI doesn't expect any criminal charges to result, Comey said.  'We are expressing to the Department of Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case,' he said.

MSNBC Editor Spins: 'Hard for Anybody to Agree' That 'The System Is Rigged' After Today.  Reacting to FBI Director James Comey's announcement on Tuesday that he has not recommended charges against Hillary Clinton for her private e-mail servers scandal, MSNBC and NBC News senior political editor Beth Fouhy decried the idea that anyone should still be arguing that "the system is rigged" now that Comey revealed Clinton won't face charges.  Fouhy was speaking live on MSNBC to host Tamron Hall when she prefaced one of many comments she made during the hour about how she doesn't think "Bernie Sanders supporters are going to make a big issue of this, but Republicans certainly will" because "[l]egally, yes, she's out of the woods, she is not out of the woods politically on this at all."

The Most Frightening Political Fix.  Today we have witnessed a most frightening manifestation of the corruption of our political system.  Doubly frightening because of what it augurs for all our futures if Hillary Clinton should prevail in the November elections. [...] We knew they could fix the Department of Justice; we suspected they could fix the FBI.  What we didn't know was that the fixes would be this transparent: the secret meeting with a chief culprit and the DOJ head; the next day announcement by Justice that the Clinton bribery investigations would be postponed until well after the election; the suspiciously brief FBI interrogation of the former Secretary of State who during her entire tenure had recklessly breached national security protocols, deleted 30,000 emails; burned her government schedules; put top secret information onto a hackable server in violation of federal law; and topping it all the failure of the FBI director after enumerating her reckless acts to recommend a prosecution — all within a single week, and just in time for the Democrats' nominating convention.  It was, all in all, the most breathtaking fix in American history.

Why Comey's Statement is Actually the Best Outcome.  [FBI Director James] Comey stated that she had broken the law and outlined how she had.  The world knows now irrefutably that Clinton broke security laws.  They know that while she did not do so intentionally, that even the FBI has stated that her actions as a very high ranking official in our country were "Grossly Negligent".  At the same time that Comey passed the buck on indicting Clinton and even went so far as to not recommend it, he has destroyed a good portion of her credibility.  What can be said about the capability of a presidential candidate when they can't even handle emails properly — something that is day one kind of stuff.  Clinton has been judged many times in her capacity and many times has the verdict been that she lacks competency and temperament to be our president.  This is just one more in a long line of Clinton's proven blunders.

FBI Director Comey Lied and He Should Resign Today.  The Director of the FBI just stood up and told America that nobody at the Department of Justice knew what he was about to recommend.  He said that President Obama didn't know.  He said he was being "unusually transparent" in his remarks.  He lied through his teeth and should resign today.

FBI: Yes, Queen Hillary Broke The Law.  No, She Won't Be Prosecuted.  Just days after the Attorney General of the United States Loretta Lynch held a secret meeting aboard a plane with former President Bill Clinton — whose wife was under FBI investigation; just the day after Hillary leaked that she'd want Lynch for her own administration; just hours after the President of the United States Barack Obama flew Hillary — still under FBI investigation — down to North Carolina on Air Force One; just two hours before Obama was to open his campaign on behalf of Hillary Clinton, FBI Director James Comey announced that while Hillary Clinton had clearly engaged in criminal activity worthy of prosecution, he had recommended that she not be prosecuted.

Ryan: Not Charging Hillary Sets 'Terrible Precedent'.  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said that with the FBI's decision not to recommend charges for Hillary Clinton over her private email server, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law."  "While I respect the law enforcement professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation.  No one should be above the law," Ryan said.  "But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law."

FBI Rewrites Federal Law to Let Hillary Off the Hook.  There is no way of getting around this:  According to Director James Comey (disclosure: a former colleague and longtime friend of mine), Hillary Clinton checked every box required for a felony violation of Section 793(f) of the federal penal code (Title 18):  With lawful access to highly classified information she acted with gross negligence in removing and causing it to be removed it from its proper place of custody, and she transmitted it and caused it to be transmitted to others not authorized to have it, in patent violation of her trust.  Director Comey even conceded that former Secretary Clinton was "extremely careless" and strongly suggested that her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services.  Yet, Director Comey recommended against prosecution of the law violations he clearly found on the ground that there was no intent to harm the United States.  In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require.  The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense:  The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing.  The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant.  People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence.

Comey: FBI Recommends No Charges Against Hillary Clinton.  The FBI will not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for activities related to her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday.  Comey said Clinton had engaged in "extremely careless" behavior but that "no charges are appropriate."  Comey spoke just three days after the FBI had interviewed Clinton.  The decision removes what could have put Clinton in a nearly impossible situation — even for the Clintons:  Running for president while under indictment.

Hillary Clinton's email problems might be even worse than we thought.  FBI Director James B. Comey dismantled large portions of Clinton's long-told story about her private server and what she sent or received on it during a stirring 15-minute news conference, after which he took no questions.  While Comey exonerated Clinton, legally speaking, he provided huge amounts of fodder that could badly hamstring her in the court of public opinion.  Most importantly, Comey said the FBI found 110 emails on Clinton's server that were classified at the time they were sent or received.  That stands in direct contradiction to Clinton's repeated insistence she never sent or received any classified emails.  And it even stands in contrast to her amended statement that she never knowingly sent or received any classified information.

FBI recommends no criminal charges in Clinton email probe.  FBI Director James B. Comey said Tuesday that his agency will not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state but called Clinton and her staff "extremely careless" in handling classified material.  The announcement was stunning both for the level of detail Comey provided about an investigation that he ultimately believes should conclude without charges, and for the fact that the FBI director publicized his guidance before federal prosecutors had reached a final determination.

State Dept Spox Confronted on FBI Findings:  Is There 'Lax Culture' on Classified Material?  State Department spokesman John Kirby got confronted by a number of reporters at today's briefing after the FBI concluded from its Hillary Clinton investigation there was a carelessness at State when it came to classified material.  One reporter asked if Kirby agrees with James Comey's assessment that State was "extremely careless."  Kirby said "we're always looking for ways to improve," but objected to the idea there is a "lax culture" at the department.  The reporter followed up, "How many hundreds would you need to be lax, in your opinion?" Kirby dodged the question.

FBI: Everything Hillary Said About Emails Was a Lie.  But No Prosecution.  FBI director James Comey announced on Tuesday morning that he would not be recommending that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton be prosecuted for mis-handling classified information.  But in the course of his presentation, he demonstrated that literally everything she and her campaign had told America about her email servers was a complete lie. [...] If anything demonstrates intent, it is surely Clinton's repeated evasion of the law, and her constant lies and cover-ups.  But the Department of Justice will certainly decline to prosecute, meaning that only the voters can keep Hillary Clinton out of office.

FBI Says Hillary Clinton Claim on Reading Emails Was False.  The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's email uncovered evidence that her spokesman gave reporters false information in 2015 about the process lawyers used to sort personal emails prior to deletion.  Clinton press secretary Nick Merrill previously told TIME that her attorneys had individually read every email to determine if it was a government document or personal correspondence.  "Every one of the more than 60,000 emails were read.  Period," Merrill wrote in one email to a TIME reporter dated March 14, 2015.  The FBI concluded that this claim was false.

Clinton receives a political indictment, if not a formal one.  Hillary Clinton dodged a fatal bullet to her presidential aspirations on Tuesday, avoiding a federal criminal indictment recommendation from the FBI over her handling of top-secret information while secretary of state.  But much of what originally elevated a story over her private e-mail use into national controversy was reinforced in a statement by FBI director James Comey, when he cast Clinton and her aides as "extremely careless" in their digital handling of classified material, both at home and abroad.

FBI: Hillary Clinton Broke the Law, We Just Don't Really Care.  The FBI inquiry into the Clinton email scandal came to an ignoble end Tuesday in a manner that few could have predicted: one of the nation's highest-ranking civilian law enforcement officers laying out for a full ten minutes all the evidence indicating that a Secretary of State broke the law, followed by the Shyamalanian twist that he didn't believe said Secretary should be prosecuted.  And yes, by any straightforward interpretation, Hillary Clinton broke the law.  The law bans negligently hosting classified information in an unauthorized location.  By FBI Director James B. Comey's account, Clinton stored information on her private email server that any State employee — let alone the Department head — would have known immediately known was highly-classified top secret information.  More to the point, despite Clinton's frequent protestations to the contrary, he confirmed that some of those emails were indeed marked classified at the time.

Hillary Clinton may not get off scot-free after all.  Hillary Clinton won't face criminal charges for what FBI Director James Comey described as "extremely careless" handling of classified information, but she might not be entirely out of the woods.  "To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences," Comey told reporters on Tuesday [7/5/2016].  "To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions.  But that is not what we are deciding now."

The Day the Rule of Law Died.  And so once again the leading crime family in America skates, thumbing its nose at the rule of law as an earnest but politically clueless FBI director stands before the nation to repeat the well-worn Clinton mantra of "insufficient evidence," and to attribute to Hillary another shopworn cliche that the Clintons habitually use in their defense: sloppiness.  In other words, it was a judgment call by James Comey.  After laying out clear proof that Mrs. Clinton violated both the letter and the spirit of the law, he essentially punted by saying this is not the kind of case a reasonable prosecutor would make.  Of course it isn't — not if that prosecutor wants to both keep his job and stay above ground.

Sanders supporters melt down over FBI's Clinton decision.  It's not only Donald Trump and Republicans expressing their indignation at the FBI's decision not to recommend charges against Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified materials on a private email server.  The Tuesday announcement also set off a torrent of anger and frustration among some of Bernie Sanders' most diehard supporters, a vocal minority who have been agitating for an indictment of the former secretary of state in the hopes it would vault the Vermont senator to the Democratic nomination.

Comey speaks: Hillary skates!  FBI Director James Comey just addressed the nation for 15 minutes, announcing the conclusions of the Bureau's investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server.  Despite lots of critical references to her practices, the FBI is not recommending prosecution by the Justice Department.

FBI's Comey:  Clinton 'extremely careless' about emails, but bureau will not advise criminal charges.  FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday [7/5/2016] that despite evidence Hillary Clinton was "extremely careless" in her handling of classified emails on a private server, the bureau will not recommend to the Department of Justice that criminal charges be brought against the former secretary of state.  "Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case," Comey said.

Republicans demand FBI release investigative files on Hillary Clinton.  Top Republicans said Tuesday that the FBI needs to release details of its investigative files on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if it wants voters to accept its conclusion that her carelessness with top secret information doesn't rise to the level of a prosecutable crime.  House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said FBI Director James Comey's decision not to recommend prosecution "defies explanation," and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Mr. Comey needs to do more to convince Americans he made the right call.