Happy Halloween, gentle readers! With the U.S. election just one week away, we have a roundup of spooky reads for you — just don’t read them via your private email server! As always, please let us know what you’re reading with a link (or three) in the comments.
‘The George W. Bush White House ‘Lost’ 22 Million Emails‘ (Newsweek)
On Friday, the latest chapter in the email saga that just won’t die dropped — timing that was, to say the least, rather absurd, as it’s unclear what could be so critical that it necessitated public revelation 11 days before the election. When you dig a little deeper, though, the fuss over Secretary Clinton’s email just gets more bizarre. The newest revelation? Republicans are engaging in rank hypocrisy when they criticise her for her use of a private email server, given that President George W. Bush evidently did the same thing without comment.
Like Clinton, the Bush White House used a private email server—its was owned by the Republican National Committee. And the Bush administration failed to store its emails, as required by law, and then refused to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking some of those emails. ‘It’s about as amazing a double standard as you can get,’ says Eric Boehlert, who works with the pro-Clinton group Media Matters. ‘If you look at the Bush emails, he was a sitting president, and 95 percent of his chief advisers’ emails were on a private email system set up by the RNC. Imagine if for the last year and a half we had been talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails set up on a private DNC server?’
‘Can the FBI Sway an Election?‘ (The Atlantic)
What was so very important that the FBI had to announce that it was delving back into the endless dispute over Secretary Clinton’s email, even though the matter has been investigated, done, and dusted on multiple occasions? It’s a legitimate question when we’re talking about an investigation the FBI itself admits wouldn’t be concluded by election day anyway — especially when Donald Trump’s multiple pending legal proceedings have been pushed off to later in November and even December to avoid influencing the election.
Democrats are already saying Comey has acted irresponsibly. In a statement, Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, argued that ‘the director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining.’ At least one group, which is associated with the anti-Trump Keep America Great PAC, announced that it filed a complaint about Comey with the Department of Justice. ‘It is an obvious attack from a lifelong Republican who used to serve in the Bush White House, just to undermine her campaign,’ said Scott Dworkin, an adviser to the PAC, in an emailed statement from the group.
‘James Comey Broke with Loretta Lynch and Justice Department Tradition‘ (The New Yorker)
Did Comey overreach in his attempt to seem tough but fair, nonpartisan, and above it all? Many critics think so, including people both in and outside of the government agencies that make decisions about how and when to pursue prosecutions and investigations. Releasing vague, unsubstantiated information about an investigation that has yet to be conducted right before an election has a chilling effect not just on the candidate, but others in the party. Donald Trump has spent months screaming about a ‘rigged election,’ but did the FBI just rig the election?
Four years ago, then Attorney General Eric Holder formalized this practice in a memo to all Justice Department employees. The memo warned that, when handling political cases, officials ‘must be particularly sensitive to safeguarding the Department’s reputation for fairness, neutrality, and nonpartisanship.’ To guard against unfair conduct, Holder wrote, employees facing questions about ‘the timing of charges or overt investigative steps near the time of a primary or general election’ should consult with the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division.
‘James Comey needs to explain what’s going on‘ (Vox)
In the midst of dropping a letter he knew would be leaked, Comey has yet to come forward in public and articulate a clear case for his actions, which at this point is pretty much required. If his findings were so critically revelatory that they merited immediate investigation and communication with Congress, the desire for confidentiality during the investigation has to be balanced against clear public interest. Either this was so important that Congress needed to know immediately, in which case so does the U.S. public, or it was a trivial finding that merited some further investigation before putting the matter to bed, in which case why was it dropped within just days of the election?
Having waded this far into this, Comey owes us a clearer account of what’s going on. Is it true the new information comes from Weiner’s phone? Why did the FBI decide to pivot the Weiner investigation in this direction in the first place? What, exactly, is the bureau investigating? How long is it expected to take? This is not the kind of information the FBI normally reveals about an ongoing investigation. But the FBI director also doesn’t normally slag people with negative commentary in press conferences nominally dedicated to announcing their exoneration. Comey is not a partisan hack, but he’s also not a political naif.
‘FBI says emails found in Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal may have links to Clinton probe ‘ (The Los Angeles Times)
With the dream of the White House all but lost to Republicans, most are focusing on attempting to hold Congress, and recent revelations could be a present in the laps of Republicans struggling in downticket races. Nothing unites the American electorate like hating Secretary Clinton, and the email nontroversy has proved to be a popular stick with which to beat her — expect it to come up a lot this week as people race to the wire.
Unless the fresh FBI review leads to new evidence of actual wrongdoing by Clinton, it may not substantially change the contours of a presidential race in which Clinton is polling far ahead, and at least 17 million Americans have already cast their ballots through early voting. But it could provide a badly needed boost to congressional Republicans. Antipathy toward Clinton is the issue that most unites the party.
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