There is only one explanation for why FBI Director James Comey violated Department of Justice policies in releasing a letter to the Congress regarding Secretary Clinton ten days before the election. It is the same reason why he violated FBI norms by not making a private recommendation to the DOJ regarding the results of the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s emails, after which the DOJ would make an announcement regarding its decision as to whether to prosecute. Instead he usurped the DOJ’s authority and issued a public statement regarding the results of the FBI’s investigation of Clinton. And then he went beyond merely publicizing his recommendation by passing judgment on Secretary Clinton’s actions in a moralistic and highly unprofessional manner which is totally beyond the bounds of the role of a prosecutor.
Those two actions make clear that he desperately wanted to be able to recommend the prosecution of Hillary Clinton and see her indicted and that since he was unable to do so he did the next best thing. He castigated her in both his public statement and his testimony before Congress trying to present everything she had done in its worst light and trying to minimize the fact that she wasn't prosecuted. And when that was not enough to derail her campaign he decided to smear her again in a letter that contained no actual allegations, let alone facts, but was clearly designed to imply some sort of criminal wrongdoing.
Comey has a reputation as a “Boy Scout.” He may be that when it comes to some issues but he is clearly not impartial or professional when it comes to Hillary Clinton. The facts revealed in the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton's handling of emails clearly indicate there was not even the remotest chance of a prosecution and even Comey admitted as much when he said that no reasonable prosecutor familiar with the facts would bring an indictment.
But even if he had not said so the absence of evidence was clear. There were no emails in her possession that had been classified and properly marked as classified when she had them. There were a few emails regarding telephone calls she was to make to foreign leaders that someone may have intended to be classified as "confidential" but the markings were not in accordance with classification rules. There were documents in her possession that were not classified when she received or sent them but with which some federal agency subsequently thought should have been classified. Moreover, even if there were classified documents in her possession there was no evidence that any of these documents were given by Hillary Clinton to any person not authorized to receive classified documents. Finally, there was absolutely no evidence of any intent on the part of Hillary Clinton to handle classified documents in an inappropriate manner.
In passing it should be noted that it is absolutely irrelevant to this discussion whether or not Hillary conducted her business through a State Department email address or a Yahoo address or her own Clinton address. In all instances all of those servers would not have been authorized to handle classified information. Every State Department employee including Hillary Clinton, has an unclassified email address to handle unclassified material and uses a separate State Department classified system when dealing with classified emails. The inquiry that has been made regarding Hillary’s use of a so called “private server” could be made regarding every State Department employee and their use of the unclassified State Department email system. If Hillary had used a State Department email address we would be experiencing the same investigation and its parameters would be no different.
When Comey’s investigator’s told him there was no basis to recommend an indictment Comey knew he was not in a position to overrule them even though he may have tried. At that point, in the normal course of business Comey would have provided the results of the FBI’s investigation in private to the Department of Justice and the Department would have made a decision as to whether or not to prosecute. The Department of Justice would then have probably announce that decision publicly.
But since Comey wanted so desperately to bring an indictment and since he knew he couldn't, he did the best thing he could to try to derail Clinton's candidacy. He issued a public statement, that was followed by public testimony, in which he slandered Sec. Clinton and painted her in the worst light possible. Unfortunately for him, his smear job did not have the desired effect.
But he got a second bite at the apple. When he learned that there may be Clinton related emails on a computer belonging to Anthony Weiner, and it was theoretically possible that those emails may have at one time been sent or received by Hillary Clinton, and there was even the slightest of possibilities that those emails may not already have been looked at in the FBI's already exhaustive review, and it was not totally impossible that one of those emails may contain classified information, and it was possible to hypothesize that one such email may have been classified properly at the time it was in the possession of Hillary Clinton, he decided to notify the Congress that he was going to be doing something regarding the Clinton investigation. He didn't specify what that something was and clearly he couldn't because he didn't have a factual basis for anything that he was doing, but he did know that by sending that notification it could do nothing but potentially harm Sec. Clinton's candidacy.
We do not know why James Comey is so indignant at the prospect that Hillary Clinton might be elected President of the United States that he violates Justice Department and FBI policies on multiple occasions in an effort to undermine Secretary Clinton's campaign. But that indignation has driven him to use every means at his disposal to interfere with the outcome of an election. He is not fit to serve as the director of the FBI.
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