ROBERT A. GEORGE
November 7, 2016
Regardless of who is elected President Tuesday, one thing is guaranteed: That person will be in the market for a new FBI director next year.
The current one forfeited his job by injecting himself into the presidential race for the second time in nine days.
Yes, Sunday's letter essentially exonerated Hillary Clinton — again — on the issue of mishandling classified emails.
Yeah, that removed the cloud Comey had put over the campaign with his Friday, Oct. 28, letter to Congress announcing the investigation into Anthony Weiner's sexting had discovered State Department emails on Weiner's laptop.
Sorry, Jim, no 11th hour backsies! Not all statements are of equal impact.
Sure, the Clinton campaign will take the good news — but the damage was done.
Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg told The Washington Post last week, before Comey's first letter, "We were heading towards a consolidation of the Democratic vote for her and down-ballot, and Trump voters were becoming more demoralized. Our tracking had crossed into her voters being more interested in the election than Trump voters were."
In short, not only did the first letter hurt Clinton, it also impaired the Democrats' drive to taking the Senate and destroyed any small chance at winning the House.
More significantly, it exposed a troubling civil war within the bureau.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani essentially admitted that he had advance knowledge that the Comey letter was coming — apparently from FBI agents (Giuliani later tried to walk back the claim, saying he was only talking to former agents.)
That, in turn, launched a host of leaks — including the later-retracted Fox News report that indictments of the Clinton Foundation were imminent.
All this broke just as early voting was hitting its peak. Those are days the Clinton campaign can't get back.
While the Trump camp happily took all the bad news coming from the first Comey letter, the new one gives Clinton a last-minute boost — and the bragging billionaire another talking point: The FBI coming to Hillary's aid proves the system is rigged — as he's been saying all along.
There's a reason Justice Department protocol advises against making any major announcements impacting a campaign within 60 days of Election Day: It introduced too much chaos, uncertainty and unfairness as voters are making up their minds.
Comey violated protocol twice in the closing moments — inviting major scrutiny of his agency, no matter who the next President is.
He will — and should — be asked for his resignation.
FBI must be purged of all right leaning agents.
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