For a guy who likes to toot his own horn (going so far as to call his book, “A Higher Loyalty”), James Comey sure seems to have a difficult time staying on the right side of the law. After being investigated for leaks already once, Comey is once again under federal investigation for the same crime. This time, the investigation centers around information Comey might have dispersed to the media in 2017 about a classified Russian document that cast doubt on the impartiality of Obama’s Attorney General, Loretta Lynch.
From The New York Times:
Federal prosecutors in Washington are investigating a years-old leak of classified information about a Russian intelligence document, and they appear to be focusing on whether the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey illegally provided details to reporters, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
Law enforcement officials are scrutinizing at least two news articles about the F.B.I. and Mr. Comey, published in The New York Times and The Washington Post in 2017, that mentioned the Russian government document, according to the people familiar with the investigation. Hackers working for Dutch intelligence officials obtained the document and provided it to the F.B.I., and both its existence and the collection of it were highly classified secrets, the people said.
The document played a key role in Mr. Comey’s decision to sideline the Justice Department and announce in July 2016 that the F.B.I. would not recommend that Hillary Clinton face charges in her use of a private email server to conduct government business while secretary of state.
According to the Times, the leak hearkens back to material that was nabbed from Russian computers in 2016. That material apparently included an email exchange between Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the then-chairman of the DNC, and Leonard Bernardo, a George Soros lackey who worked with the Open Society Foundation. In their conversation, Wasserman Schultz assured Bernardo that Hillary Clinton would be safe from prosecution because Loretta Lynch would never recommend that charges be brought against her. This document apparently played into Comey’s decision to take the decision away from Lynch and recommend, himself, that no charges be brought against Clinton.
Bizarrely, the Times tells us that “American officials at the time did not believe that Ms. Lynch would hinder the Clinton email investigation.” Clearly, at least one American official thought it was a possibility. At the very least, Comey was concerned that Lynch’s politically conflicted position would make Americans skeptical about whether true justice was served in the Clinton case. As it happened, taking the decision away from her didn’t really help matters.
In any event, the crux of the investigation is not whether or not Hillary Clinton got away with a crime but whether or not James Comey did. In an administration that is rightfully concerned about the dangerous effects of reckless leaks, Comey may have to pay the piper.
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