Comey’s obligation
This election year has already had more “October surprises” than most voters can cope with. But who knew the ultimate one would come from the director of the FBI!
A deluge of hacked emails from Clinton confidantes — courtesy of WikiLeaks and no doubt the Russians — have for the past several weeks provided a window into Clinton Inc. — the one-hand-washes-the-other world that was the Clinton Foundation, its hangers-on, and its very powerful family member at the U.S. State Department.
But yesterday in a letter to congressional leaders FBI Director James Comey announced the reopening of its investigation, which probed Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and the use of that server to transmit classified information.
Comey told lawmakers that because of material unearthed in an “unrelated case” — now widely reported to be the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal — the agency recently “learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the Clinton investigation.”
Weiner is the now-estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who was questioned by the FBI in the earlier probe.
Comey in his earlier announcement closing that investigation found Clinton “extremely careless” in her handling of classified material, but not to the extent that it was done to obstruct justice.
“Although there is evidence of potential violations regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey said at the time.
The director has taken a good deal of heat since then — much of it partisan, but still some of it raising real issues about a double standard of justice when others have faced real punishment for far less. So now with some 10 days to go before election day Comey has gone to Congress with a letter that basically covers his butt but doesn’t provide any real information to anxious voters.
He has an obligation to be far more forthcoming sooner rather than later — as both presidential campaigns are urging. Voters have a right to know whether a woman they might send to the White House has new and incriminating baggage to deal with.