By now, you’ve probably heard some news about a bewildering letter sent to Congressional leaders by the Director of the FBI. Republicans received their copy first. Congressional Democrats didn’t receive a copy until it Republicans had promulgated it on wrong-wing media sites.
This is all a bit confusing, and much of the reporting has been misleading or downright inaccurate, so I want to take a minute to walk through this. Bear with me!
Here’s the quick backstory: In July, FBI Director James Comey concluded a year-long investigation by deciding not to go forward with any case about Hillary’s emails. It wasn’t even a close call, he said. In his words, “no reasonable prosecutor” would have brought charges.
In a surprise to us all, Comey wrote a very strange letter to Congress that was long on innuendo and short on facts. He said that in a completely separate investigation, the FBI had found some emails that may or may not be related to Hillary, and indeed may or may not be significant at all.
With so much confusion emanating from FBI Director James Comey’s vague and unprecedented letter, and Republicans actively working to distort its contents, HFA National Press Secretary Brian Fallon explains what we actually know in a new video released Sunday. According to news reports yesterday, Director Comey wrote his letter before reviewing any of the emails to determine their relevance to Hillary Clinton. Other reports said senior officials at the Justice Department warned Director Comey that his letter would violate long standing department policy. Many other legal experts and prosecutors on both sides of the aisle don’t believe he should have taken this action. But, now that he has, the American people deserve all of the facts.
It has since been reported that these emails may not have even been sent by or to Hillary; that they are on a laptop for which Hillary has no access or control; that they have not read them as they haven’t yet sought a subpoena to allow them to be read; that they weren’t withheld by Hillary or the campaign in the earlier investigation; and most or even all of them may be duplicates of emails already in the FBI’s possession.
It’s being reported that Comey sent this letter over the objections of Department of Justice officials who told him that it was inconsistent with longstanding policy of both Democratic and Republican administrations not to take action that might impact an election. It’s an unprecedented intrusion into a close presidential election with a little over 8 days until Election Day.
But by being vague and obfuscating, Comey opened the door to conspiracy theories, Republican attacks against Hillary, and a surge of fundraising for Trump and his team. So this bears repeating: There is no evidence of wrongdoing, no charge of wrongdoing, and no indication that any of this even involves Hillary.
Voters deserve answers.
Comey needs to come clean with the American people about what he found and answer all the questions about why he took this unprecedented step less than two weeks before the election.
Here’s what this changes for you and this campaign: Absolutely nothing.
Trump has spent more than a year trying to bully his way to the presidency. He’s been browbeating the FBI (indeed, many have speculated that Comey took this extraordinary action in part to reduce the pressure on his agency that Trump’s campaign and his Republican Congressional allies has been building up), leading crowds in chants of “lock her up,” and even saying Hillary should be in prison — and if he won, he’d put her there.
The facts be damned — Trump’s always shown a complete disregard for the truth. In spite of there being no new information, he’s already raising money off the bizarre letter (he literally sent a text message asking for money within an hour of the story breaking!) and he’s more fired up than ever on the trail today.
These are the actions of a desperate man. Trump knows he can’t win on his character, temperament, or his policies. He’s behind, so he’ll cling to whatever he can.
So, no, our strategy doesn’t change. But our intensity needs to, because we can’t let him get away with this.
Our organizers and volunteers on the ground are rallying behind Hillary in what will be the biggest volunteer weekend of the campaign so far. You need to get her back, too. You need to say you’re not willing to let Trump bully or buy his way into the presidency, and you’re not going to let anything stop our candidate’s pursuit of the Presidency!
If you haven’t already done so, take advantage of the early voting schedule to cast your vote early. If that’s not possible, make sure you show up on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 and vote for Hillary Clinton for President, Catherine Cortez Masto for U.S. Senator from Nevada, and Chip Evans for U.S. House of Representatives from Nevada’s Congressional District #2.