Comey Must Provide More Information Immediately

The pressure on FBI James Comey to release more information about these new emails that may or may not be relevant to the Clinton email server investigation continues to mount. Both campaigns are demanding he provide more information. It appears that the FBI has not even begun to look at these emails and it is unknown what relevance they might have. If Comey thought that he could control the message about these emails by sending this cryptic letter to Congress, he was sadly mistaken. The FBI and the DOJ are apparently leaking like a sieve to reporters in an apparent attempt to “clarify” what the real situation is without making an official statement. According to those leaks, the emails were not sent by Hillary Clinton, were not sent from her email server, and may be entirely duplicative of other emails that have already been reviewed. Rather than controlling the message, Comey has unleashed a torrent of rumor, innuendo, and reporting from unnamed sources. That is hardly controlling the message.

Comey’s letter violated long-standing DOJ norms that consider the sensitivity of releasing any information near an election. It is being reported that Comey ignored Attorney General Lynch’s request that he abide by these norms. Additionally, the WSJ is reporting that the emails in question may have ALREADY been reviewed by the FBI in the earlier investigation. The most frustrating part of Comey’s letter is his statement that these emails “appear to be pertinent to the investigation” when it appears the FBI has no clue whether or not that is actually true. As Matthew Miller has pointed out, the job of the FBI is to investigate and pass on its findings to a prosecutor. It’s job is not to characterize their findings and comment about ongoing investigations. It is especially irresponsible to insinuate that new information has become available, which is what his letter does, when, in fact, it has yet to be determined whether any of that information is, in fact, new and relevant. At some point very soon, the FBI is going to have to come out and say what I presume Comey’s letter actually meant – that there is a new batch of emails that need to be reviewed in order to see if they are relevant and that the investigation of these emails will extend well beyond election day. To say nothing officially at this point, especially when information is constantly leaking, borders on the criminal.