It's All About Russia In Another Crazy Day In Election 2016

Another crazy day in an election that has seen almost every norm associated with our democracy basically torn asunder. CNBC reported and other media outlets have confirmed that FBI Director Comey refused to allow the FBI to sign on to the statement made by two other US intelligence agencies confirming that the Russians were responsible for the hacking of Democratic officials’ emails in an attempt to influence the US elections. At least part of the reason that Comey provided for not signing on to the statement was the he did not want to be seen as influencing election. Needless to say, the Clinton campaign immediately complained of a “blatant double standard” in withholding this information while making public the existence of a potential new batch of emails that might or might not be relevant to Hillary’s email issue with his vague and ill-advised letter.

Comey has only himself to blame for the abuse he is taking. He had to know that this is what would happen when he sent that letter. Yes, he may have satisfied his vaunted personal integrity by following up on his original error in agreeing to provide details and updates of his investigation to Congress. But all that did was call his integrity into question for every other investigation related to Trump and Clinton that he has not discussed.  With the FBI and DOJ leaking constantly now, you have to wonder how long Comey can stay in his current job. It looks like he has lost complete control of the agency.

Meanwhile, as expected, more damaging information about Trump emerged. First, there was a report on a physical connection between a Trump server in Trump tower and a Russian bank associated with Vladimir Putin, as all Russian banks are. Analysis of the traffic between the two serves shows spikes in activity that matched critical points during the election campaign. When the Trump campaign and the Russian bank were queried about this connection, it abruptly shut down. The NY Times then reported that the FBI had looked into this connection in connection with their probe into financial connections between the Trump campaign and Russia and dismissed it.

Mother Jones then reported that a senior intelligence source had passed on information to the FBI that the Russians had been cultivating Trump for years and had perhaps been able to blackmail him because of activities that occurred when Trump visited Moscow in association with the Miss Universe. Finally, NBC News reported that the FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s foreign business connections, especially Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.

Is that enough for one day? It’s pretty clear that the idea that this crazy campaign would end without just a little more insanity is just wishful thinking. None of this will probably effect the election in any meaningful way but the news about Comey’s concern for influencing the election gives the Clinton campaign another opportunity to make Comey the story rather than the emails.