Post Story On Russian Hacking Makes Comey's Actions More Egregious

A couple of quick comments on the Washington Post story that Russia’s hacking efforts during the campaign were designed to get Donald Trump elected. I don’t think that particular finding is news to anyone. What is more interesting is that in early October, the intelligence community briefed Congressional leaders in an attempt to get a bipartisan consensus to advise state and local election authorities to use federal help in protecting against intrusions by Russian hackers. One of the attendees at that meeting was none other than James Comey. In that meeting, Democrats were united in supporting the idea as were other Republicans. But Mitch McConnell did not think the evidence warranted such a move and essentially threatened to call any action to challenge the Russians publicly on their hacking on act of pure partisanship. No bipartisan statement was ever made. And, despite pressure from the Clinton campaign and Congressional Democrats, Obama held off on any public characterization of the Russian hacking as being specifically designed to help Trump, specifically not releasing the conclusions of certain intelligence agencies.

A number of points need to made on this issue. First, it once again shows that McConnell will pretty much do anything to help Republicans get elected. And it once again shows that Democrats refuse to play the same kind of hardball the GOP is playing and, once again, it has cost them dearly as Republicans will control all three branches of government. Obama and the Democrats could have gone forward with a bipartisan statement that included the Republican members who agreed with the need for a statement and left McConnell to hang out there on his own. But instead they caved. Lastly, and most importantly, it clearly shows the total duplicity and partisanship of James Comey. Well before he sent that infamous letter about Huma Abedin’s email, he was in a meeting of Congressional leaders where a decision was made to keep intelligence information hidden from the American public in order to avoid the appearance of influencing the election. He was advised by his superiors in the DOJ that his letter would be a clear violation of policy and would, in fact, be interfering in the election. Even, so, with the full knowledge that the Obama administration was withholding intelligence information that indicated the Russians were hacking the US election in order to help Donald Trump exactly because that information might look partisan, he unilaterally decided that he would violate the principle and influence the election FOR Donald Trump. Knowing this now makes Comey’s actions even more egregious than they already were.

Lastly, the Trump transition team responded to this article by saying, “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again,’ ”. I really don’t think it is a good idea to be publicly insulting the intelligence community when you are the President and especially if you are Donald Trump. Because, while the media and the public may be in no position to find out what kind of deals Trump might be making to line his own pockets while President, those same intelligence agencies are probably the only ones who can.  And even when you don’t have the massive conflicts that Trump has as President, the intelligence community can still make life difficult for a President they are not too happy with.