Comey Acknowledges Investigation Into Whether FBI Was Also Colluding With Trump Campaign

As noted in my prior post, James Comey is testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee today. He has already been pinned down by Diane Feinstein and Patrick Leahy about his decision to reveal the investigation into the Abedin emails just 11 days before the election and his answer to that critical question is simply not credible.

But he is also made news saying that the FBI is investigating whether the existence of the Abedin emails was leaked to the Trump campaign, and specifically Rudy Giuliani, before his ill-advised letter. Giuliani told reporters after the existence of the emails was revealed that he had known about them beforehand and some of his statements to the press before Comey’s letter hinted that he knew that a bombshell about Clinton was about to drop. There were unsubstantiated reports that Giuliani had been fed the information by agents in the FBI’s New York field office, where he has maintained a number of close contacts. In addition, other unsubstantiated reports claimed that Comey sent the letter to Congress specifically because he was essentially being blackmailed by those New York agents who threatened to go public with the information if he didn’t. And it is believed that Fox’s Brett Baier’s report in the last week of the campaign saying that Clinton would likely be indicted in a “pay-to-play” scheme at the Clinton Foundation, that new emails with possible classified information have been found among the Abedin emails, and that Hillary’s email had almost assuredly been hacked at least five foreign intelligence services had been based on Giuliani as a source who was passing on what he knew from those New York FBI agents. Baier had to almost immediately walk those accusations back, but that report certainly fed into the narrative about Clinton immediately before the election.

Patrick Leahy asked Comey if the FBI was investigating possible leaks to the Trump campaign and Comey replied, “Correct”, adding “If I find out that people were leaking information about our investigations, whether to reporters or to private parties, there will be severe consequences”. Comey assured that he would let the committee know the results of the investigation but did not promise to make the result public.

As with everything Comey, there are a number of problems here. First, should we really be relying on the FBI to investigate itself, especially in light of the partisan decisions that Comey made in the run-up to this election. More shockingly, Comey is admitting that there is an open investigation into whether the FBI was also colluding with the Trump campaign in the same way as the Russians. If this turns out to be true, not only would it show that the FBI has become a rogue agency under Comey’s watch, it would be an unbelievable subversion of our democracy. It would almost literally be an American coup. And, again, Comey’s prior actions give us no confidence he will lead a thorough investigation into this, especially when he will not agree to make the results public.