Did James Comey Affect the Election?

Did James Comey Affect the Election? April 23, 2017

FBI-DirectorJamesComeyI posted a lot about the U.S. presidential campaign last year and then the election. But since then, I have tried to avoid posting about politics. I was shocked when FBI director James Comey announced last month that, back in the Fall of 2015, the FBI began to suspect that the Russians had been trying to influence our presidential election in order to help get Trump elected. Then Comey admitted that last summer, the FBI started an investigation into whether or not Trump campaign associates had made contacts with Russian government officials or operatives in order to do the same. That revelation by the director caused me to distrust him because he told Congress a few weeks after the FBI opened that investigation of the Trump campaign that the FBI was reopening its case against Democratic contender Hilary Clinton concerning whether or not she had committed a crime about using her own server for her emails that contained classified government information. Comey had closed that case by deciding that Clinton had not committed a crime. And at that time, Congress asked Comey if he had an investigation of the Trump campaign regarding Russia, and he refused to comment. Indeed, it is the policy of the FBI to not comment on its investigations or even admit if it has a certain investigation. So, it seemed to me that Director Comey had committed duplicity by going public concerning Hilary Clinton and keeping quiet concerning Donald Trump.

Ever since Director Comey made this revelation in March this year about the investigation of the Trump campaign, I have wondered why the media had not been saying anything about this. Well, today they did. The New York Times has lengthy, feature article about it entitled “Trying to Avoid Politics, Comey Shaped Election.” I think he sure did. People who know James Comey well say that although he is a Republican, as director of the FBI he is apolitical and independent. Right before he told Congress about reopening the Clinton email investigation, he had a meeting with his agents and others. He decided there that he would tell Congress the FBI had reopened the Clinton case. One of those present in the meeting then asked Director Comey about doing this yet refraining from telling Congress that it had had an investigation about possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government to get Trump elected. Comey responded by saying to reveal this about the Trump campaign would be political and that the FBI ought not to do that. To me, that’s warped thinking. The end result was that it seemed to me unfair to Clinton to do that and not do the same about Trump. I think admitting that FBI had an investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Rusian government officials would have caused a significant number of voters to be swayed away from voting for Trump.


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