James Comey Considered Requesting a Special Counsel Investigation Into AG Loretta Lynch

I’m going to give former FBI Director James Comey some latitude he has not been receiving since the unveiling of the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on Thursday.

What the report revealed is that as director, James Comey did the wrong thing. He neglected to follow protocol and keep Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the loop, as far as the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server and her handling of classified information.

Do I think an attorney general as biased and corrupted as Loretta Lynch would do the right thing with the information?

I do not.

That being said, it wasn’t Comey’s place to keep the information from her. If he followed the proper protocol, did exactly as the job dictated, we may be having a very different conversation today. Who knows?

Was it an offense that warranted him losing his job? That is up for debate, but the facts are, an incoming president doesn’t need a reason. The office of director of the FBI is a position that is subject to the discretion of the president.

Where Comey’s firing becomes sketchy is that Trump seemed prepared to keep Comey, until he failed the loyalty test.

Trump’s team gave a perfectly acceptable reason for Comey’s firing – the handling of the Clinton email scandal – but Trump immediately cut the legs from under his own people when he told NBC’s Lester Holt that Comey was fired because of the Russia probe.

That’s how you get an obstruction investigation.

Everything that went on with the Clinton email scandal was chaotic, and whether there was anything there that warranted she be “locked up” or not seemed unreachable, given the actions of House Democrats, as well as witnesses in the investigation.

In a report being discussed today, it appears that James Comey had his own doubts about the way the investigation was going and had considered taking steps to do more.

Tucked away within the Inspector General report is this nugget:

Former FBI Director James Comey considered requesting a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server after receiving “highly classified information” alleging “partisan bias or attempts to impede” the probe by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Comey discussed a possible special counsel with then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in April 2016, just months before the email probe ended, according to a Justice Department inspector general report released Thursday.

This was also before Loretta Lynch’s tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton – to discuss the grandkids.

As FBI director, Comey did not have the authority to appoint a special counsel. That lies with the attorney general, so how likely do you think it is that Loretta Lynch would appoint a special counsel to investigate herself?

While not clear what was done, but Comey noted what he saw as an “adrenaline injection” in the DOJ, after speaking with Yates.

We’re also not hearing what that intelligence regarding Loretta Lynch may have been. All we’re being told at this point is that it was deemed “noncredible” and Comey feared it being made public.

Discussion of a special counsel came as the probe was reaching its conclusion, and was motivated by an array of factors, Comey told the inspector general’s office, including his frustration at the pace of acquiring two laptops from Clinton associates.

Comey’s discussion of a possible special counsel occurred approximately three months before Lynch’s widely criticized tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton and months after she requested that he use the term “matter” rather than investigation.

Was there bias in the Justice Department? I wouldn’t want to color the entire DOJ that way, but it certainly seems that at least the attorney general was on board with protecting Hillary Clinton.

It was that perception from many of us in the public, that Lynch was a dirty partisan player, that prompted Comey to go around her and take it upon himself to announce that July what was found about the emails, and to recommend no criminal charges.

The former FBI director told the inspector general’s office he floated a special counsel to Yates because he was concerned in part about “the appearance of political bias” within the Justice Department, particularly as the 2016 political party conventions neared.

Comey told the office that the FBI “obtained highly classified information in March 2016 that included allegations of partisan bias or attempts to impede the [Clinton email] investigation by Lynch.”

He went on to say that they deemed the information they were receiving as noncredible, when it also asserted, among other things, that he (Comey) was actively trying to help the Republicans.

Well, there’s a funny twist.

“However, Comey said that he became concerned that the information about Lynch would taint the public’s perception of the [Clinton email] investigation if it leaked, particularly after DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 began releasing hacked emails in mid-June 2016. Despite these concerns, Comey told the OIG that it did not occur to him to request a special counsel in late 2015, after Lynch’s instruction to use the term ‘matter’ or former President Obama’s public comments about the investigation… because Comey was satisfied with the nature and the quality of the investigation being conducted by the FBI,” the report said.

Sally Yates told the Inspector General that she was surprised by Comey’s suggestion that a special counsel may be in order, and Lynch, herself, says she doesn’t recall ever hearing that Comey ever suggested it.

I guess at this point, we can’t know if the information Comey got actually was credible. Too much has happened and there have been too many missteps. Anything else is a shadow, and Clinton, Lynch, and so many within that tight cabal may have gotten away with corruption that absolutely should have been prosecuted.