What the hell is going on at the FBI? James Comey the new J. Edgar Hoover

A look back to the 2016 campaign trail and that infamous 11th hour letter from James Comey to Congress regarding Hillary Clinton. Fast forward to today looking into the Trump Administration and the F.B.I. 

Director James Comey is right smack in the middle of both. Is Comey playing politics J.Edgar Hoover style?

James Comey’s 11th hour letter

FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress reporting a renewed look into emails that could be related to Hilary Clinton’s private server rocked the 2016 presidential race. My thoughts then were WOW! James Comey just pulled a J.Edger Hoover on Hillary Clinton. We all remember the details well.  Comey Letter on Clinton Email Is Subject of Justice Dept. Inquiry

Hillary Clinton cast blame for her surprise election loss on the announcement by the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, days before the election that he had revived the inquiry into her use of a private email server.

In her most extensive remarks, Mrs. Clinton told donors on a 30-minute conference call that Mr. Comey’s decision to send a letter to Congress about the inquiry 11 days before Election Day had thrust the controversy back into the news and had prevented her from ending the campaign with an optimistic closing argument. “There are lots of reasons why an election like this is not successful,” Mrs. Clinton said, according to a donor who relayed the remarks. But, she added, “our analysis is that Comey’s letter raising doubts that were groundless, baseless, proven to be, stopped our momentum.”

Fast forward to today; 

FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe may have violated multiple existing Justice Department rules controlling contacts between the bureau and White House officials when they spoke earlier this month with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus about their ongoing investigation into Russia’s influence operation against the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to several former senior Justice Department officials.

The first questionable contact came when McCabe spoke with Priebus for five minutes after a 7:30 a.m. meeting at the White House on Feb. 15 on an unrelated intelligence issue. The day before, the New York Times had reported that Trump’s campaign and other Trump associates had multiple contacts with known agents of Russian intelligence in the year before the election.

At the White House meeting, McCabe told Priebus, ‘I want you to know story in NYT is BS,” according to senior Administration officials who briefed reporters on Feb. 24.

Priebus asked McCabe what could be done to push back, saying the White House was “getting crushed” on the story. McCabe demurred, and then later called back to say, “We’d love to help but we can’t get into the position of making statements on every story.” Read the full story on the FBI, Trump and Preibus. 

Am I the only one watching this scratching my head wondering what the hell is going on at the F.B.I.? Is it a coincidence that the F.B.I. is once again embroiled in such an intense political situation? Or does the White House simply have a situation of a J.Edger Hoover on their hands?

J. Edgar Hoover Biography Government Official (1895–1972)

 

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