FBI/DOJ Leak Yet Another Misleading Piece of Shit to CNN

CNN has a story out, leaked, of course, from FBI/DOJ sources doing pre-buttal work for the FISA Abuse memo, stating that Peter Strzok wrote the first draft of the letter Comey sent to Congress announcing the news that the FBI was re-opening the investigation into Hillary's emails after the FBI's New York office found Hillary Clinton's emails on Anthony Weiner's computer.

From this, you are to conclude that this Peter Strzok, despite texts showing not only a partisan animus but sheer partisan terror over Hillary possibly losing to Trump, was nonetheless a fine, upstanding, unbiased FBI agent, just doin' his job.

Yeah here's the trouble with that: The New York FBI office is the one that discovered the emails, and they were pressuring the DC office to actually act on the evidence they'd delivered to them weeks ago, which McCabe and Co. -- straight shooters all, CNN would like us to know -- were sitting on.

I guess CNN doesn't remember any of this, or doesn't know how to use the Google Machine.

From the New York Times, October 29, 2016:

After reports surfaced late last month that Mr. Weiner had sent illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, top prosecutors in Charlotte and Manhattan jockeyed for the case. Senior officials in the Justice Department decided that if there were a prosecution, it would take place in New York under the supervision of the United States attorney there, Preet Bharara.

Almost immediately, it became clear to investigators that the Weiner case might reignite the Clinton inquiry.

...

On Oct. 3, F.B.I. agents seized several electronic devices from Mr. Weiner...

While searching the laptop, the agents discovered the existence of tens of thousands of emails, some of them sent between Ms. Abedin and other Clinton aides, according to senior law enforcement officials.

The New York FBI office knew this on October third or thereabouts. But Comey did not send his letter to Congress until the 28th.

But the New York office of the FBI knew -- and they knew that for 24 days or so, the FBI headquarters in DC was slow-playing this.

...

In conversations this month, senior Justice Department and F.B.I. officials agreed that the matter was worth pursuing. By law, though, agents and prosecutors in the Clinton investigation could not immediately read the new emails without court authority.

The authorities decided only recently to seek that approval.

Why did they wait until after Comey's letter to seek approval?

Could it be -- McCabe and co were stalling for time?

By the way, the Department of Justice argued against notifying Congress;

After hearing the Justice Department’s argument, Mr. Comey concluded that the ramifications of not telling Congress far outweighed concerns about the department guidelines, one senior law enforcement official said.

By the way, Strzok also did not want to alert Congress about this, which even CNN admits.

Why did Comey eventually announce this to Congress?

Not because he, or Strzok for God's sake, was some high-minded patriot.

It's because he knew for a fact that word of the emails would leak, either from the DC headquarters or the New York office.

[A]lthough Mr. Comey told Congress this summer that the Clinton investigation was complete, he believed that if word of the new emails leaked out -- and it was sure to leak out, he concluded -- he risked being accused of misleading Congress and the public ahead of an election, colleagues said.

That's the New York Times reporting, based on the claims of Comey's "colleagues." And we know now full well how good Comey is to getting his thoughts to the media through his "colleagues."

So there you go -- this wasn't Peter Strzok making this decision, he was just writing the letter for Comey, who'd decided to send the letter to Congress because he knew he was siting on Hillary's emails (and in fact knew that he was sitting on emails that he hadn't known about for weeks -- someone below him kept that information from moving up the chain of command, it appears).

I hope CNN will let me know what breathless claims the FBI/DOJ gets into their hands next, and I hope they continues doing no critical inquiry whatsoever into the partisan, ass-protecting leaks they receive.

posted by Ace at 11:35 AM

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