In reviewing new reporting from Karoli Kuns at Crooks and Liars and Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, one thing seems perfectly clear.
There are strong indications of a rogue element within the Federal Bureau of Investigation operating out of the New York office. This cadre has decided that Donald Trump should win the election. Since they can’t get the go-ahead from FBI director James Comey to proceed with their anti-Hillary witch hunt, they are leaking like corroded plumbing in the basement to whichever Rupert Murdoch publication or broadcast facility that will take their anonymous reports.
Comey, for his part, seems absolutely hamstrung and has not demonstrated the leadership required to corral these maverick agents and stop them from acting on their own accord.
According to the Crooks and Liars article, Lou Dobbs at FOX Business claims the FBI is more than 99% certain that Clinton’s private email server was hacked more than once while she was Secretary of State. Brent Baier of the FOX News Network reports that according to the FBI, indictments are just around the corner regarding the Clinton foundation. The Wall Street Journal, owned by Murdoch, has another case of the vapors over the Clinton foundation investigations.
Karoli sums it up nicely:
Do you see the common link? We have an FBI that’s fully and totally out of control, with a whole bunch of agents leaking bullsh*t stories 5 days ahead of an election exclusively to Murdoch-owned media outlets.
The Wall Street Journal article at least tries to incorporate the competing narratives into one. I’ll summarize for you.
- Some FBI guys in the New York office wanted a witch hunt
- The FBI guys were rabid because of Schweitzer’s Clinton Cash book which Trump campaign CEO Stephen Bannon funded with right wing tax deductible dollars.
- DOJ and public corruption lawyers said nope, you’ve got nothing. Give it up, stand down.
- Some agents who are still on the public payroll refuse to accept that verdict.
- FBI is now leaking like a sieve to Murdoch news organizations (and Murdoch organizations alone) because they have nothing left but going rogue.
As a reminder, that book they used as a source for opening an investigation — Clinton Cash — was partially paid for with taxpayer dollars, since the donor billionaires paid the bill by giving millions to a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) faux charity known as the Government Accountability Institute.
Josh goes into a bit more detail about the connection between Schweitzer and Trump:
It is worth noting that not only is Schweitzer a former Bush-era operative, the book was funded by one of the organizations Steve Bannon runs inside the Breitbart media empire. Yes, it really was – Bannon, who ran Breitbart News and is now on leave to run the Trump campaign.
Reportedly, top level FBI officials are of the belief that these maverick agents in New York have labored mightily and brought forth a mouse; that is to say, a lot of taxpayer money spent with no tangible results. These agents, however, are not satisfied with being told their investigations were fruitless. Thus the leaking.
The piece goes on to explain that FBI agents interviewed Schweitzer multiple times about his investigation – fairly big red flag right there. They then obtained recordings of a suspect in an unrelated public corruption case who talked about “alleged deals the Clintons made.”
The upshot, from Barrett’s reporting, is that basically everyone at the Justice Department thought the investigators didn’t really have anything. Seemingly, that opinion was shared among senior officials at the FBI. But the agents, who seem to have started the digging basically on their own, were sure they did. They were repeatedly told to move on, they didn’t have anything. But they seemed to keep pursuing it regardless.
If the FBI had a strong director, one who was not afraid to stand up to the political pressure levied by Republicans seeking to bolster Trump’s flagging campaign, that director would put the kibosh on these shenanigans.
Unfortunately, Comey is not a strong director. If Hillary Clinton wins the election, she would be well within her rights to take a full housekeeping crew into the J. Edgar Hoover Building for a thorough disinfecting of the corrupting influences that seem to have taken up residence in the dank, damp, dark recesses of the FBI.