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FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

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Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#41

Post by gthtjtkt »

As much as I would like this to be true, I think that's a pretty biased interpretation of his letter.

My reading would be this: "We found some new emails. They're relevant, but we don't know if they're important. We're looking into it."

What I find interesting is the timing of this letter and, possibly, the fact that he wrote it at all. But we can't judge the significance of those without knowing if this is standard procedure. For all we know, he may regularly send letters that say things like "I spelled a word wrong on page 875 of our report. Agents are looking into correcting it and resubmitting the report."

Or this type of letter could be highly unusual, especially days before a presidential election.

Either way, he had to know Chaffetz would be shouting this from the top of a mountain...

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#42

Post by wnevets »

patrickmay wrote: post #31
woodruffw wrote: post #29

I find Comey's decision to disclose this new investigation less than 2 weeks from election day extremely perplexing. By all means, perform your investigation, but to announce it immediately before what's arguably one of the most important elections in modern US history? If I were a paranoid man, I'd say that this looks like an attempt by an unelected official to prejudice voters.

He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If there is a smoking gun in the newly discovered emails and he said nothing until after the election, he would be accused of manipulating it in that way.

One half of the country is going to be mad no matter which he choose.

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#43

Post by JohnTHaller »

eli wrote: post #13
mzw_mzw wrote: post #7

That was a very strange article with all the near-wishful "igniting speculation about a Clinton defeat" stuff. The whole emails issue has been inside baseball, politics-wise. Insiders and pundits love yelling about it but average voters either don't care (the vast majority) or have already assumed she's guilty/not guilty and priced that into their vote. Reopening the investigation is not going to change the election…

I've heard many people cite emails as the main reason they are not voting for her. I assume most of them actually would never have voted for her anyway, but it's a real issue.

The majority of them have no idea what they're talking about if you ask them "what about the emails?" and are just parroting a talking point. Even if she was fully cleared and they were made aware of the fact that Republicans have done the same thing, it would not change their minds.

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#44

Post by cmsimike »

eli wrote: post #13
mzw_mzw wrote: post #7

That was a very strange article with all the near-wishful "igniting speculation about a Clinton defeat" stuff. The whole emails issue has been inside baseball, politics-wise. Insiders and pundits love yelling about it but average voters either don't care (the vast majority) or have already assumed she's guilty/not guilty and priced that into their vote. Reopening the investigation is not going to change the election…

I've heard many people cite emails as the main reason they are not voting for her. I assume most of them actually would never have voted for her anyway, but it's a real issue.

I've always voted democrat as "the lesser of two evils" but this email situation has really ruffled my feathers (and is why I am voting third party). I get that there is favoritism in everything, but the idea that Hillary (at least before looked like she) walked away scott-free after committing what I believe to be a very serious crime whereas any one of us in a similar situation would have been thrown in jail right away and smeared as a terrorist didn't sit well with me for obvious reasons.

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#45

Post by DanielBMarkham »

As a third-party voter I really don't want to get into a discussion about the major candidates.

But as a hacker I am interested in how the political system operates. So let's speculate that a candidate is elected to office and then is indicted on a felony. What happens? Obviously anybody can be elected president, so there's no legal problem. But Congress also is charged with certifying electors. Would they certify electors for a candidate that had legal issues? If they did, the candidate could just pardon themselves once in office.

It brings up some weird issues.

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#46

Post by mordocai »

nitrogen wrote: post #36
pwg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the probability that "an unrelated case" is political speak for "wikileaks"?

Given the sheer number of cases and the government's prior willingness to name and shame Wikileaks, I'd expect that probability to be low without further evidence (high uncertainty remains).

Would the FBI want to admit to the committee that wikileaks had data they didn't unless they had to though?

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#47

Post by [deleted] »

woodruffw wrote: post #29

I find Comey's decision to disclose this new investigation less than 2 weeks from election day extremely perplexing. By all means, perform your investigation, but to announce it immediately before what's arguably one of the most important elections in modern US history? If I were a paranoid man, I'd say that this looks like an attempt by an unelected official to prejudice voters.

[deleted]

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#48

Post by topspin »

criddell wrote: post #14
Waterluvian wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impeachment and VP becomes president? Or personal pardon!

That's what I was wondering too. Can't she just pardon herself?

"Can't she just pardon herself?"

Nothing explicitly prevents it. It doesn't really matter anyhow; Congress has the exclusive power to impeach. Impeachment is the mechanism the constitution provides deal with criminal presidents and the president can't block it.

Make no mistake; the last thing Comey and Clinton+Obama et al. wanted was to fill news cycles with "FBI investigation reopened" 11 days out. It's bad, whatever it is, and this is a CYA move; Comey believes he needs to be able to claim he notified Oversight and made this public prior to the election.

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#49

Post by rayiner »

woodruffw wrote: post #29

I find Comey's decision to disclose this new investigation less than 2 weeks from election day extremely perplexing. By all means, perform your investigation, but to announce it immediately before what's arguably one of the most important elections in modern US history? If I were a paranoid man, I'd say that this looks like an attempt by an unelected official to prejudice voters.

He did the right thing disclosing now. If voters don't care and Hilary wins anyway, she'll have won with all the information on the table. If the voters do care and Hilary doesn't win, then it would've been pretty shitty to hide that information from them when they had a chance to act on it.

Re: FBI Reopens Clinton E-Mail Probe Less Than Two Weeks Before Vote

#50

Post by ls66 »

mzw_mzw wrote: post #24
insickness wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> average voters either don't care What were you saying about 'wishful thinking?' A presidential candidate under FBI investigation on election day is huge.

I agree, it is! But that still doesn't mean people (or, at least, swing voters) actually care.

Her campaign staff certainly cared about this issue.
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