© Brian Snyder / Reuters
The fact Clinton is still in the race and that Trump has emerged as the Republican candidate shows how broken US democracy and the political system are. That Clinton hasn't withdrawn from the presidential race, apologising profusely for her misdeeds, shows just how corrupt and power hungry she is and how she views herself as beyond the law. Julian Assange said she is "eaten alive by her ambition," suggestive of a psychopathic nature that doesn't know right from wrong and doubles down on the corrupt behaviour when the heat is on.
Clinton could take office with multiple investigations being run against her and her associates, any of which could bring her down.
In early October, new emails were found on Weiner's laptop which appeared to be pertinent to the email server investigation, according to the FBI. The laptop was taken as part of a sexting investigation against Weiner, but proved to be the much anticipated October surprise. Even before the discovery, polls were tightening and the previous inevitability of a Clinton win now seems decidedly shaky.
Comey said he had no choice but to tell Congress, otherwise he may be accused of hiding pertinent new information which may be crucial to the investigation he discovered just before Election Day. Comey drew sharp criticism from Clinton herself, as well as supporters and non-Clinton supporters alike for presenting his letter to Congress, being accused of inappropriately interfering in the election even before the FBI were able to properly analyse the content of the emails.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch apparently did not meet with Comey personally on his intention to release the letter, reportedly conveying her disapproval through Department of Justice officials. They pointed out the department's view that releasing the letter breached department policies on commenting on ongoing investigations and that it could be seen as meddling in the election.
Comey was caught between a rock and a hard place, sandwiched in the middle of the political subterfuge protecting Clinton's back, while at the same time conscious of the debacle back in July when Clinton was let off scot free. He knew he could come under intense scrutiny for misleading Congress and the public on the verge of the election and believed that the exceptional circumstances warranted breaking long-held protocols.
In July Comey announced the recommendation that no criminal charges be laid against Clinton within a few days of the FBI completing questioning of Clinton over her private email server. Inexplicably, the interview wasn't even electronically recorded, the latest in a litany of failings in the investigation. Comey stated Clinton was extremely careless in her handling of classified information, but there was no intent and therefore no further investigation would be conducted.
In an astonishing episode of complicity in the destruction of evidence, the FBI gave limited immunity deals to two Clinton aides, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson. Deals were reached to destroy their laptops, even though they were already protected from prosecution based on searches carried out on their computers. This extraordinary largesse prompted Rep. Jason Chaffetz to say, "The FBI was handing out immunity agreements like candy....Immunity deals should not be a requirement for cooperating with the FBI."
The FBI had been turned into a laughing stock. Comey ignored the clandestine meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch, who implausibly discussed topics such as their "grandchildren." Shortly after, it was announced no charges would be laid, certainly casting a pall of suspicion on what really was discussed between Clinton and Lynch. Interspersed among talk of grandchildren, did the subject of the investigation, or even a promise to Lynch that she would keep her job if Clinton became president, come up?
Comey then had to endure a grilling at the hands of Rep.Trey Gowdy, who tore apart the credibility of the decision not to take the investigation further. In a series of pointed questions, Gowdy embarrassed Comey and the FBI for their gross dereliction of duty in fundamentally misattributing Clinton's actions to "extreme carelessness":
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said she never sent or received any classified information over her private email. Was that true?Gowdy then went on to say all this showed intent and consciousness of guilt. Further, he said it was a complex, deliberate scheme which was designed to shield information from public officials, and then once discovered, deliberate actions were taken to destroy this information. These are not the acts of naivety or innocent mistakes. Clinton uses her vast political experience and network to score points over Donald Trump, yet suddenly she is a bumbling novice when it comes to safeguarding State Department secrets. There is no doubt that Comey should have recommended Clinton be indicted and placed pressure on Loretta Lynch to convene a grand jury and indict Clinton. His dereliction of duty needed urgent correction and we may be seeing that correction in motion right now.
Comey: Our investigation found that there was classified information sent.
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said "I did not e-mail any classified information to anyone on my e-mail there is no classified material." That is true?
Comey: There was classified information emailed.
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said she used just one device. Was that true?
Comey: She used multiple devices during the four years of her term as Secretary of State.
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said all work related emails were returned to the State Department. Was that true?
Comey: No. We found work related emails, thousands that were not returned.
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said neither she nor anyone else deleted work related emails from her personal account. Was that true?
Comey: ...there's no doubt that the work related emails that were removed electronically from the email system.
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said her lawyers read every one of the emails and were overly inclusive. Did her lawyers read the email content individually?
Comey: No.
The rank and file at the FBI were furious that Comey previously interpreted Clinton's lying and destruction of evidence as merely "extreme carelessness." Larry Chin sums up the mood at the FBI and the intense pressure on Comey to "put a wrong right."
In this context, facing open rebellion within the FBI, Comey knew the discovery of new potentially relevant information would inevitably be leaked to the public. Keen to restore his tarnished reputation, Comey knew he faced little real choice but to come clean to Congress. As Joachim Hagopian puts it:
Though his leadership and character are perceived by the vast majority of both FBI personnel as well as American citizens to presently lay in ruin as a pathetically shameful stain and humiliating joke on both the FBI organization and Washington in general, James Comey appears to be feebly attempting to save his own career and reputation for appearing now to "come clean."With his reputation in the toilet over the shameful whitewash back in July, facing revolt within the FBI and knowing Loretta Lynch will protect Clinton at almost any cost, Comey needed a smoking gun, both to resurrect his own reputation and to justify reopening the email server investigation. The revelations of the Weiner laptop offered that justification, but almost as quickly as Comey announced the discovery of the emails, he declared that they contain nothing to change the FBI's previous conclusions and the July verdict that exonerated Clinton.
Of course the question in the Beltway is why Weiner's laptop wasn't uncovered in the original probe. Number one, it could be due to sloppy investigative work on the part of the FBI. Number two, perhaps favoured by the more cynical among us, is that this was a cover up from the start. The elites, having anointed Clinton as their chosen puppet, made sure this would have all the appearance of a proper investigation, but nothing of substance. A bit of a Potemkin process if you like. And number three, Huma Abedin lied to investigators about the existence of the laptop. If this is so, Abedin faces perjury charges at the very least.
Perhaps the ruling elite are pulling the plug on Hillary, concluding that she is too much of a liability. Her scandals pile one on top of the other, she is a stain on democracy, no one should ever trust her with national security ever again and we can't be sure her health will not deteriorate. Were forces of the deep state behind Comey's sudden move, which threw a spanner in the works at the last minute? Or was it a warning to Hillary that the 'deep state' has the dirt on her and when she's in the Oval office, she'll be expected to play along?
Loretta Lynch In Tight with the DNC
Attorney General Loretta Lynch is the one who inserted politics into the process with her highly suspicious meeting with Bill Clinton on an airplane in Arizona. Contrary to Lynch and Clinton's claim that they talked about innocuous subjects such as grandchildren, Donald Trump said he is one of many Americans who believe that Clinton offered Lynch a re-appointment to her Justice Department post if his wife, Hillary Clinton, is elected president.
Lynch is a political appointee of Obama, casting suspicion over her actions and exposing once again the corruption that comes with politicising appointments to public office.
Lynch's Department of Justice has obstructed the investigations from the start. It reportedly denied an FBI request for a grand jury when agents were "investigating the possible intersection of Clinton Foundation donations, the dispensation of State Department contracts and whether regular processes were followed," an FBI source said.
The DOJ denied warrants and not allowed the convening of a grand jury. The FBI fought against a resistant DOJ, which gave immunity to some of the co-conspirators. Obstruction of justice, obstruction of evidence, perjury, mishandling of classified information have all been swept under the carpet, when they should have condemned Clinton and her gang for outrageous criminal behaviour. Deleting 33,000 emails after receiving a court subpoena, lying about not sending or receiving any classified emails over the private server, lying about using more than one server, lying about handing over all work related emails to the state Department, wiping the hard drive of a server she used and smashing cell phones with a hammer was more than enough to take Clinton down, yet Comey said none of this was "prosecutable" and excused it as "extremely careless."
Russia doesn't Need to Hack when Clinton Hands over Sensitive Information on a Plate
The latest clanger to hit the stumbling Clinton campaign is a report from the FBI that they believe five foreign intelligence agencies were able to hack into Clinton's private email server.
Comey previously suggested that foreign intelligence may have been able to hack into Clinton's unsecured server, to which Clinton unconvincingly replied Comey was just speculating.
The FBI must be aghast at the prospect of foreign intelligence having hacked into the laptop of ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner, which they are currently combing through after discovering additional emails which they believe came from Clinton's server.
The sheer incompetence of Clinton in managing information vital to national security makes a mockery of her repetitive accusations of Russian hacking. Au contraire, Madam Clinton, you have made it child's play for not just Russia, but other foreign intelligence agencies to access highly classified information. This information will undoubtedly be stored, ready to use strategically against US interests at a time when maximum damage can be imposed. Clinton has talked of using "leverage" against Russia for her fabled no-fly zone in Syria. I think the leverage may be coming from the opposite direction thanks to Clinton's gross negligence.
The news of foreign intelligence hacking of Clinton's server was one of five new pieces of information revealed by FBI sources to Bret Baier of Fox News. The others are:
The Clinton Foundation investigation is far more expansive than anybody has reported so far and has been going on for more than a year.Agents are said to be actively and aggressively pursuing the case, keen to redress the blunder of letting Clinton off with not even a slap on the wrist in July. Comey has ordered all available agents from the Washington DC office and Hoover Building headquarters to report to work, ready to work around the clock leading up to election day. Are arrests imminent? And, if so, will the Department of Justice convene a grand jury, or will they obstruct the FBI again, with Lynch running protection for her Clinton allies.
The laptops of Clinton aides Cherryl Mills and Heather Samuelson have not been destroyed, and agents are currently combing through them. The investigation has interviewed several people twice, and plans to interview some for a third time.
Agents have found emails believed to have originated on Hillary Clinton's secret server on Anthony Weiner's laptop. They say the emails are not duplicates and could potentially be classified in nature.
Sources within the FBI have told Baier that an indictment is "likely" in the case of pay-for-play at the Clinton Foundation, "barring some obstruction in some way" from the Justice Department.
The sordid pay-to-play scheme interaction between Clinton in her time as Secretary of State and the Clinton Foundation is where efforts are being focused. The reprehensible influence peddling so rife in this scheme, previously only known to the privileged few, and which made the Clinton's obscenely wealthy, threatens to be the downfall of Clinton.
Another revelation that will have Clinton hot under the collar is that despite her aides Cherryl Mills and Heather Samuelson being told their laptops would be destroyed as part of their limited immunity deals, this has not happened. If ongoing investigations reveal either lied, the immunity deals are off, they face perjury charges and the pressure will continue to escalate on Clinton.
In any investigation across a range of endeavours, it is imperative to identify points of vulnerability, weak links in the chain. In the Clinton crime cabal that weakness goes by the name of Anthony Weiner. This disgraced deviant who just cannot learn from his mistakes could be the catalyst to bring the whole Clinton Empire to its knees. Donald Trump himself pointed to the lack of moral fibre in the man. The Clinton camp should have taken notice and taken action to ensure he had no ability to do any damage at all; perhaps a tough task considering he is married to Clinton's right-hand woman, Huma Abedin.
FBI agents reportedly combed through Weiner's laptop, identifying all relevant emails and checking them for anything new. It's unknown at this point exactly what they found, only that the information wasn't enough to change any of their previous conclusions (which, despite the refusal to press charges, include everything Comey mentioned above in response to Gowdy's questioning). So Comey's second letter from two days ago reassured Clinton supporters, and re-inflamed her detractors. But the niggling question remains: just what had the FBI in such a frenzy that Comey felt it necessary to inform Congress of reopening the investigation, thus leaving himself open to accusations of interfering in the election and guaranteeing he has made new life long political enemies?
The answer could lie in True Pundit claiming that law enforcement sources told them that the new emails contain evidence which may link Clinton and some of her associates to:
- Money laundering
- Child exploitation
- Sex crimes with minors (children)
- Perjury
- Pay to play through Clinton Foundation
- Obstruction of justice
- Other felony crimes
Donald Trump called the FBI announcement "bigger than Watergate" "We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the oval office. I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This is bigger than Watergate." Despite the email investigation fizzle, he may still be right. We don't know what else the FBI found (or will find) in those emails and if they may be relevant to any of the other investigations currently being carried out. Perhaps this was the intended message for Clinton.
The Russia Angle
No discussion of US politics is complete these days without the mandatory referral to Russian "meddling." Like much thought based on lack of logic, it is usually moronic and totally baseless. I will confine the question of the Russian "ogre" terrifying the entire US political establishment by quoting Michel Chossudovsky in relation to any Trump-Comey or Russia-Comey connection:
Does he have a relationship with Trump? Several media have even intimated that Moscow could have been behind Comey's second letter. An absurd proposition.The ISIS connection
On the other hand, something which should send shock waves through the Beltway and across the entire political spectrum is that Wikileaks exposed the fact that Hillary Clinton has given tacit support to ISIS. Again going back to the article by Michel Chossudovsky, who says:
A former Secretary of State (through here family's Foundation) receives generous donations from the "State sponsors of terrorism" (Saudi Arabia and Qatar): This is an obvious act of treason by a senior US official and candidate to the presidency of the United States.If ever one wanted all the evidence needed that the US is a sponsor of international terrorism, here it is. Clinton has been able to admit that allies of the US sponsor ISIS yet still be the favourite to be the next president. How is this situation any different in terms of endorsing and supporting terrorism than the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s? The US political class is rotten to the core, and nothing rings hollower than its claims to be engaged in fighting terrorism in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Libya.
What Does it Mean for the Election?
The polls are tightening, with Trump inching closer to Clinton. Crucial swing states such as Pennsylvania are now within grasp of victory to Trump. The Clinton campaign has gone into meltdown under the renewed pressure and must be stunned at the surge in Trump's poll ratings. The Clintonites are floundering, as their reflexive resort to blaming everything on Russia is just not holding water anymore.
Rusted-on Clintonites will continue to stonewall the latest damning revelations, blindly keeping the faith in a woman who will "promote women's rights" as she gleefully takes millions from the Saudi regime which has a medieval view of the role of women, and will "fight for a living wage" as she schmoozes and canoodles with Wall Street, her real constituents whose criminal behaviour continues to undermine the living standards of millions of Americans.
Clinton faces becoming a victim of personality politics, an endemic disease which has festered inside the US political system for years. What hope does she have of stemming the blood flow of the numerous leaks and revelations by turning to actual substantive matters—jobs, the environment, war, healthcare, housing, education, poverty—in the hope of focusing American minds on something they have been conditioned against - real issues? Clinton has fashioned her campaign on vilifying Donald Trump, exposing his racist, misogynistic views, his lewd comments towards women and the absurd, baseless Trump-Putin connection. As they say, live by the sword, die by the sword. She has chosen the path of character assassination as the one to the White House, and now stands aghast as the path has opened up a chasm.
The Scandal is a Reflection on the Decay of the US Political System
How can Clinton still be in the race? How has she not stood down?
In the US we have two wings of the business party who craft laws in tandem with corporate America, laws which keep the country under their control. The candidates are the most detested in US history.
Clinton's dishonesty, her contempt for the sanctity of life of those she has declared war on and her total devotion to serving the bankers should disqualify her from any political office imaginable.
Yet her opponent, the deplorable Trump, is the alternative to this thoroughly corrupt woman. On a positive note, the citizens of the US have said enough is enough, we want rid of this fraudulent democracy. The next step is the necessity of organising to consign to history the stain on democracy that is Clinton and her ilk and replace it with something which serves the needs of its citizens and brings them long-denied social, political and economic justice.
Let's Just Rig the Voting Machines
Clinton and her pals in the DNC already robbed Bernie Sanders of the Democratic nomination, so it ought to be a cinch to rig the voting machines for the Clinton crime gang.
Whoever wins the election should not revel in the glory. It will be a failed presidency in a failed democracy. With approximately 60% of voters detesting both candidates, we look forward to a failed attempt to impose business as usual. The elites will never let go of what they stole. It must be taken back from them and given back to the rightful owners, the 99%. As Michael Parenti once said in a talk he gave, "there is only one thing the elites have ever wanted: everything."
The new FBI investigation has all the appearances of a whitewash, proof that Teflon Hillary Clinton is untouchable. Comey, rather than being a gallant lone wolf, has shown himself to be deeply ensconced within the establishment. We were thrown a red herring, and, chomping at the bit to see Clinton get taken down, some of us perhaps hoped it was time for some sweet justice. A thin ray of hope still exists in the multiple other investigations into Clinton's criminality. But will they ever bear fruit?
Instead, for the time being, a charade has been played out before our eyes, and the curtain has closed, with Clinton bowing before a crowd of duped onlookers. "I am Queen Hillary, Goddess of War, she says, and I will take from the rich to make myself filthy rich, I'll play by the crooked rules of the 'deep state', and there ain't a damn thing any of you can do about it."
George Soros told Hillary some time ago that she would be the next President of the United States...Don't worry about it, he told her. Be yourself. Have fun. Laugh like you've already won!
The voting machines are all mine and I have big plans for you and your country.
That explains why she laughs aloud at every turn of every issue.
After tonight, we shall see, won't we...