Bill Clinton's indispensable spark ignites the FBI October Surprise

It’s an outright mess….which of our hallowed institutions remains untarnished? It would take a historian to reveal if this is unprecedented but it has to come close. I suppose that in an election where the two most unsavory candidates for President since recorded history are pitted against one another, we shouldn’t be surprised.

FBI director James Comey sent a memo to Congressional leaders on Friday that has, depending on where you stand on this election, left your veins bulging, or your fists pumping

Director Comey’s memo essentially said that the investigation of Hillary Clinton is being re-opened due to some information that was circumstantially attained while investigating another individual (the estranged husband of Hillary’s closest aide, Huma Abedin) on a sexting allegation involving a minor. This information was not made clear but there was no allegation (or hint of one) that the information was in any way damning to Hillary Clinton. Furthermore, there is no way that FBI director Comey could have legally reviewed any emails pertaining to Hillary Clinton before his memo to Congress without a warrant. This would be a violation of the Constitution (which we formally thought government officials adhered to).

So, with so little conviction behind Comey’s memo “heard ‘round the world”, why was the memo sent in the first place. What purpose did it serve? The amount of political posturing that accompanies a memo such as this is relentless and will take up most of the oxygen remaining in the 2016 campaign. Clinton is the only one who stands to lose anything from this memo and Trump is the gloating beneficiary. "This changes everything", cited Trump.

Well, it turns out that the FBI is not an agency that typically gives press conferences regarding findings, or evidence of any kind, to the public or the United States Congress. The FBI doesn’t answer to the U.S. Congress. It is subordinate to and answerable to the Justice Department of the United States, of which the Attorney General is the Chief Officer (remember this thought for later). The FBI doesn’t show it’s head when it is undergoing an investigation. It makes about as much public noise as a hibernating turtle. The FBI is an investigatory body....it doesn’t undergo investigations without instructions. It certainly doesn’t render verdicts and decisions regarding guilt or lack thereof…and, it is highly irregular to give a detailed press conference and virtually unprecedented to go before a Congressional committee for several hours in order to explain and render opinions on the investigation. Both of these extraordinary events happened with regard to the Hillary Clinton investigation regarding her emails.

The question is…why did FBI director Comey come forward and act as the spokesman and de facto lone juror for the Clinton email investigation? After all, the FBI is a fact finding agency, not a prosecuturial agency. You wouldn’t have a General in Battle decide whether we go to war in the first place…you employ a General to carry out the directive by the President and Legislative branches of Government. Generals establish strategy by which to carry out the orders of the Commander in Chief. In a similar subordinate way the FBI collects information that is then passed on to the Justice Department in order to render a decision on that information.

Normally the resolution of this issue would have been communicated to the public via the Justice Department, more directly through the current Attorney General… President Obama appointee, Miss Loretta Lynch. So, why wasn't the investigation data given to Attorney General Lynch without so much as a public squeak from Comey so that she could interpret the findings of the investigation and render a judgment from the Justice Department?

The reason is easily understood and on this there is virtual consensus by those who know how the branches of government operate. The reason that most Americans now know the name of the FBI director is because he was forced (or something close to that word) to wear the Attorney General’s “hat”. Comey is a natural Short Stop who was forced to play catcher due to a conflict; a conflict of interest. Why is AG Lorretta Lynch so conspicuously absent from the entire Clinton email issue?

As many Americans know by now, a short time before the FBI was due to come out with their findings regarding the Clinton email investigation back in July, Bill Clinton made a very sketchy but calculated decision to encounter the unsuspecting Attorney General Lynch on the tarmac of the Phoenix airport where both planes were waiting for departure. It was not the path of least resistance to board the plane of the Attorney General but Bill Clinton surely knew what he was doing. He didn't just say “Good afternoon” to the Attorney General; he had an impromptu 25 minute meeting with the unsuspecting Lynch days before she was due to rule on the findings of the investigation of his wife. Lynch later said she strongly regretted meeting with Clinton on the plane. It was highly inappropriate and it wreaked of an attempt to impact Lynch’s disposition towards the pending decision. It was surely the type of move that Bill Clinton honed as Governor of Arkansas. LBJ would have been proud. It was a Bill Clinton move that is right out of his playbook—a smile, and compliment, a pat on the back from the former President, a very passive/aggressive move from someone who is a professional in this form of communication. Bill Clinton is the kind of guy who, if he were pitching the 7th game of the World Series, would send flowers and chocolates to the house of the home plate umpire the night before, “regards, your friend Bill”.

If Bill doesn't get on that plane, then FBI Director James Comey almost certainly doesn't give a press conference and appear before Congress regarding the FBI findings. He likely would have never shown his face. Attorney General Lynch would have felt no compulsion to recuse herself from this case. That is, before she reluctantly hosted Bill on the tarmac.

Since the original James Comey announcement regarding the Clinton investigation in early July which found "no prosecutorial case" according to Comey, there has been an outcry from the Trump campaign that Comey showed favoritism towards Clinton------that her transgressions would have put a lesser celebrated citizen under federal indictment. There was chatter that there were more than a few FBI investigators under Comey who were repulsed by his unwillingness to recommend prosecution (a pronouncement that should never have been made public in the first place). It seems now quite possible that he is making a move that will soften the harsh criticism he has undergone since July, though we can only speculate as to his motives. He has decided to declare before Congress just 11 days before the election that the Hillary Clinton email investigation is ongoing….not because of any incriminating information, not even the expressed hint of it…just that there are still, apparently, Hillary’s fingerprints on the emails of a computer jointly owned by her top aide, Huma Abedin, and her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner.

The public doesn’t know protocol of the branches of government…they don’t know precedence…they just know that Donald Trump and his surrogates are sounding off as if they can now have the smoking gun tying Hillary to the Manson family killings. The language and timing of the memo was so vague and inappropriate that it is a wildfire ……..that can be traced to a match lighted by Bill Clinton.

Ironically we know that Trump and/or his former campaign manager are under FBI investigation for ties to Russian authorities and other unscrupulous characters in the former Soviet Union. We also know, from sources, that FBI director Comey was adamant on October 7th that no FBI connection be made that suggests that the Trump campaign had any nefarious or un-American ties to the Russians. He didn’t even want people to chew on that thought…because, it was reported that it was too close to the election and we know from protocol and policy that the FBI wants to avoid at all costs any decisions within 60 days of an election that could influence the outcome of an election.

Stranger still....it has been reported that Attorney General Loretta Lynch strongly discouraged Director Comey from sending this new memo to the Congress last friday. Comey sent it anyways. He didn't take the advice of his boss.

I’m no fan of Hillary Clinton…you will almost never hear me defend her.…but the facts as I see them suggest that this is such a time. This last pronouncement by the FBI on friday was grossly unfair to the Clinton campaign. And, if it plays any role in putting a lunatic in the White House for 4 years you will see the masses holding torches and wanting answers.

For context, let it be noted that the last 3 Attorney’s Generals of the United States (two of whom served at the appointment of Republican George W. Bush) have expressed clearly their strong disdain for Comey’s handling of the entire Clinton email affair.

(CNN)Republican former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday had this to say about Comey.recent actions in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server.

He called Comey's actions an "error in judgment" and said he is "somewhat perplexed about what the director was trying to accomplish here."

Former US Attorney General and Bush appointee Michael Mukasey slammed Comey Monday for the way he handled the situation, saying he should not "have been in this fix."

"This wasn't Comey's call. It is not his function as director of the FBI to decide who gets charges and doesn't. It's his function to gather evidence. And he didn't fulfill that function very well," Mukasey told CNN's Erin Burnett on "Erin Burnett OutFront." "But it's certainly not his function to get up and pronounce on whether charges should be brought or whether a reasonable prosecutor would ever bring them."

You can make a strong case that several top officials made very bad decisions. Certainly Loretta Lynch should not have agreed to make eye contact with anyone who even looks like Bill Clinton until the case regarding Hillary was closed. Certainly FBI director Comey has made, and is continuing to make, compounding mistakes. We can't forget the role being played by former New York Congressman and present serial sexter, Anthony Weiner. And, then there is the catalyst for it all....Mr. William Jefferson Clinton, 39th President of the United States. Add Donald Trump and you have quite a toxic soup.

It looks like there is plenty of blame to go around......it's hard to know where the "good" is. No Atticus Finch's anywhere to be found. But it is all too easy to spot the "bad" and the "ugly".

Food for thought…my opinions.