In the first fantasy, FBI Director James Comey made a stand in the Hillary Clinton email case and resigned his post on principle rather than participate in a cover-up.
Well, we all know that didn’t happen. It turned out to be wishful thinking. Instead of doing the right thing, Comey showed his true colors last week by capitulating to the political dictates of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party. After listing numerous ways Clinton was “extremely careless” (better known in legal parlance as “gross negligence”), Comey did backflips trying to convince the public that Clinton did not intend to break the law and, therefore, would not be charged by any “reasonable” prosecutor.
No sooner did Comey make his televised announcement than a host of seasoned prosecutors outside the federal government refute his words and roundly criticize him, not only for contradicting himself in the same statement but also for putting Clinton above the law. Experienced attorneys said they would prosecute Clinton in a heartbeat for what she did on grounds of gross negligence in her handling of classified information as well as her obvious intent to conceal her correspondence from the reach of the Freedom of Information Act.
Comey went one step further by telling a congressional committee that the decision not to proceed with criminal charges was the unanimous assessment of a group of investigators and analysts, whom the director described as an “all-star team’’ assembled by the Justice Department. If there was a so-called “all-star team,” the FBI agents who worked the Clinton case in the trenches weren’t on it and it infuriated them to no end that they would be implicated in a cover-up by inference. They didn’t know they were playing a game.
This insult led to a quiet, yet determined, rebellion within their ranks. By implicating hard-working FBI agents in his charade, Comey went too far. He managed to cast aspersions on their integrity and their public service.
U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, added fuel to fire when she appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. During her sphinxlike testimony, she dodged and deflected any and all questions that attempted to probe into the decision to exonerate Clinton. Lynch might as well have worn a Hillary Clinton tee-shirt with the words “I’M WITH HER” emblazoned across the front of it.
The irate G-men met in small groups after work and over the weekend to discuss how they would respond. It was bad enough that Comey cherry-picked the information he decided to share with the public and the congressional committee, he had crossed the line by suggesting that the troops supported his conclusions, when, in fact, they did not and would not under any circumstances.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation prides itself on its ability to root out crimes and apprehend the criminals who perpetrate them. They present their findings to prosecutors within the U.S. Justice Department, who ultimately decide whether to indict an individual and make their case in a court of law. In the Clinton case, a proper referral was not made to prosecutors for them to decide. Instead, the Director of the FBI decided to act as judge and jury by proclaiming that Clinton would not be indicted based on the evidence. Rank and file FBI investigators were astounded when they heard Comey make his statement and resolved to make the truth known, even it meant losing their jobs.
Consequently, all 150 FBI investigators who worked on the Clinton case and many other agents who did not, gathered together on the steps of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. The spokesman for the group approached a makeshift podium and addressed a group of reporters, who had been contacted ahead of time and notified of the event.
As TV cameras rolled, the spokesman read from a prepared statement. Assembled behind him stood a multitude of career FBI investigators. This is what he told a live national TV audience:
“Fellow countrymen, this is a sad day in the life of our republic. A country without laws or respect for the law is a not country worth serving. Those of us gathered here today have families who depend on our government paychecks to support them. Therefore, it was not an easy decision to resign en masse as we have done today. But it is much worse to be part of conspiracy to place someone — anyone — above the law of the land for political considerations. That is simply unacceptable and intolerable. The cover-up is always worse than the crime. And that’s what occurred in the Clinton case.
We take strong exception to the statements made by FBI Director, James Comey. We never endorsed what he said, nor would we have. He acted on his own. We spent over a year investigating Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. We also investigated her official actions as Secretary of State and their nexus to the Clinton Foundation for improprieties and evidence of quid pro quo exchanges between government and the private sector or foreign individuals. The evidence we gathered was overwhelming and devastating. It is not something we could sweep under the rug and maintain our dignity at the same time. We hope our action today will set things right and will impel the American people to seek justice in this case because, as it stands right now, there is not equal justice under the law. Those words have been rent asunder and are merely a platitude signifying nothing. America is better than this and we refuse to serve under a potential president, who clearly should have been indicted and put on trial before a jury of her peers.
We appreciate the privilege of having served the American people to the best of our ability and having complied with the high standards set forth by the Bureau. We hope our country and our justice system finds its way back home. God bless you and God bless America.”
As the speaker and former FBI agents leave the area, reporters stand in stunned silence for they have witnessed something few in this country ever witness – Americans who are unafraid to stand on principle and are willing to fall on their sword rather than become the pawns of a political ruling class of individuals, who place themselves above the law.
– LV