Comey Has Poisoned The Well For The Forseeable Future

One last thought (hopefully) on Comey for today and that is that he has totally tainted himself and the Bureau for the indefinite future, especially if Hillary is elected. It is pretty clear from press reports that the only possible conclusion about the relevance of the emails that could be made public by election day is that these emails had all been reviewed in the prior investigation or did not involve Clinton herself. If that turns out to be the case, Comey will be rightly vilified by Democrats and the Clinton campaign for his letter. The only other option is that they found some emails that potentially had classified information on them but that it will take weeks to determine whether they were classified when the message was sent, which puts any resolution well beyond election day. Again, releasing this result to Congress, and therefore to the public, will again be detrimental to the Clinton campaign when no determination has been made that there was really any classified material there. In addition, even if there was some classified material, that would still probably not materially change the decision that was made back in July. So, my best guess is that we will not hear anything from Comey before election day.

Secondly, the FBI is now exactly in the position it should never be in. Reports are that the DOJ has pulled in FBI resources from all over the country in an attempt to figure out what exactly is in these emails. This is precisely what all those DOJ rules, directives, and protocols are designed to prevent - the FBI desperately rushing to reach a conclusion before this artificial deadline of an election. It is transparently partisan to throw the full weight of the FBI's investigative resources into an investigation just to reach a conclusion before an election. The idea is that justice is blind and does not respond to elections. Yes, we all know that slogan is patently untrue, but it is at least what the FBI and the DOJ should be striving for.

Finally, if Hillary Clinton is elected, as still seems probable, Comey's position as FBI Director is almost untenable. He will be viewed as a blatant partisan and there will be continual tension between the Clinton DOJ and the FBI and that tension will continually be exploited by Republicans. If Obama or even Hillary ends up firing him or even if he voluntarily resigns, you know that Republicans will play hardball with the appointment of any new Director, virtually forcing him to continue to investigate her emails and the Clinton Foundation and keep them updated. The FBI can not and should not function in that kind of environment.

This is the disaster that Comey's reckless violation of DOJ protocols has created. And, having let the genie out of the bottle, there is no way for Comey to undo the damage he has already done. And that damage will extend far into the future.

Update: And now the backlash from Republicans about how the FBI is throwing all their resources into evaluating the emails so they can exonerate her before election day. Just another example of how horrendous Comey's judgement was.