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What really happened at FBI director James Comey's press conference this week?  After giving a textbook case of why Hillary Clinton should be charged, he surprised everyone by saying she should not. Did he simply blow it?  Did he wimp out, knowing the wrath he would face?  Unquestionably, Hillary committed offenses for which the average Joe would be arrested.  Was he blackmailed or bought off?  Was he politically motivated? There's truth somewhere in or around those guesses.  Hillary, as Comey's testimony of what she did exposed, certainly deserved to be prosecuted.  Others have been put in jail for much less,...

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Why did Comey not present this matter to the grand jury? Isn’t it the role of the grand jury to decide to indict or not? ANSWER:The rules for a grand jury have been altered to the point that they have been reduced to a rubber stamp. Nevertheless, FBI Director James Comey had to punt and take one for the government in light of the Inspector General’s report on Hillary. The Inspector General was independent under Roman law and was supposed to indict government officials, but under US law, that position has been stripped of such power. Today,...

Here are some of the observations by FBI professionals who wish to remain anonymous because their opinions could affect their job prospects: Why wasn’t Clinton’s interview recorded? On May 22, 2014 the Justice Department announced a substantial change in policy “creating a presumption that FBI…agents will electronically record,” expressing a preference for video recordings over audio. “It appears to me they made a deal not to record,” says one observer, which flies in the face of the idea that Clinton was treated like anybody else. Typically it’s the U.S. Attorney’s office, not FBI agents, deciding whether charges will be filed....

The reactions to the FBI's shocking announcement in which it announced it would not seek charges against Hillary Clinton are coming in fast and furious, with House Speaker Paul Ryan announcing moments ago that, at least in his view, Trump was spot on when he tweeted over the holiday weekend that the system is rigged when he said that the FBI's decision not to suggest the Department of Justice brings charges against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "defies explanation." While I respect the professionals at the FBI, this announcement defies explanation. No one should be above the law....

As a Constitutional lawyer, Texas Senator Ted Cruz knows a thing or two about the law. As a conservative senator, he knows what a tank of sharks Washington, D.C. can be. After today’s announcement by FBI Director James Comey that Hillary Clinton would skate on charges of wrongdoing, in regards to her hiding, destroying, and total mishandling of sensitive emails, Senator Cruz made a strong statement. From his Facebook page, and in its entirety: While I have tremendous respect for the dedicated men and women of the FBI, I have serious concerns about the integrity of Director Comey’s decision, and...

... Comey even conceded that former Secretary Clinton was “extremely careless” and strongly suggested that her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services. Yet, Director Comey recommended against prosecution of the law violations he clearly found on the ground that there was no intent to harm the United States. In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that...

Hillary Clinton likely dodged criminal charges Tuesday for a simple reason: the bar for bringing criminal charges against a politician, particularly a high public official, is so much higher than they are for anyone else. Prosecutions against such high public officials only go forward when there is “definitive” evidence. Evidence that prosecutors know will lead to a certain conviction. Why do I say that? Because earlier in my career I was chief economist at the United States Sentencing Commission. I worked frequently with prosecutors. The reputational loss public officials face from criminal charges can be so great that prosecutors feel...

There are a lot of details on why this was a miscarriage of justice. The best starting place is Andy McCarthy’s column at National Review, FBI Rewrites Federal Law to Let Hillary Off the Hook. But those are mere details. Important details, critical details, details worth writing about — but not the big picture. Noah Rothman at Commentary wrote: No amount of cynicism could have prepared Americans for what they witnessed on Tuesday morning, and 2016 has not been short on cynicism. Getting closer. The best truly big picture view I saw was from Karol Markowicz, a columnist for the...

After laying out a long list of her many lies and prosecutable crimes – gross negligence with regard to national security being the most profound – FBI director Comey said "no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges" against Hillary Clinton. He said she did not have any "intent" to put the nation at risk. No intent! Four private servers for her government business does not qualify as intent to deceive? She did what she did to keep her illegal wheeling and dealing out of the hands of any law enforcement agency, and she succeeded. She most certainly did put the nation...

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said at his press conference on Wednesday that Congress will “look into” whether Congress can deny former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton access to classified information, if she becomes the presidential nominee, saying, “it’s the least we can do.” […] “I’ve just got to say, from my own experience, you get access to deeply classified material once you leave the convention as the nominee, on a regular basis,” he said. “It’s part of a transition government.”“With no indictment occurring, but a discussion or a call for administrative action, I think it’s the least we can...

What makes this whole sordid set of facts so damning is that before yesterday, Comey was considered one of the nation’s most trusted and apolitical beat cops. He was, after all, appointed US attorney for the Southern District by a Republican president, George W. Bush, and FBI chief by a Democrat, Obama. Indeed, when Lynch all but turned the case over to him last week, many (including me) believed the rule of law would actually prevail, particularly since FBI staffers made no secret in law enforcement circles that they believed Clinton’s conduct merited some legal rebuke. But Tuesday, Comey was...

Charles Krauthammer said the conclusion to draw from FBI Director James Comey's press statement on Hillary Clinton's emails was that the former secretary of state is a "non-criminal liar." He said that Clinton's "lying is obvious when you compare her statements with what Comey said." Krauthammer also said Comey's logic was "puzzling" and "completely wrong" in making "malicious intent" the standard by which to determine if Clinton committed a crime, instead of "gross negligence." "Negligence does not require intent. That's the whole point of having it in the statute," he said. Krauthammer said Comey "spent 14 minutes laying out a...

It is galling the day after July 4th to be greeted by yet one more official at the highest level of government, who has declined to respect the rule of law in favor of giving a free pass to the Obama Administration. FBI Director Comey indicted Hillary Clinton in the court of public opinion by laying out before the TV cameras, step by step, her gross negligence in handling classified material, including Top Secret information that would compromise our national security if made accessible to our enemies. He told us Clinton sent classified information over servers not as safe as...

Beyond the FBI Probe There were further important public issues not addressed by the FBI today. They involve public records laws and the cost borne by the public, due to Clinton’s failures. Did Clinton allegedly violate public records laws? Yes, through use of the private servers and devices, failure to maintain required public records, temporary and permanent deletion of many records, and failure to fully disclose the records when asked. Did Clinton turn over all her public work records to the State Department in 2014 when her public servers were discovered? No. Did Clinton make all of the public’s records...

Tuesday morning, FBI Director James Comey stepped up to a podium and calmly and methodically demolished every single Hillary Clinton lie, spin, and evasion regarding her misuse of classified information. Months of deception blew up in her face. And then Comey decided to make her president of the United States. Rarely have 30 minutes of television so perfectly encapsulated the decline and fall of the rule of law and the extraordinary privileges enjoyed by America’s liberal elite. After listing abuse after abuse — and detailing lie after lie — Comey declared that “no reasonable prosecutor” would prosecute Hillary for her...

The results of an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state shredded Clinton’s most-oft recited defense — that she never sent or received information marked classified. The results of an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state shredded Clinton’s most oft-recited defense — that she never sent or received information marked classified. Clinton made the case for a year and as recently as Saturday, hours after being interviewed by investigators.

FBI Director James Comey’s bombshell decision to excuse presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton from indictment over her use of private e-mails might come as a surprise to many, but to Lanny Davis, who served as special counsel to former President Clinton, it’s a relief. During an interview on Cavuto: Coast to Coast, he defended Hillary Clinton and explained why she is more trustworthy than Donald Trump. “We are relieved and ready to move on. Secretary Clinton has said she made a mistake and has owned up to that mistake

And did she keep it on her bathroom server?

Explaining why he wasn’t recommending prosecution, Director James Comey instead showed that charges would have been justified. nlike Mrs. Clinton’s own lawyers—who decided which emails to produce by reading just the headings—the agents read each of the many thousands of emails and fragments that passed through their hands. The job was made no easier by the decision of those lawyers to obliterate the email record they had examined, making it impenetrable to forensic examination. All in all, these tasks of the agents bear comparison with the labors of Hercules. Mr. Comey didn’t explain why, with evidence clearly fulfilling the requirements...

EXCERPT Issa said: We are in a crisis because Hillary Clinton, if the voters do not stop her, will be the next President of the United States. She will, in fact, on Day One say, “Pardon me,” and she’ll mean it. She’ll have pardoned herself. She will have, in fact, gone from being a criminal involved in a criminal enterprise. Obviously, Clinton Cash depicted that and somebody who flaunted the security laws, the privacy laws, the presidential and the Federal Records Act, and gotten away with it.