Posted on 07/09/2016 12:47:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Thursday that there is a law, passed in 1917, criminalizing gross negligence in handling classified material, but "nobody" ever invokes it, and he insisted that Justice Department prosecutors wouldn't, either.
He said the Justice Department has applied that 1917 law only once over the years; and knowing the Justice Department as he does, "No reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in 100 years focused on gross negligence," Comey said.
"I know the Department of Justice, I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. I know a lot of my former friends are out there saying they would. I wonder where they were in the last 40 years, because I'd like to see the cases they brought on gross negligence. Nobody would, nobody did."
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
In his opening statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Comey said he welcomed the opportunity to explain why the FBI reached the conclusion it did regarding Hillary Clinton's careless use of a personal email server.
He said the FBI was guided by the facts, the law, and how people have been treated in the past:
"There are two things that matter in a criminal investigation of a subject -- what did the person do, and when they did that thing, what were they thinking? When you look at the hundred-years plus of the Justice Department investigation and prosecution of the mishandling of classified information, those two questions are obviously present," Comey said.
Comey said it's important to know what people were thinking: "We don't want to put people in jail unless we prove that they knew they were doing something they shouldn't do. That is the characteristic of all the prosecutions involving the mishandling of classified information."
He pointed to the 1917 statute "that on its face, makes it a crime, a felony, for someone to engage in gross negligence. So that would appear to say, well maybe in that circumstance you don't need to prove they knew they were doing something that was unlawful. Maybe it's enough to prove that they were just really, really careless, beyond a resonable doubt."
But Comey noted that at the time Congress passed the law in 1917, "there was a lot of concern in the House and the Senate about whether that was going to violate the American tradition of requiring that before you're going to lock somebody up, you prove they knew they were doing something wrong. And so there was a lot of concern when the statute was passed.
"As best I can tell, the Department of Justice has used it once in the 99 years since, reflecting that same concern," he said.
"I know from 30 years with the Department of Justice, they have grave concerns about whether it's appropriate to prosecute somebody for gross negligence, which is why they've done it once that I know of, in a case involving espionage.
"And so when I look at the facts we gathered here, as I said, I see evidence of great carelessness, but I do not see evidence that's sufficient to establish that Secretary Clinton or those with whom she was corresponding both talked about classified information on email and knew when they did it that they were doing something that was against the law.
"So given that assessment of the facts, and my understanding of the law, my conclusion was and remains, no reasonable proseuctor would bring this case. No reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in 100 years focused on gross negligence."
Comey told the committee, "That's just the way it is."
"I know the Department of Justice, I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. I know a lot of my former friends are out there saying they would. I wonder where they were in the last 40 years, because I'd like to see the cases they brought on gross negligence. Nobody would, nobody did."
Comey said people can disagree, but he stands by his and his team's decision that the "appropriate resolution was not with a criminal prosecution."
Can you say “selective enforcement”? Sure you can. Would you like to be my neighbor?
There is a phrase in law “matter of first impression” which is used to predicate the prosecution of something for the first time. In other words, just because there isn’t a case which gives a precedent doesn’t mean you can’t ever prosecute a case under a law for the first time.
Granted this is a case with enormous implications given the political nature and status of the lawbreaker, but it might also show the Republic in the best light as a nation where no one is above the law.
How ‘bout that! I didn’t know that laws came with ‘use by’ dates!
“Destroy the democRAT party or they will destroy America... Its as simple as that.”
George W Bush had their nuts in a vice in Sept of 2001. The democrats were caught flat footed and bush let them skate because he wanted to be their buddies. In exchange they stabbed him in the back repeatedly and with malice aforethought.
Lets not forget that.
Comey is a self-righteous lawbreaker.
Gotta love the “no reasonable prosecutor” argument. It’s similar to the “when did you stop beating your wife?” question.
Waiting for some prosecutor to stand up and say “uh me, I’m an unreasonable prosecutor.”
I believe in equal treatment of women. Throw her into jail just like you would any man.
Hey...all you people....set up a FOUNDATION and get Americas SECRETS and just have DONATIONS made to your FOUNDATION....NO PROBLEM!!
COMMEY is CORRUPT and CROOKED and a DEMOCRAT!!! I HATE THIS COUNTRY!!!
Except of course they have
I wish they had told me that when I got my clearance. I could have saved a whole lot of time and energy by working from home. Just store the TS-SCI materials I needed in my nightstand, gmail the analysis back and forth, and the work would have been so much easier. Or is it only American royalty, like Hillary, who are exempt from rules that the little people were briefed on?
We didn’t have computers and e-mail in my day.
Miscommunication over who was required to secure a secure area led to it being left unsecured overnight. All accidents are rooted in a degree of carelessness.
This is what the Days of Noah and Lot look like. We are in the End Times. This is what is written in the Word of God about what will happen. The Revelation 12:1-2 great sign in the heaven will actually happen on September 23-24, 2017.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, and pray to be found worthy to escape the Wrath to come, then you will be out of here before the Great Tribulation starts. If you are a believer and think you want to go through the Great Tribulation, then maybe Jesus will protect you, but the preponderance of Scripture says you will get your head cut off. Either way, you will make it to the Glassy Sea and get to come back with Jesus at his Second Coming to administer the Millennial Kingdom.
I didnt give Bible verses on purpose. It is really time to break it out and read it every day. Follow Msgr. Charles Popes daily messages. I am convinced that he is the Anointed Pope for this the last generation.
Most of all, Let not your heart be troubled! Jesus told you that this was going to happen, before it happened, so that when it started to happen, you would believe! Believe! Read your Bible and pray!
He’s got five kids and in her interview Hillary demonstrated with just enough plausible deniability that knew them all by name and where they live.
I had email, but no classified email system. If I remember correctly, I several times spent at least a full day learning exactly what the rules were and what would happen if I broke those rules.
The question of purpose always struck me as central. How could the FBI investigate this without determining what Hillary was actually trying to accomplish? How could Gowdy, et al, not pin Comey down on what Hillary told them her purpose was, and what the FBI believed it to be? Willful obtuseness is getting old.
Clinton Foundation graft is to be swept under a different rug, if the stone wall is ever carted away. DoJ just supported the State Department’s filing in another FOIA case, to take 27 months to produce the 1000’s of Clinton Foundation-related emails unearthed so far (and you can bet that’s maybe half of them). There were supposedly 800 a week over a period of years. Hillary seems to have used a network of stooges to keep her prints off the Foundation corruption.
classified docs go back in the safe after use.
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