Thanks Conan.
We found no evidence that Comey’s decision to send the October 28 letter was influenced by political preferences. Instead, we found that his decision was the result of several interrelated factors that were connected to his concern that failing to send the letter would harm the FBI and his ability to lead it, and his view that candidate Clinton was going to win the presidency and that she would be perceived to be an illegitimate president if the public first learned of the information after the election. Although Comey told us that he “didn’t make this decision because [he] thought it would leak otherwise,” several FBI officials told us that the concern about leaks played a role in the decision.
So far it’s one big white washing of FBI conduct and behavior.
Is there ANY corner of America that the conspiracy doesn’t pollute?
Page 14
Recommendations
Our report makes nine recommendations to the Department and the FBI to assist them in addressing the issues that we identified in this review.
Sounds to me they were more concern about the fact that information was getting out…and thus made recommendation to prevent it from happening again in the future.
The public must not know.
What are the recommendations.
“The public must not know!”
We recommend that the Department and the
FBI consider developing guidance that identifies
the risks associated with and alternatives to
permitting a witness to attend a voluntary
interview of another witness (including in the
witness’s capacity as counsel).
• We recommend that the Department consider
making explicit that, except in situations where
the law requires or permits disclosure, an
investigating agency cannot publicly announce
its recommended charging decision prior to
consulting with the Attorney General, Deputy
Attorney General, U.S. Attorney, or his or her
designee, and cannot proceed without the
approval of one of these officials.
• We recommend that the Department and the
FBI consider adopting a policy addressing the
appropriateness of Department employees
discussing the conduct of uncharged individuals
in public statements.
• We recommend that the Department consider
providing guidance to agents and prosecutors
concerning the taking of overt investigative
steps, indictments, public announcements, or
other actions that could impact an election.
• We recommend that the Office of the Deputy
Attorney General take steps to improve the
retention and monitoring of text messages
Department-wide.
• We recommend that the FBI add a warning
banner to all of the FBI’s mobile phones and
devices in order to further notify users that they
have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
• We recommend that the FBI consider (a)
assessing whether it has provided adequate
training to employees about the proper use of
text messages and instant messages, including
any related discovery obligations, and (b)
providing additional guidance about the
allowable uses of FBI devices for any nongovernmental
purpose, including guidance
about the use of FBI devices for political
conversations.
We recommend that the FBI consider whether
(a) it is appropriately educating employees
about both its media contact policy and the
Department’s ethics rules pertaining to the
acceptance of gifts, and (b) its disciplinary
provisions and penalties are sufficient to deter
such improper conduct.
• We recommend that Department ethics officials
include the review of campaign donations for
possible conflict issues when Department
employees or their spouses run for public office.
Also…
That friends of Rudy and Hannity in the New York FBI office might leak the details if there wasn’t a public announcement.
You were right about them sitting on the Weiner laptop for a month and only started working on it after it was prompted by the agent working on the Weiner case.
Which seems to be the right way to go about it.
Standard practice in the FBI is to not comment on ongoing investigations.
Is it your opinion that this is bad?
Interesting.
Comey said that his comment to Yates about appointing a special counsel
also was motivated by concerns about the appearance of political bias in the
Department. He said that these concerns were based on the overall political
environment—given then President Obama’s comments about the investigation, he did not think the Department leadership could credibly complete the investigation without charges.127
No political bias? When Comey himself was concern about political bias after Obama comment.
Comey was worries that he would have to complete charges.
IMO something here doesn’t compute.
The appearance of.
He was worried about how it might look, not how it was.
Yes, because Comey having concerns about bias from Obama totally proves he was in the Dem’s pocket. 
Given the rhetoric from the right, who could blame them?
Yuuuup.
Comey made it worse, for the right reasons.
And had he kept it quiet till after Clinton lost as procedure dictated, the FBI et al would still have been accused of malpractice.
Lose-lose.
That’s the way I see it as well. He was forced to pick a path, with both leading to a negative outcome for the FBI.
In 2016, my team faced an extraordinary situation — something I thought of as a 500-year flood — offering no good choices and presenting some of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. We knew that reasonable people might choose to do things differently and that a future independent reviewer might not see things the way we did. Yet I always believed that an inspector general report would be crucial to understanding and evaluating our actions.
Why would he be worried if you were following the evidence?
Because some people don’t care what the evidence shows. They just wanted a particular outcome.
Go ahead. Tell me that he wasn’t right to be concerned.
