FBI Director Comey Goes Rogue, Ignoring Policy, All Election Precedents, Senior Colleagues & The US Attorney General

New Emails om Clinton Case Case Came From Anthony Weiner's Electronic Devices New York Times

If a picture says a thousand words, this just-released image of Huma Abedin with Hillary Clinton on the campaign plane as news of the Friday FBI inquiry shows one angry woman, and it's not the always composed Hillary Clinton.

The NYT writing makes it seem that Huma's electronic devices were also swept into the FBI investigation of her husband for sexting a minor. The lead says that the emails were found on Anthony Weiner's electronic devices.

The F.B.I. is investigating illicit text messages that Mr. Weiner sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The bureau told Congress on Friday that it had uncovered new emails related to the Clinton case — one federal official said they numbered in the thousands — potentially reigniting an issue that has weighed on the presidential campaign and offering a lifeline to Donald J. Trump less than two weeks before the election.

Hillary Clinton's Emails: The Real Reason the FBI Is Reviewing More of Them Newsweek

This Sun.am Kurt Eichenwald article is the best so far in sharing new info about Huma Abbedin's emails. Key points:

1. Abbedin previously told the FBI about her use of the email account and that she printed out Hillary docs at home because printing them at work -- in the US govt offices -- is a total pain in the butt. The FBI never asked for the laptop, even though Huma handed over other electronic devices.

2. None of the emails were to or from Clinton, an FBI official told Newsweek.

3. The laptop was not taken into FBI custody until the investigation into her estranged husband Anthony Weiner's illicit, sexual text messages began a few weeks ago.

4.  "Abedin would use this procedure for printing documents when she received emails she believed Clinton needed to see and when the Secretary forwarded emails to her for printing. Abedin told the FBI she would often print these emails without reading them. Abedin printed a large number of emails this way, in part because, investigative records show, other staff members considered her Clinton’s “gatekeeper” and often sent Abedin electronic communications they wanted the Secretary to see."

James Comey Broke With Loretta Lynch and Justice Department Tradition The New Yorker

FBI Director Comey went against the views of the Attorney General Loretta Lynch in sending his letter 11 days before a presidential election, according to a well-informed Administration official. 

Comey’s decision is a striking break with the policies of the Department of Justice, according to current and former federal legal officials. Comey, who is a Republican appointee of President Obama, has a reputation for integrity and independence, but his latest action is stirring an extraordinary level of concern among legal authorities, who see it as potentially affecting the outcome of the Presidential and congressional elections.

“You don’t do this,” one former senior Justice Department official told The New Yorker. “It’s aberrational. It violates decades of practice.” The reason, according to the former official, who asked not to be identified because of ongoing cases involving the department, “is because it impugns the integrity and reputation of the candidate, even though there’s no finding by a court, or in this instance even an indictment.”

Traditionally, the Justice Department has advised prosecutors and law enforcement to avoid any appearance of meddling in the outcome of elections, even if it means holding off on pressing cases. One former senior official recalled that Janet Reno, the Attorney General under Bill Clinton, “completely shut down” the prosecution of a politically sensitive criminal target prior to an election. “She was adamant—anything that could influence the election had to go dark,” the former official said.

We Are In for A Pretty Long Civil War Politico