Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
Six months ago, American liberals were howling for FBI Director James Comey’s head. Last night, they got it and naturally, being liberals, are outraged.
As recently as mid-January, no less prominent a liberal than Diane Feinstein herself was comfortable discussing a post-Comey FBI on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” while listing what she thought were the reasons Hillary Clinton lost the election; naturally, none of which had any basis in reality.
“Feinstein said that she was ‘not yet’ prepared to say that Comey should be fired for his actions, which the Justice Department’s inspector general is now investigating. Comey’s current term runs until fall of 2023.
‘The director, I think, was torn. I think he did what he thought was right. In my view, it turned out very much not to be right, because the FBI doesn’t announce investigations,’ she said.
Whether to keep Comey in place is ‘a decision to come when everybody learns much more about what drove this,’ she said,” the LA Times reported on Jan. 15.
“’The president’s actions today are shocking,’ said Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, that is itself investigating the Russian issue. ‘It is deeply troubling that the president has fired the FBI director during an active counterintelligence investigation into improper contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia,’” Michael Isikoff reported for Yahoo News yesterday.
The Left’s reaction to Comey’s termination is predictable and laughable at the same time. On the one hand, they want him to hang for costing Hillary the election (again, to cite the popular Leftist folktale about why Hillary lost), yet on the other, they wanted – indeed needed – him to find a smoking gun that proves Russia somehow “hacked” the election. Comey was put into the impossible position of both being the Left’s scapegoat and being tasked by the Left with finding a scapegoat.
Given the absurdity of the very notion that an election can be “hacked” by a foreign country – ignoring the amazing irony of American politicians whining about other counties meddling in our political process – the Left ought to take their consolation prize that is Comey’s head and be happy with it. The probe into Russia’s meddling isn’t likely to bear any fruit.
On Wednesday, May 4, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Feinstein whether the CIA briefing she’d been privy to on the status of the investigation had yielded any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“Not at this time,” she replied.
Nevertheless, the Left continues to hold out hope that some piece of evidence will emerge that will “prove” Russia “hacked” the election and thereby absolve them of their shameful guilt at losing to the second-worst presidential candidate in history. And, whatever “evidence” the probe turns up can only ever be taken with a massive grain of salt because WikiLeaks already has exposed the CIA’s UMBRAGE group. That part of CIA’s Remote Devices Branch collects and maintains cyber weapons copied from malware programs created in other countries, including Russia. One of their dirty digital tricks leaves bogus “fingerprints” behind after a cyberattack that can make the origin of the attack appear to have come from somewhere else. So, if the government ever comes forward and says it has “proof” that cyberattacks against the DNC originated from Russia, we can safely assume that to be a convenient lie.
Officially, Justice Department’s Inspector General’s office is still investigating and reviewing Comey’s actions as FBI director and their probe is far from complete, according to John Lavinsky, a spokesman for the inspector general, Michael Horowitz. Despite the fact the probe is still ongoing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy Rod Rosenstein both recommended Comey be fired now. To the Left, this was because he was obviously getting too close to the truth that will prove Russia somehow elected Donald Trump. In reality, his termination was linked to the matter the Left wanted him fired for six months ago.
“The inspector general’s review is focused on a number of issues relating to last year’s presidential election, including Comey’s public statement last July laying out his reasons not to recommend a prosecution of Hillary Clinton over her use of private email server, and the letter he sent in October informing Congress that the bureau was revisiting the issue.
Those factors were cited by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a memo released Tuesday night, calling Comey’s conduct a violation of long-standing department principles. ‘The way the director handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong,’ Rosenstein wrote. ‘As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them,’” Yahoo reported.
Yeah, about that; sorry Mr. Rosenstein, but your sentiment would be correct only if you ended that sentence exactly eighteen words sooner.
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