Did James Comey slow-walk the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton?
Now, consider the other scenario—that Comey or McCabe were fully informed in early October that new Clinton emails were found on the Weiner laptop, that one or both decided to slow-walk it so as to not to have to take action, then were finally forced to do so under New York FBI’s threat of leaks to the press. For this narrative to be accurate, the following would have to be true.
- McCabe briefed Comey at the beginning of October that thousands of Clinton emails had been found on Weiner’s laptop, and a subpoena was needed to investigate further.
- They decided to slow-walk it, and were able to do so until they learned that FBI New York was about to leak it.
- No formal or informal review was ordered or executed, because Comey knew how it all went down, and didn’t want or need one.
While “reasonable people” could argue that the first narrative falls within the realm of possibility, I imagine those same people would have to admit that the second one seems a lot more plausible. If Comey indeed chose the Clinton Option, that professing ignorance or inattention could carry him over some rough patches in his narrative, we should all find out whether this was an effective strategy once the IG report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton investigation is released in the coming days or weeks. My guess is that he’s not looking forward to it.