"Deeply Disturbing": A must read.

[kstewart33]

Josh Marshall has just released a piece on his website where he presents the most telling and insightful take on Comey and the actions of FBI agents. Here is an excerpt focusing on Barrett, the author of today's WSJ article that exposed the 2nd FBI investigation on Clinton, namely The Clinton Foundation. It's very well worth reading Marshall's entire piece. IMHO, I think he's nailed it.

An excerpt:

Still more troubling is the information contained in this just released article in The Wall Street Journal by Devlin Barrett. It describes what the article describes as a feud within the FBI and between the FBI and the Department of Justice over the Clinton probe. It now seems clear that what are essentially rogue FBI agents have been looking for all sorts of different angles to pursue investigations of Hillary Clinton and her family. Indeed, they've presented their evidence to career public corruption prosecutors at DOJ and been told they don't have anything. But it hasn't stopped. They clearly were not happy with the decision in the emails probe even though Comey said not even a close call.

This seems to be the backstory of what happened on Friday. Agents pushing for more aggressive investigations on various fronts, Comey fearing he'd be blamed after the fact for not notifying Congress in the letter he sent and specifically being afraid that some of these agents would leak news of the possibly new Huma Abedin emails to Congress. These are not fun situations to be in, I am sure. But they are ones an FBI Director should, indeed must, be willing to stand up to.

Here's something to look at very closely. Last week we heard this story of how the Bureau's now second in command, Andrew McCabe might have been unduly influenced because Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) contributed substantial sums to McCabe's wife's failed state senate campaign in an effort to reclaim control of the Virginia state senate for the Democrats. I won't rehearse the details of that article. But the dates and the logic of the argument simply don't hold up. The author of that article was the WSJ's Devlin Barrett, the same reporter who wrote the just discussed article about agents at war with their superiors at the FBI.

It is quite clear those agents have Barrett's ear. Indeed, it seems extraordinarily likely that that earlier article (the McAuliffe one) was a first effort to push the Clinton emails story back into the campaign spotlight, indeed to discredit the decision made in July to close the case.

Link: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/deeply-disturbing

[Foggyhill]

1. So, agents being paid by government to dig in the lifeb

Of Clinton using the power of the fucking FBI

Constant phishing expeditions with nobend

If this true, this is a monster long term scandal in the making

So we are back to Hoover time...

[randome]

7. Except I don't think there is a Hoover analogue behind the scenes.

It's more of a flash mob of entitled white men who either can't stand the Democrats from taking control or who gag at the thought of a woman President.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[pat_k]

2. Well-known Clinton-hater Ed Klein ("Guilty as Sin")

... has a hit piece similar to Barrett's WSJ article in the Daily Mail. It's also about the "disaffected agents" (wingnuts) in the FBI who wanted to go on this or that witch hunt.

I found the following interesting:

'Some people, including department heads, stopped talking to Jim, and even ignored his greetings when they passed him in the hall,' said the source. 'They felt that he betrayed them and brought disgrace on the bureau by letting Hillary off with a slap on the wrist.'

...He told his wife that he was depressed by the stack of resignation letters piling up on his desk from disaffected agents.

A couple points:

1) Great to hear some of these idiots resigned. Good riddance. I hope the "stack of resignation letters" from disgruntled right-wingnuts gets to be sky high.

2) This is another example of the power of "DC Society." In DC, if showing some courage and doing the right thing might get you frowns at the cocktail parties (or ignored in the hallways) the solution is easy. Do the opposite of the right thing (aka cowardly, immoral, wrong thing).


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3886942/Resignation-letters-piling-disaffected-FBI-agents-wife-urging-admit-wrong-Director-Comey-jumped-chance-reopen-Hillary-investigation.html#ixzz4Oe0dY8ne

[Cha]

3. Thank you for this info, pat_k!

[Cha]

4. Mahalo for Josh, stewart!

[Sancho]

5. Barrett is on Morning Joke right now...640 am Monday.

[enough]

6. Josh brings up the possibility of "naivete" twice in this article.

I can't see any reason for imagining "naivete" in the case of Comey.