Donald Trump claims that Hillary Clinton’s email controversy is “worse than Watergate.” But the real story is that FBI Director James Comey may have committed a crime similar to Watergate: using the power of his office to try to illegally influence the outcome of a presidential election.
The Hatch Act, officially called “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities“ is a longstanding law that prohibits employees in the executive branch of the federal government from active support for political candidates or campaigns.
A complaint has already been filed with the Department of Justice alleging that James Comey violated the Hatch Act:
The Democratic Coalition Against Trump filed a complaint with the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility on Friday against FBI Director James Comey for interfering in the Presidential election, following the FBI’s decision to open up an investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails this close to Election Day. Federal employees are forbidden from participating in political activities under the Hatch Act.
“It is absolutely absurd that FBI Director Comey would support Donald Trump like this with only 11 days to go before the election,” said Scott Dworkin, Senior Advisor to the Democratic Coalition Against Trump. “It is an obvious attack from a lifelong Republican who used to serve in the Bush White House, just to undermine her campaign. ...”
This allegation against FBI Director Comey is more credible in light of the breaking news that Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates objected to Comey’s decision to send a letter to Congress about emails discovered on Anthony Weiner’s computer — a letter which misleadingly characterized those emails as being potentially relevant to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server. Comey failed to note in his letter that the emails were not on Clinton’s server and not sent or received by Clinton.
Comey’s vaguely worded letter omitted highly relevant facts and seems to have been designed to maximize Republican innuendo against Clinton during the crucial closing weeks of the presidential campaign. Comey sent his letter in violation of the wishes of his boss, Attorney General Lynch. His letter was also in violation of Justice Department policy not to comment on investigations within 60 days of an election to avoid influencing the outcome.
James Comey’s reckless behavior requires that he immediately resign from his position as Director of the FBI, or if he fails to do so, then he must be fired with cause by President Obama.
Furthermore, Comey has demonstrated a disturbing refusal to abide by the norms of the Justice Department only in the case of the investigation of Hillary Clinton. He has not provided any similar public updates on the FBI investigations regarding the Trump campaign’s possible connections to the Russian government or Russian hackers. This may indicate that Comey’s known political bias (he is a Republican) may be influencing how he does his job as FBI Director, during the most important phase of a presidential election.
In light of the evidence, an investigation should be opened into James Comey’s possible violation of the Hatch Act. Has he politicized the FBI to try to influence the election? This would be political corruption of the highest order. This is a grave matter which makes any further discussion of Hillary Clinton’s emails look trivial in comparison.
Remove Comey from office and investigate him now. The integrity of U.S. federal law enforcement and the presidential election depends on it.