‘TheFBI is Trumpland’: anti-Clintonenvironment stimulated leaking, resources claim Posted by | Sep 1, 2017 | About Russia | 0 | Highly unfavorable opinion of Hillary Clinton intensified after James Comeys decision not to recommend an indictment over her use of a private email server Deep antipathy to Hillary Clinton exists within the FBI, multiple bureau sources have told the Guardian, spurring a rapid series of leaks damaging to her campaign just days before the election. Current and former FBI officials , none of whom were willing or cleared to speak on the record, have described a chaotic internal climate that resulted from outrage over director James Comeys July decision not to recommend an indictment over Clintons maintenance of a private email server on which classified information transited. The FBI is Trumpland, said one current agent. This atmosphere raises major the issue of how Comey and the bureau he is slated to run for the next seven years can work with Clinton should she win the White House. The currently serving FBI agent said Clinton is the antichrist exemplified to a large swath of FBI personnel, and that the reason why theyre leaking is theyre pro-Trump. The agent called the bureau Trumplandia, with some colleagues openly discussing be voting in favour of a GOP nominee who has garnered unprecedented disapproval from the partys national security wing and who has pledged to jail Clinton if elected. Hillary Clinton: There is no case in FBI email investigation video At the same time, other sources dispute the depth of support for Trump within the bureau, though they uniformly stated that Clinton is viewed highly unfavorably. There are lots of people who dont guess Trump is qualified, but also believe Clinton is corrupted. What you hear a lot is that its a bad choice, between an incompetent and a corrupted politician, said a former FBI official. Sources who disputed the depth of Trumps internal supporting agreed that the FBI is now in parlous political province. Justice department officers another current target of FBI dissatisfaction have said the bureau disregarded longstanding regulations against perceived or actual electoral interferencewhen Comey wrote to Congress to say it was reviewing newly discovered emails relating to Clintons personal server. The FBI director, James Comey, witnesses during the Senate committee hearing in September. Photo: Shawn Thew/ EPA Comeys vague letter to Congress, promptly leaked by Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz, said the bureau would evaluate communications subsequently identified as coming from a device used by disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner, whose estranged wife Huma Abedin is a Clinton aide for connections to the Clinton server. Comeys allies say he was placed in an impossible posture after previously testifying to Congress it would take an extraordinary development for him to revisit the Clinton issue. Throughout the summer and fall, Trump has attacked the FBI as corrupted for not effectively aiming Clintons political career. A political firestorm erupted, with Comey and the members of the bureau coming under withering criticism, including a rebuke on Wednesday from Barack Obama. Even some congressional Republicans , no friends to Clinton, have expressed discomfort with Comeys last-minute insert of the bureau into the election. The relevance of the communications to the Clinton inquiry has yet to be established, as Comey issued his letter before obtaining a warrant to evaluate them. Clinton surrogates are saying that Comey has issued innuendo rather than evidence, preventing them from mounting a public defense. Obama criticises FBI: we dont operate on innuendo video Some feel Comey needs to address the criticism and provide reassurance that the bureau, with its wide-ranging investigative and surveillance powers, will comport itself in an apolitical way. Yet since Friday, Comey has maintained his silence, even as both Clinton and Trump have called for the members of the bureau to disclose more of what it knows. Leaks, however, have continued. Fox News reported on Wednesday that the FBI is intensifying an investigation into the Clinton Foundation over accusations which both the foundation and the Clinton camp deny it traded donations for access to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state. The Wall Street Journal reported that justice department officers considered the allegations flimsy. The leaks have not exclusively cast aspersions on Clinton. Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign administrator, is the subject of what is said to be a preliminary FBI inquiry into his business dealings in Russia. Manafort has denied any wrongdoing. The Daily Beast reported on Thursday on ties between Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and the FBIs New York field office, which reportedly pressed the FBI to revisit the Clinton server investigation after beginning an investigation of Weiners alleged sex texting with a minor. The website reported that a former New York field office chief, highly critical of the non-indictment, operates a military charity that has received significant financial gifts from Trump. Comeys decision to tell the public in July that he was effectively dropping the Clinton server issue indignation some within the bureau, particularly given the background of tensions with the justice department over the Clinton issue. A significant complication is the appearance of a conflict of interest regarding Loretta Lynch, the prosecutor general, who met with Bill Clinton this summer ahead of Comeys announcement, which she recognise had cast a shadow over the inquiry. Many FBI agents were upset at the director , not because he didnt[ recommend to] indict, but they believe he hurled the FBI under the bus by taking the heat away from DoJ[ Department of Justice ], the former bureau officer told. All this has compounded pressure on Comey, with little objective in sight. Jim Wedick, who retired from the bureau in 2004 after 35 years, said that if Clinton is elected, she and Comey would probably find a way to work together out of a sense of pragmatism. He remembered both his own occasional conflicts with federal prosecutors and Bill Clintons uneasy relationship with his choice for FBI director, Louis Freeh. Each one will find a way to pick at the other. Its not going to be good and its not going to be pretty. But theyll both have to work with one another, he told. Senator RonWyden, an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee, told: The continued leadership failures at the FBI are another reminder we cant let intelligence agencies tell trust us and then give them a blank check to probe into Americans lives. While Ive argued for years that Congress must create ironclad protections for Americans security and privacy, we also need vigilant oversight of agencies that have the power to deprive citizens of their liberty or change the course of an election. The FBI would not commentary for this story. Read more: www.theguardian.com
