Does Comey have a ‘rogue agent’ problem at the FBI?
The Wall Street Journal reports there is infighting at the FBI over investigations involving Hillary Clinton and e-mail:
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The new investigative effort, disclosed by FBI Director James Comey on Friday, shows a bureau at times in sharp internal disagreement over matters related to the Clintons, and how to handle those matters fairly and carefully in the middle of a national election campaign. Even as the probe of Mrs. Clinton’s email use wound down in July, internal disagreements within the bureau and the Justice Department surrounding the Clintons’ family philanthropy heated up, according to people familiar with the matter.
The latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a teenage minor, they had recovered a laptop.
The Washington Post reports that some FBI agents wanted to investigate the Clinton Foundation:
FBI agents argued — based at least in part on news accounts — earlier this year that the Clinton Foundation should be investigated for potentially giving donors special political access and favors. The Justice Department’s public integrity unit said they did not have enough evidence to move forward.
The Clinton Foundation said it was never contacted by the FBI, suggesting the bureau’s efforts were in a preliminary stage as prosecutors weighed in. But agents in New York have sought to keep their inquiries alive, feuding with the Justice Department about the lengths to which they can go, according to people familiar with the matter.
That infighting became public Sunday, when the Wall Street Journal published a detailed account of interactions between prosecutors and FBI officials over the politically sensitive subject.
The FBI already is under fire for taking actions that could influence the presidential election just days away, after FBI Director James B. Comey revealed agents wanted to look at newly discovered a new batch of emails that were possibly relevant to the probe of Clinton’s private email server.
Josh Marshall weighs in with this:
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It describes what the article [characterizes] 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.
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