James Comey admits his handling Hillary Clinton email case was influenced by pre-election polls

By Robert Laurie —— Bio and Archives April 13, 2018

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Remember the James Comey press conference? Of course you do. He got up in front of the cameras, put on his aww shucks face, and listed all of the MANY ways in which Hillary Clinton had broken the law. By the time he was finished, it was obvious that she’d committed multiple felonies and any normal person who’d committed similar transgressions would be facing multiple charges. …Then Comey said she didn’t mean it, and no prosecutor would take the case, and golly let’s just all be friends and let this go.

It was, in a word, disgraceful – probably one of the single most damaging things ever to happen to the federal law enforcement community. James Comey confirmed that Hillary Clinton was above the laws he’d outlined only seconds before. Now, thanks to his new book, we knew that the way he handled his decision was influenced by political polling. That’s right. In Comey’s own words, the polls said Hillary couldn’t lose and that played a part in his now-infamous handling of the email server fiasco. From the hardcore leftists at VOX:

In his new book A Higher Loyalty, former FBI Director James Comey admits what most observers had inferred — that the overwhelming conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton was going to win on Election Day played a role in his fateful decision to refocus the campaign on the email matter in late October. “It is entirely possible,” Comey writes, “that because I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president, my concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation bore greater weight than it would have if the election appeared closer or if Donald Trump were ahead in all polls. But I don’t know.”

In other words, Comey was sure she’d win – because of polls – so he didn’t want this unpleasant matter to disrupt her presumed presidency by coming out after the election. Liberals – and Hillary herself – like to blame the investigation for destroying Mrs. Clinton’s chances but, if you dig a bit deeper, you find all sorts of evidence that the polling models were always flawed. The infamous “letter” didn’t ruin her. Her hubris, un-likability, arrogance regarding the Midwest, and decades of corruption did. Still, Comey goes on to say “he’s sorry” that Hillary’s mad at him.

“I have read she has felt anger toward me personally, and I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry that I couldn’t do a better job explaining to her and her supporters why I made the decisions I made”

None of that is really the point, though. Comey shouldn’t have been making ANY decision based on who would, or wouldn’t, win the 2016 election. He’s supposed to make decisions based solely on the rule of law. If Hillary broke the law, she should have been indicted and prosecuted. If not, she should have been exonerated. Instead, we got a little of both when he offered a list of crimes committed and a decision to let her off the hook. Regardless of how you feel about Hillary, this passage – from Comey’s own book – confirms what we’ve all known all along. His handling of the matter was politically influenced. No matter what he ultimately decided, “The polls” should have had nothing to do with it.