Comey has blatantly violated Federal rules barring prosecutors from interfering in an election.
This was written last July in response to his highly unusual press conference, but it applies equally to his letter today.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/fbi-director-james-comey-breaks-federal-prosecutor-rules-smearing-not-indicting
The Department of Justice’s voluminous U.S. Attorneys Manual has sections restricting press comments when there’s no indictment in all but the most exceptional cases, barring prosecutors from interfering in political campaigns. It states that prosecutors should not name unindicted defendants, and even cites federal court rulings chastising prosecutors for doing exactly that.
Comey, a Republican appointed as FBI director by President Obama, crossed all three of those lines. Very few commentators noted that Comey shouldn’t have said anything at all, and how unusual it was that he did. One exception was Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of the Lawfare blog and a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
SNIP
One academic legal blogger, Stetson University College of Law professor Ellen Podgor, noted that most FBI investigations with no indictments don’t issue public statements; that the FBI’s investigation was one-sided; that Comey cited hypotheticals without facts; that his accusations about her lawyers were unnecessary and unprofessional; and that it is Congress’ responsibility to upgrade the IT protocols of federal agencies like the State Department.
“When they do provide an announced recommendation of non-indictment, the FBI should limit their statement to just that,” she said. “There is no need to tarnish a person's reputation in the process—especially when there is no concrete evidence to support the hypotheticals.”
Other practicing lawyers were more blunt.
“The Department of Justice policies are you don’t comment on people you don’t indict. You don’t punish them in the press,” said an ex-Connecticut public defender. “The other thing is the DOJ policy is you don’t do things to affect elections, period. I don’t see anybody questioning this. Everybody thinks the FBI is sacrosanct.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
he sent mail to congressional members. They were the ones who promoted this nothing-burger as a big deal and distorted their importance to the press.
Perhaps they are the ones who should be investigated for releasing emails to the public.
