by LV
Background:
Right on cue, a few days after the infamous meeting on June 27, 2016 between former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix airport tarmac, FBI Director James Comey issued a highly controversial statement that exonerated Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing in the FBI’s years-long probe into her private email server, which contained classified government documents, not to mention thousands of emails that were acid-washed away or hammered into oblivion by Clinton and her associates. Comey said the FBI decided to close down its investigation into the Clinton “matter,” as it was then euphemistically being described by Lynch and Comey, because “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” And thus it came to pass that the timely intercession of Bill Clinton, Loretta Lynch and James Comey miraculously cleared the way for Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful bid for the White House.
Sensing a miscarriage of justice, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), over a year ago, requested that the Department of Justice (DOJ) release documentation relating to the Clinton-Lynch meeting under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The FBI responded to that request by claiming it had no documents related to the meeting.
Latest Developments:
To its credit, the ACLJ refused to accept the FBI’s response and accused the FBI of lying to them. To everyone’s surprise, about a month ago, the FBI changed its tune and said that there are indeed documents in its possession that could be responsive to the ACLJ’s initial request, which was made over a year ago. About a week later, the FBI released 400 emails on the subject of the Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting…documents that the FBI initially said didn’t exist. Another watchdog group, Judicial Watch, received an almost completely redacted document from the FBI, which appears to have contained coordinated political talking points about the Clinton-Lynch meeting.
Implications:
Based on the FBI’s reluctant admission that it withheld FOIA documentation for over a year, it appears that fissures are beginning to appear in the figurative stone wall erected by Obama White House operatives, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. Perhaps, the FBI, under a new Republican administration and a new FBI Director, sees the writing on the wall and are starting to cooperate belatedly with government watchdogs. In the summer of 2016 when the tarmac meeting occurred and Comey decided to give Hillary Clinton a pass, it seemed highly improbable that anyone other than Hillary Clinton would be the next president of the U.S. The path of least resistance was to go with the flow and allow Clinton an unfettered run for the roses. After all, if Hillary was elected, as seemed likely at the time, she would be their boss. Why offend someone needlessly and face the backlash of her supporters and the Democratic Party, when it was so much better to curry Hillary’s favor? Based on the politics at the time and her strong polling numbers, it was a no-brainer for politicized DOJ and FBI leaders to let her off the hook. Consequently, they took the path of least resistance because it was wide open. Justice be damned.
Equal justice for all is a quaint notion for some people, but a strong sense of self-preservation is a more compelling motivation for insiders who know which side their bread is buttered. So it appears that leaders at the Obama DOJ and the FBI took the path of least resistance, which meant that justice would have to take a backseat to political realities. Because they thought they would never get caught, the conspirators got careless. They stupidly left a paper trail, which they failed to bit-bleach away.
Normally, journalists would salivate all over the story that just broke a couple of days ago, where the FBI agreed to search again and then find numerous documents relating to the Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting. Thus far, this otherwise explosive development has been greeted with jarring indifference by most mainstream media outlets, which have been roundly criticized for being in the tank for the Democratic Party.
So, here we are at what appears to be the nascent unraveling of a massive cover-up. As they say, the cover-up is always worse than the crime. And, if Watergate is any guide, this particular one will make that scandal look like a walk in the park.
One thing is certain. The FBI cannot be trusted to cooperate with watchdog groups after stonewalling them for a year, especially when leaders of the FBI and the DOJ appear to have participated in an obstruction of justice. Self-investigation is never a good idea, if the objective is a search for the truth. The foxes have had their way with the hens. It’s time to kick them out of the house and give justice a chance.