By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Sunday, September 6, 2016, FBI Director James B. Comey said that the bureau had completed its examination of newly discovered emails connected to Democratic Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. Just nine days ago, Comey had sent a letter to congressional committee chairmen saying that he had reopened the investigation.
On Sunday, Comey said that investigators had worked “around the clock” to review the emails. The investigators found that the emails were either duplicates of correspondence they had reviewed earlier or were personal emails that did not pertain to State Department business, government officials said. The emails were found on a computer used by disgraced former congressman, Anthony Weiner (D), who is married to longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI found the email during an FBI investigation into lewd text messages that Weiner is alleged to have sent to a 15-year-old girl.
On Sunday, Comey said that after reviewing emails on the computer, “we have not changed our conclusions expressed in July.”
State Auditor Jim Zeigler (R) said, “News commentators have been saying that the input of FBI Director James Comey into the presidential campaign is unprecedented. The fact is, FBI presidential campaign interference happened once before – big time.”
Zeigler disputed that saying that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had leaked information to the Dewey campaign in order to try to defeat incumbent President Harry Truman (D). Zeigler said, “Hoover and his FBI dug for dirt on the Truman administration. They found some, but not as much as they expected. There were a few Communists and more Communist sympathizers working in the federal government. Most were carryovers from the Roosevelt administration.
Hoover fed this information to friendly news reporters and to the Dewey campaign. The issue of communists in US government was a modest issue in the 1948 presidential elections. It could have been a big issue, but Dewey did not want to do anything controversial. He and almost everyone else felt he had the election won, so Dewey did not want to make any mistakes. He talked about unity instead of communists in government – or any other issue.”
Zeigler said, “If Dewey had chosen to actively utilize the FBI information, the outcome could have been different and Dewey may have won. But he and his campaign did not use the FBI information, and the issue of Communists in government did not develop then.
Truman won in a huge upset. For many reasons. One reason was that Dewey simply would not address any issues or do anything controversial. Gosh, there has not been a non-controversial presidential campaign in a good while. Nowadays, we cannot imagine a presidential campaign not addressing issues and avoiding controversy.”
Zeigler said, “The announcement a week and a half ago that the FBI was more-or-less reopening the investigation of Hillary e-mails on private servers helped shift the momentum to Trump. And the announcement Sunday that no charges would be brought against Hillary may have stunted that Trump momentum. The FBI is not very good at political involvement. Maybe they should concentrate on fighting street crime.”
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) said, “Here’s my full statement on Hillary Clinton in light of the FBI’s announcement today: Regardless of this decision, the undisputed finding of the FBI’s investigation is that Secretary Clinton put our nation’s secrets at risk and in doing so compromised our national security. She simply believes she’s above the law and always plays by her own rules. This is a pattern with the Clintons, and the American people should not have to endure four more years of their scandal and baggage. Fortunately, the American people have the opportunity to ensure Secretary Clinton never gets her hands on classified information again. Let’s bring the Clinton era to an end by voting for Donald J. Trump on Tuesday.”
Republic National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said, “The FBI’s findings from its criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s secret email server were a damning and unprecedented indictment of her judgment. The FBI found evidence Clinton broke the law, that she placed highly classified national security information at risk and repeatedly lied to the American people about her reckless conduct. None of this changes the fact that the FBI continues to investigate the Clinton Foundation for corruption involving her tenure as Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton should never be president.”
State Representative Mike Holmes (R-Wetumpka) said, “Who thinks this will ever go to Grand Jury? How corrupt must all of this administration be? The only antidote for The Clinton Crime Family is DONALD TRUMP!!! This lack of action just underscores our need to Drain the Swamp, then Lock Her Up!!!!”
While the FBI may have closed the case, according to a recent poll by Rasmussen, a majority of voters still think Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton broke the law when she was Secretary of State. 60 percent of likely US Voters consider it likely that Clinton broke the law by sending and receiving e-mails containing classified information through a private e-mail server. 48 percent say it’s Very Likely.
Polls show Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump 45.5 percent to 42.3 percent. In 2012, President Obama was leading former Gov. Mitt Romney by just .5 percent at this point in the race. Of the fourteen major pollsters only IBD/TIPP has Donald Trump winning this race.
