by Jack Kelly
November 2, 2016

Who’da thunk the FBI would spring the Mother of all October Surprises?

The Bureau is reopening its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, because thousands more have been discovered on the laptop computer of Anthony Weiner, soon to be ex-husband of Hillary aide and confidante Huma Abedin, Director James Comey said in a letter to Congress Oct. 28.

In early October, agents investigating whether Mr. Weiner sent lewd texts to an underage girl found 650,000 emails on his computer, thousands to or from Ms. Abedin, according to the must read story by Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Devlin Barrett.

She often forwarded emails from her state.gov account to either clintonemail.com or her Yahoo account so she could print them at home rather than at her State Department office, Ms. Abedin told the FBI.

FBI agents were peeved because the Justice Department slow rolled their request for a subpoena for Ms. Abedin’s emails. (The subpoena that permitted agents to seize Mr. Weiner’s computer only authorized them to examine his emails.)

Two days after their existence was made public, Justice issued a subpoena for Huma’s emails.

Republicans bashed Mr. Comey for giving Hillary a pass after acknowledging she was negligent in handling classified information and destroyed evidence.

Now Democrats hammer the FBI director for making the new probe public 12 days before the election.

Mr. Comey wouldn’t have…unless the FBI uncovered “a real bombshell”, speculated investigative reporter Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame.

Director Comey may have felt he had no choice.

He’d told Congress the investigation of Hillary was over. If he hadn’t informed lawmakers of the change in circumstances, word of the find on Mr. Weiner’s computer almost certainly would have leaked – Director Comey is about as popular with the FBI rank and file as Donald Trump is with the National Organization for Women.

It would look as if Mr. Comey were withholding pertinent information to protect Hillary. What shards remain of his reputation for integrity would be smashed.

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Mr. Barrett’s story had good news and bad news for FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. His wife, Jill, got $470,000 – a mammoth sum for a state senate candidate – from a SuperPac controlled by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton crony who the FBI is investigating for soliciting illegal contributions.

A senior Justice Department official criticized Deputy Director McCabe for continuing an investigation of the Clinton Foundation Justice wanted quashed, Mr. Barrett reported. The official backed off after Mr. McCabe indignantly responded: “Are you telling me I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?”

But some rank and file agents think Mr. McCabe is one of the senior officials who’ve been throwing roadblocks in their path, Mr. Barrett said.

The most recent Wikileaks data drop augments considerable circumstantial evidence Hillary was hiding “play for pay” deals. The secretary of state would do favors for people – even for shady characters hostile to the United States – after they made big contributions to the Clinton Foundation.

An explicit quid pro quo would constitute receiving or soliciting a bribe, felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Might evidence of one turn up in the Huma emails?

The Clinton Foundation is a “cesspool,” says former FBI Deputy Director James Kallstrom, which likely reflects what agents assigned to the investigation are thinking.

Mr. Barrett’s exposure of efforts to quash investigations of the Clinton Foundation makes it harder for Justice to impede them now. FBI agents are likely to get the investigative tools they need. Sunlight is a great disinfectant.

The FBI can’t complete investigations of Hillary’s emails and the Clinton Foundation before the election. But it may finish one or both before the next president is inaugurated. If Hillary wins, she could be the first president-elect ever to be indicted for a felony.

She may not win. Polls have tightened since Director Comey’s October Surprise. Democrats are learning that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to nominate a crook who peddles influence to every lowlife who crosses her palm with enough silver.

“If ruling Democrats hold themselves to the high moral standards they impose on the people they govern, they would demand that Mrs. Clinton step down, immediately,” said Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass.

Are we having fun yet?

 

— Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration. He is the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  This article originally appeared at To The Point News.