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Comey Denies Clinton Email 'Reddit' Cover-Up (politico.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The FBI concluded that a computer technician working on Clinton's email was not engaged in an illicit cover-up when he asked on the Reddit website for a tool that could delete a "VIP" email address throughout a large file, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday. Republican lawmakers have suggested that the July 2014 Reddit post from a user believed to be Platte River Networks specialist Paul Combetta showed an effort to hide Clinton's emails from investigators. However, at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Comey said FBI agents concluded that all the computer aide was trying to do was replace Clinton's email address so it wouldn't be revealed to the public. "Our team concluded that what he was trying to do was when they produced emails not have the actual address but have some name or placeholder instead of the actual dot-com address in the 'From:' line," Comey said. Comey said he wasn't sure whether the FBI knew about the Reddit posting when prosecutors granted Combetta immunity to get statements from him about what transpired. However, he added that such a deletion wouldn't automatically be considered an effort to destroy evidence. "Not necessarily ... It would depend what his intention was and why he wanted to do it," the FBI director said.

16 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It won't matter what Comey says by blogagog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And others are incredibly resistant to admitting that Clinton is clearly breaking laws and suffering no consequences for it.

  2. Double Standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I appreciate the lengths Comey has gone through to show the double standard justice system. He says Clinton had no intent to hide anything, he never asked her if she did. He says the administrator had no intention of doing anything wrong, and again probably didn't ask him. Comey also rewrote the law claiming Congress wanted intention to be part of the law, which they didn't include in the wording, without having asked them. He also outright ignored her lying under oath to Congress, along with all the people who lied to the FBI during the investigation. He also failed to investigate any of the bribes Clinton took while SOS, didn't even look into it to see if there might be something.

    Meanwhile...
    The IRS targets individuals because they don't follow the correct political views.
    Peter Thiel is investigated by department of Labor because he supports Trump.

    Were the tea party members asked if their intention was to break laws? Was Peter Thiel asked if he intended to be discriminatory in hiring? It doesn't matter in those cases because they are not "important" like Clinton.

    My big question, what can they now do to restore confidence in the system? I actually don't have an answer to that question at this time.

    1. Re:Double Standard by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering that there was only one left-leaning organization in that entire group and when it came to light, they were approved forthwith. But those tea party groups were still waiting, some are. And the IRS is still refusing to comply with lawful orders to turn over evidence. On top of that Thiel isn't a racist, he has opinions you don't like. And like many on the left, you use whatever label is convenient to smear people because you think it'll hurt their image. Too bad you've(along with the radical left) been using that shit for so long now that people believe all you've done is cry wolf. Just like the whining about how everything is sexist, or against women or some other inane bullshit.

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  3. Bullshit by acoustix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Either way he obviously tried to alter records that we under subpoena. This is so fucking corrupt it is unbelievable.

    Will I get the same leniency and benefit of doubt if the FBI or Justice Department ever investigates me for the same or less serious crimes? (not that I'm planning any)

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  4. Re:Two types of laws by tsqr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Also, intent matters when determining guilt.

    I suggest you try, "Officer, I didn't see the sign" the next time you're pulled over for running a stop sign.

  5. Re:Two types of laws by RoccamOccam · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Also, as pointed out by National Review

    In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing. The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence .

  6. Re:Clinton is above the law by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The good old "you too" fallacy - why no one ever holds politicians accountable for their misdeeds and illegal activitites today.

    "Sure, my client robbed this bank, but come on. Is he the first person ever to rob a bank? Haven't plenty of bank robbers gotten off scot free? Is it really fair for us to single this one person out?"

  7. Corruption at the highest level by linuxrunner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yet, absolutely fucking nothing anyone can seem to do about it.

    Anyone else would be in jail.

    Give immunity to people you could prosecute for leverage, but they won't talk anyways. Pure evidence of intent and corruption, but oh well.

    I mean, we might as well have the North Korean dictator feeding us propaganda. We the people know it's all lies, but we can't do anything about it and our state media is just bobbing their heads saying what they're supposed to say with their talking points that get sent out every morning.

    Talk about totally fucked as a country.

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  8. Re:Like gwb43.com? by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Show me where he passed classified information though his private address..... Then we can talk..

    I guess you are OK with Bush's private E-mails? No? So Clinton has NO EXCUSE here... You say so yourself if you want to hold this issue up as an example of what not to do..

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  9. Re:Clinton is above the law by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which is why people still use the "But Bobby's Mom lets him smoke" argument, little kids try on parents. The thing of it is, we are supposed to be adults and not persuaded by childish arguments.

    Pointing to another person's wrong NEVER justifies the wrong you're doing. Justice is never going to be exact, so we should stop trying comparison justice, and let each case stand on its own merits. Anything less leads to lawless anarchy.

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  10. Re:Two types of laws by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which is why they go through a series of training meeting, of which Clinton doesn't recall attending, due to traumatic brain injury, but she is okay to be president.

    Another "convenient" excuse. She either didn't attend the requisite training (a dereliction of duty, and evidence she isn't qualified to be President) or she did, and ignorance is no longer an excuse. Now, you might claim she is too stupid to understand (as Director of the FBI basically said), but then that doesn't look to good if you're running for President either.

    The whole EMAIL thing is a tar pit for the Clinton's because she is either incompetent, or evil. There really is no other option. And as I have said before, (apologies to Arthur C. Clarke) "Any sufficient level of incompetence is indistinguishable from malice". So which is it, is she incompetent or evil?

    Of all the things Clinton should have done, she did none of them. The argument "no proof" is utter bullshit, there is plenty of evidence, and proof is only a conclusion. If you see all the evidence, and can't conclude she is either stupid or evil, you're just being an obtuse party hack.

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    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  11. Re:Like gwb43.com? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Bush was worse" logic of liberals ...

    Pointing to bad behavior to excuse bad behavior is supposed to stop working when you're like 5 years old. Why does it still work with adults?

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    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  12. Re:Clinton is above the law by Orgasmatron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can answer #4. Because she fucking hid everything until a lawsuit from Judicial Watch forced the State Department to release some of the public documents generated by her term as SOS. Once the people had access to her public records, they started to notice that her email wasn't entirely on the government servers, but on her own. Then her lawyers and IT people started to panic (the infamous reddit post) because they knew that Congress would get involved soon, and it did.

    The answer to #2 is that every agency seems to be in on the coverup to some extent. They have all been dragging their feet producing records, and several have "lost" drives, tapes, records, etc. IRS Commissioner Koskinen is facing impeachment for this same crap, but for a different scandal (not for Hillary's emails). Obama is probably going to need to pardon every single member of his cabinet and most of the senior management, or President Trump is going to need to build a brand new prison to house the "Most Transparent Administration in history (TM)".

    #1 is crap. See Powell's email leaks. #3 is no, or at least not that I've heard of.

    Here are at least three of the laws that she apparently broke:
    18 US Code 793
    18 US Code 798
    18 US Code 1924

    Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.

    As to your conclusion, there are guys in prison today for violations of the exact same laws, and several are now attempting to appeal their sentences. At the time they were convicted, those laws were seen as strict liability, so their trial records do not include proof of intent. If those same laws, which haven't changed, require mens rea now, at the very least they need a retrial to establish intent.

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  13. Re:It won't matter what Comey says by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even in your response you can't separate Benghazi with other things she may have done.

    Because it was in the context of trying to get to the bottom of her (and her boss's) lying about the Benghazi mess for political reasons right before an election that it became clear she had been running her official email on (and ONLY on) a home computer. And in examining that situation, it became clear that she had - on becoming aware that she was under subpoena - that she destroyed tens of thousands of federal documents, and repeatedly lied about what she did, when she did it, and why she did it. Right: you can't separate the two topics because SHE is the one responsible for them being part of an uninterrupted spectrum of incompetence and deceit that doesn't begin and end with just one topic.

    Yes she's so incompetent that the GOP can't charge with anything.

    So the problem here is that you don't actually understand the different branches of government and how they work. That explains a lot about your rambling, here. "The GOP" is a political party. It has no authority. Are you talking about congress? They could charge her with contempt for lying as she did in under oath in front of them, and that's still a possibility. But otherwise, the only entity capable of charging her with anything is the Obama administration. You get that, right? No, apparently you don't.

    Yes she said it but at the time...

    Blah blah. She said that she did NOT say it, and that's simply a lie. Regardless, you're carefully avoiding the long career of deliberate lies about all sorts of things - from the ridiculously meaningless (why lie about why her parents called her Hillary?) to the clearly self-aggrandizing (landing under sniper fire!) to the long, long parade of lies designed to deflect from public awareness of her corruption. Everything from her days in Arkansas to countless bits of business under her control in the White House, to her frequent throwing-under-the-bus of staff with a lie about why, to her non-stop lying - right to this day - about her "mistake" in setting up an off-the-books mail server to hide her public records from scrutiny ... acts serious enough that the DoJ has been doling out immunity deals like candy. Focusing on how half-truthy her spin on the her "it's the Gold Standard" assertion was then or is now is just you trying to avoid the rest of her career's disingenuous handling of the truth.

    Unstable? How do you know she's unstable, again. Are you already attacking her character first? Freudian slip?

    OK, I guess you consider her to be a more authoritative voice on her character than the judge who said she threatened his life. Do you have a reason to consider that judge to be a liar? Please explain.

    He certainly can say racist things (and he does)

    Please explain some of the racist things he DOES say. Or are you one of these people who can't understand the difference between race and culture? While you're at it, of course, please chime in on Hillary Clinton's choice to do things like yukking her way through a skit at a fundraiser where the joke is that being late for events is an example of operating on "Colored People Time."

    Now you are deflecting about Trump's clear misogynistic tendencies by bringing up Bill Clinton.

    No, you just can't read. The issue isn't Bill Clinton, the issue is Hillary Clinton and her personal staff spending time and your tax dollars to deliberately engage in a campaign of character assassination against the women who - by either willingly or unwillingly being the Bill Clinton sexcapade and abuse show - were going to poison the well for Hillary's personal eventual quest for political power. She would never have progressed past being a lawyer getting rapists easy plea deals if she hadn't ridden her husband's coat-tails all the way to national office. S

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  14. Re:People deserve their government. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the choice is between someone that says mean things, and an unindicted felon who is above the law, and played fast and loose with Top Secret information.

    Glad we've got our priorities straight on what to care about.

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  15. Re:Clinton is above the law by ultranova · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pointing to another person's wrong NEVER justifies the wrong you're doing.

    No, but pointing to someone else's acquittal does give you grounds to demand to be acquitted as well on the basis of equality under law, to which you are entitled.

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