Okay—let’s get this point out of the way: this is from one anonymous source, though this person claims to be a high-ranking official within the FBI. Yet, it’s part of an ongoing narrative pointing to purported disagreements between FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to file charges against Hillary Clinton over her email server and the FBI agents tasked with investigating the matter. The source alleges that virtually no one involved in the investigation agreed with Comey’s decision to give Clinton a pass, and that the consensus to have Clinton have her security clearance yanked was unanimous (via Fox News):
The source, who spoke to FoxNews.com on the condition of anonymity, said FBI Director James Comey’s dramatic July 5 announcement that he would not recommend to the Attorney General’s office that the former secretary of state be charged left members of the investigative team dismayed and disgusted. More than 100 FBI agents and analysts worked around the clock with six attorneys from the DOJ’s National Security Division, Counter Espionage Section, to investigate the case.“No trial level attorney agreed, no agent working the case agreed, with the decision not to prosecute — it was a top-down decision,” said the source, whose identity and role in the case has been verified by FoxNews.com.
A high-ranking FBI official told Fox News that while it might not have been a unanimous decision, “It was unanimous that we all wanted her [Clinton’s] security clearance yanked.”
“It is safe to say the vast majority felt she should be prosecuted,” the senior FBI official told Fox News. “We were floored while listening to the FBI briefing because Comey laid it all out, and then said ‘but we are doing nothing,’ which made no sense to us.”
On July 5, Comey unveiled the devastating details from the investigation, including citing that Clinton and her team were “extremely careless” concerning handling classified information. There were also 110 emails on 52 separate chains that were determined to have classified information on them. If anything, Comey offered an indictment of Clinton’s judgment, which NBC’s Chuck Todd noted would make for an effective GOP attack ad that never came from the Trump campaign. The FBI found just three emails that were determined to be classified at the time they were sent and received, though they were not properly marked. Then, we had the revelation that Clinton didn’t know that “c” meant classified. Wikileaks’ Julian Assange disagrees, noting that Clinton certainly knew what those markings meant, as she’s an original classification authority as our top diplomat.
Still, there are suspicious instances that were revealed prior to and after Comey’s July 5 announcement. For starters, how Bill Clinton delayed departure in Phoenix to ensure a run-in with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who proceeded to have a meeting with Clinton on her private jet for about 30 minutes. Katie noted that FBI agents feel a deal was struck on that plane. The optics were enough to cast doubt on Comey’s presser held after Independence Day. We’ll see what comes of this, but it’s another episode in this apparent consternation between the agents and the FBI Director.
