No double standard for Clinton, FBI director tells GOP

[webfact]

No double standard for Clinton, FBI director tells GOP
ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press
MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Under an onslaught of Republican criticism, FBI Director James Comey vigorously defended the government's decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her private email setup, rejecting angry accusations that the Democratic presidential candidate was given special treatment.

To criminally charge Clinton based on the facts his agency's yearlong probe had found would have been unwarranted and mere "celebrity hunting," Comey told a congressional investigative committee Thursday.

In nearly five hours of testimony, he sought to explain the Justice Department's decision ending an investigation that has dogged Clinton's presidential campaign and raised fresh questions among voters about her trustworthiness.

Republicans' hard, skeptical questioning made it clear that settling the legal issue will not end the matter as a political issue as Clinton campaigns against Republican Donald Trump, who scornfully refers to her as "Crooked Hillary."

Republicans on the panel, voices sometimes raised in apparent frustration and irritation, said they were mystified by the decision not to prosecute because they felt that Comey, in a remarkably detailed and critical public statement on Tuesday, had laid out a sufficient basis for charges.

"I totally get people's questions," he said, but the FBI was obliged to follow the law.

He said investigators found no evidence that Clinton or her aides intended to break the law, even though they mishandled classified information. A misdemeanor statute requires the mishandling to be intentional, Comey said. A law that permits felony prosecution due to gross negligence has been used only once in the 99 years since it was enacted — and that was in a case involving espionage.

"We don't want to put people in jail unless we prove that they knew they were doing something they shouldn't do," Comey said. "That is the characteristic of all the prosecutions involving mishandling of classified information."

Comey's appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee marked his first public statements since his announcement that removed the threat of criminal charges against Clinton but also revived public scrutiny of her email behavior as secretary of state in President Barack Obama's first term.

Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Comey that the FBI's decision showed a "double standard" for powerful people. Had the "average Joe" done what she had done, he said, that person would go to prison.

"If your name isn't Clinton, or you're not part of the powerful elite, then Lady Justice will act differently," Chaffetz said, adding that the FBI had set a "dangerous precedent" in letting her off the hook.

Chaffetz said lawmakers would now ask the FBI to investigate whether Clinton lied to the committee.

One by one, Comey rebutted a litany of GOP charges including that the FBI had been biased, ignored the law, applied it unjustly or coordinated the decision with Clinton's campaign. "We try very hard to apply the same standard whether you are rich or poor, white or black, old or young, famous or not known at all," he said.

The committee's top Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, accused Republicans of politicizing the investigation. But he suggested Comey had contributed to that by leaving "a perceived gap" between his public criticism of Clinton and his conclusion not to prosecute.

"I beg you to fill the gap. Because when the gap is not filled by you, it will be filled by others," Cummings said.

As he had on Tuesday, Comey left no doubt about the FBI's contention that Clinton's email practices were careless and left government secrets exposed to hostile nations. He said three of the emails in question bore classification markings in the body despite Clinton's assertions that nothing she had sent or received was marked classified. And he said government workers who negligently handled classified information, including FBI agents, could be subject to firing and administrative sanctions.

But he also said it was possible Clinton didn't even understand what the classification markings were, saying the investigation suggested she was not "particularly sophisticated with respect to classified information."

And he repeated his earlier contention that "no reasonable prosecutor" would have pursued criminal charges, saying at one point, "We went at this very hard to see if we could make a case."

Comey, for years a registered Republican who said he's no longer registered with a political party, was deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and was appointed in 2013 to a 10-year term as FBI director by President Obama. He would still be on the job if Clinton were elected president.

He drew distinctions between the Clinton probe and last year's prosecution of former CIA Director David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty to sharing classified information with his biographer. Petraeus, Comey said, retained a "vast quantity" of classified information and lied to the FBI about it.

"He admitted he knew that was the wrong thing to do," Comey said. "That is a perfect illustration of the kind of cases that get prosecuted. In my mind, it illustrates importantly the distinction to this case."

Despite the no-prosecution decision, Comey had rebuked Clinton and her aides on Tuesday as being "extremely careless" in their handling of classified information and contradicted many of the explanations she's put forward.

The investigation formally ended Wednesday when Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that no charges would be filed.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-07-08

[shirtless]

Of Course there is no double standard i am sure if you and i did this the result would be the same not.

[Pakboong]

A reason not to vote for her perhaps,not a reason to charge her with criminal intent.

[ezzra]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

[Rayk]

"We don't want to put people in jail unless we prove that they knew they were doing something they shouldn't do," Comey said."

Come on Comey, you really expect people to believe that Hellbag Clinton didn't know that she was doing something she shouldn't have been doing. American politics and Undemocratic at its finest.

[Chicog]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Clearly you have no idea of what Petraeus did, which involved INTENT.

[Chicog]

"We don't want to put people in jail unless we prove that they knew they were doing something they shouldn't do," Comey said."

Come on Comey, you really expect people to believe that Hellbag Clinton didn't know that she was doing something she shouldn't have been doing. American politics and Undemocratic at its finest.

I'd recommend that you watch the Chaffetz comedy show.

[Usernames]

The FBI did not put Hillary under oath during their "interview." There is no transcript of the "interview." Comey did not read all the FBI agents synopses of the "interview." This is like Venezuela under Hugo Chavez.

[Usernames]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Clearly you have no idea of what Petraeus did, which involved INTENT.

Petraeus, stupidly in retrospect, admitted that what he did was wrong. Thus, intent. If you are going to require every criminal prosecution to depend on a confession of the crime from the criminal to prosecute him/her, then 99.9 percent of all crimes will go without a prosecution.

[jaidam]

To be fair to Hillary, i don't think she had much choice in this matter.she was forced to use private email servers otherwise had she routed all emails through official servers she would have been screwed on corruption charges related to charital fraud and other fraudulent activities. Looks like she played her cards right after all in that she still has a slight chance of becoming Potus rather than serving a lengthy stretch.

[stevenl]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Clearly you have no idea of what Petraeus did, which involved INTENT.

Petraeus, stupidly in retrospect, admitted that what he did was wrong. Thus, intent. If you are going to require every criminal prosecution to depend on a confession of the crime from the criminal to prosecute him/her, then 99.9 percent of all crimes will go without a prosecution.

No. Intent is there before the crime, not after.

He stayed right up and explained himself very well.

Edited July 8, 2016 by stevenl

[Usernames]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Clearly you have no idea of what Petraeus did, which involved INTENT.

Petraeus, stupidly in retrospect, admitted that what he did was wrong. Thus, intent. If you are going to require every criminal prosecution to depend on a confession of the crime from the criminal to prosecute him/her, then 99.9 percent of all crimes will go without a prosecution.

No. Intent is there before the crime, not after.

Comey said he could not PROVE intent, as he could with Petraeus' admission.

[Boon Mee]

Comey: Hillary’s FBI Testimony Wasn’t Under Oath Or Recorded, But It Would Still Be a Crime To Lie

"Comey stated that he did not personally interview Clinton, and did not talk to all of the “five or six” who did interview Clinton.

He was then asked, “did she testify or talk to them under oath?” Comey answered, “No.” But added that “it’s still a crime to lie to us."

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/07/07/comey-hillarys-fbi-testimony-wasnt-under-oath-or-recorded-but-it-would-still-be-a-crime-to-lie/

Plain and simple - he doesn't want to be Vince Fostered...

[Boon Mee]

Trey Gowdy to Comey: As a Former Prosecutor, Didn't You RoutinelyEstablish Intent By Citing a Defendant's Voluminous Lies Told to Cover Up Her Actions?

He makes a simple point: Prosecutors almost never have direct evidence of intent, unless a defendant kindly confesses, "Yeah, not only did I do it, I intended to do it."

Anyone else would be in jail.

[Buzzz]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Actually, the Clinton email case is substantially different than the General Patraeus case.

Patraeus handed his mistress black notebooks that contained sensitive information about official meetings, war strategy and intelligence capabilities, nots of personal conversations with the President as well as the names of covert officers.

Petraeus was found to have "unlawfully and knowingly" removed classified documents "without authority" before moving them to "unauthorized" locations

[stevenl]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Clearly you have no idea of what Petraeus did, which involved INTENT.

Petraeus, stupidly in retrospect, admitted that what he did was wrong. Thus, intent. If you are going to require every criminal prosecution to depend on a confession of the crime from the criminal to prosecute him/her, then 99.9 percent of all crimes will go without a prosecution.

No. Intent is there before the crime, not after.

Comey said he could not PROVE intent, as he could with Petraeus' admission.

Your lack of knowledge and understanding is astounding.

[mrwebb8825]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Clearly you have no idea of what Petraeus did, which involved INTENT.

Petraeus, stupidly in retrospect, admitted that what he did was wrong. Thus, intent. If you are going to require every criminal prosecution to depend on a confession of the crime from the criminal to prosecute him/her, then 99.9 percent of all crimes will go without a prosecution.

Excuse me but, she DID admit what she did was wrong. "A Mistake" I believe is the words she used repeatedly.

"But he also said it was possible Clinton didn't even understand what the classification markings were, saying the investigation suggested she was not "particularly sophisticated with respect to classified information."

So, his conclusion is that she's not really a criminal, just painfully stupid. She should add that to her resume'.

[Chicog]

The stanch of a cover up stinks to high havens, if we to judge what happened to General David Petraeus

who got prosecuted, find and dumped for much less of what Clinton is allegedly to have done,

double stander you say? you bet ya......

Actually, the Clinton email case is substantially different than the General Patraeus case.

Patraeus handed his mistress black notebooks that contained sensitive information about official meetings, war strategy and intelligence capabilities, nots of personal conversations with the President as well as the names of covert officers.

Petraeus was found to have "unlawfully and knowingly" removed classified documents "without authority" before moving them to "unauthorized" locations

Petraeus also did lie to the FBI. He got a plea deal effectively.

[Buzzz]

Maybe the republicans will finally learn we are all bored of the 24/7 baseless accusations.

They never stop with the nonsense.

Hell, Hillary "could walk out on 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters. "

[NovaBlue05]

Like I said before, it will take divine intervention such as a bolt of lightening from the sky to stop her

[NovaBlue05]

Hell, Hillary "could walk out on 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters. "

If these various threads are any indication, I would tend to agree that the Hillaryphiles really are that bankrupt.

[bassman]

Seems like the Hillary sycophants are trying to spin the news in to talk about Petraeus, not the hag Hillary.

Back on subject, forget about what she told the FBI all that was prearranged and predetermined, it will take twenty years to get the story in this coverup.

To me it is more important what she told us...WE THE PEOPLE

I like the way Trey Gowdy makes Trump's new campaign ad. After Gowdy's second or third question, Comey catches on and you hear that ugh sound from Comey. That any American can stomach the lies the b-itch has told us and vote for her, defines the erosion of our moral standards as a nation.

[klauskunkel]

No double standard for Clinton, FBI director tells GOP

"We simply have many single standards."

[Boon Mee]

Hell, Hillary "could walk out on 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and not lose any voters. "

If these various threads are any indication, I would tend to agree that the Hillaryphiles really are that bankrupt.

No moral center is another way to put it...

[attrayant]

Anyone else would be in jail.

Anyone else except Colin Powell and Condi Rice, right?

State Dept. Concludes Past Secretaries Of State "Definitively" Handled Classified Information On Private Email

[bassman]

"Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -- a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -- is a congenital liar." WILLIAM SAFIRE Published: January 8, 1996

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/08/opinion/essay-blizzard-of-lies.html

She was then and she still is today.

[Boon Mee]

FBI Director Comey: If FBI Employees Did What Hillary Did They Would Be Fired, Clearance Revoked

Can't take Crooked Hillary's clearence away - she's too big to fail!

Edited July 8, 2016 by Boon Mee

[bassman]

Anyone else would be in jail.

Anyone else except Colin Powell and Condi Rice, right?

State Dept. Concludes Past Secretaries Of State "Definitively" Handled Classified Information On Private Email

But, but,but. Hillary was the only one that had a server to do all business on. The others did use personal email accounts sparingly, not in the same ball park. And Comey did say that gmail was a lot more secure than her server because unlike her server, gmail has security.

[Rancid]

You'd think the Reps would be delighted, plenty of real mud to throw at Hilary. Sanders recall consistently polled better than Clinton against Trump. As such they are better having corrupt old Hilary.

[attrayant]

FBI Director Comey: If FBI Employees Did What Hillary Did They Would Be Fired, Clearance Revoked

And they'd still be eligible to run for president.