Something To Ponder

November 2016 Depends on One Man.

It Is Not Trump. It is James Comey. Ring a bell? He is the head of the FBI. We read on the FBI's site: On September 4, 2013, James B. Comey was sworn in as the seventh Director of the FBI. A Yonkers, New York native, James Comey graduated from the College of William & Mary and the University of Chicago Law School. Following law school, Comey served as an assistant United States attorney for both the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of Virginia. Comey returned to New York to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 2003, he became the deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Comey left DOJ in 2005 to serve as general counsel and senior vice president at defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Five years later, he joined Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut-based investment fund, as its general counsel. He knows how the Department of Justice works.

If he decides that Hillary Clinton committed acts that endangered the security of the United States, he can submit this evidence to the Attorney General. This places a very hot potato in Loretta Lynch's lap. She will drop it into President Obama's lap within 24 hours. If Obama does nothing, Comey waits 30 days. Then he calls a press conference. Goodbye, Hillary. Hello . . .

This depends on when he does this. If he does it before the Democrats' convention, Sanders will win the nomination. If he does it after the convention, the Republican will win the election. That probably means Trump. Comey knows how the political game is played. He knows that, as of today, he holds all the cards. He is not holding aces over eights. He is holding four aces. All he needs to do is say nothing for 30 days after he hands the file to Lynch -- no threats. Just silence. If she swears him to secrecy, he can assure her that he will stay silent. Then he breaks his word. After all, it's government. I assume that he will play ball with Lynch. He sounds like an establishment man to me.

Wikipedia reports: "Comey is a registered Republican who donated to U.S. Senator John McCain's campaign in the 2008 presidential election and to Governor Mitt Romney's campaign in 2012 presidential election." He does not sound like a Trump supporter. But what if he thinks she is guilty? What if he faces a cover-up of silence? He is a lawyer. If he thinks Obama is stiffing the FBI for political reasons, he may decide to do what bureaucrats do: defend his agency's turf.

What if he waits until December, after she is elected, but before she takes the oath of office? That would create the greatest foul-up in American political history. She would have zero legitimacy from that time forward. She would reject all calls for her to testify. She would claim executive privilege. Does the word "Watergate" ring a bell? He has leverage on a scale that no bureaucrat ever has. Hoover had leverage, but not on this scale. The issue is public: the security of her emails. Comey risks nothing if he goes public after about a 30-day delay. After the press conference, if Obama fires him, Hillary is toast. So is Obama's legacy. If Obama tells Lynch to stall until January 20, Clinton II's presidency is toast. Obama probably escapes intact. If Comey deep-sixes the findings, the political dance goes on. Will he deep-six it? I don't know. It depends on his sense of justice.