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| "Integrity" portion of FBI motto compromised? |
Much of that controversy involves what is becoming increasingly apparent partisan political activity by some in leadership positions in the nation's leading law enforcement agency during the 2016 Presidential election process and its aftermath.
The key terms and the names of the players involved have been regularly splashed across news headlines. Fusion GPS, Russia meddling, deleted emails. Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Robert Mueller, Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe.
What is all the fuss about, and what is the truth? Who actually did what? Was anything illegal or improper done? If so, was it anything for Americans to truly be concerned about? Is this all just political gamesmanship?
In the news today, McCabe has "stepped down" as deputy director at the FBI. Per a report from Kelly Cohen at the Washington Examiner this afternoon, this move appears to be "tied to a forthcoming watchdog report on how the agency handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server."
That email investigation began to develop some time around October 1, 2016. With the Presidential election just over a month away, according to a May 2017 piece by Peter Elkind at ProPublica: "agents sifting through files on a laptop belonging to the former congressman Anthony Weiner, as part of a sex-crimes investigation, had stumbled across emails sent by Clinton when she was secretary of state."
Per Elkind, over the next few weeks as the investigation into Weiner's alleged relationship with a 15-year old girl unfolded "the agents concluded that the laptop contained thousands of Clinton messages."
This was problematic for a number of reasons. The FBI under Comey had already been looking into Clinton's email practices for more than a year.
During her tenure as Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, Clinton had used her private home email server to send out official communications. More than 2,000 of these emails contained information that was classified at the time, or would be acknowledged as such later. Comey identified 65 of the emails as "secret", and another 22 as containing "top secret" information.
Anyone who understands computers and the Internet can understand why the use of a private email server by someone like the Secretary of State is a dangerous practice. Without the protection of government-based servers, the emails could easily be intercepted by hackers. This could potentially send devastating classified information into the hands of those who would do our nation harm.
Hackers from Russia and Serbia were known by the Clinton team to both have awareness of the email server vulnerabilities, as well as to have actually made hacking attempts during 2011 and 2012.
As more information was revealed over time, the FBI finally began an investigation in 2015. The purpose was to determine whether Clinton and/or her aides had jeopardized national security. If so, to determine who could be held responsible for such actions.
The controversy deepened when it was revealed that Clinton had directed that some 30,000 emails should be deleted.
