Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Lewis K. Uhler.
The decision of FBI director James Comey not to indict Hillary Clinton should have been no surprise. Comey has been covering for the Clintons for more than 20 years now.
From criminal investigations into bank looting and fraud in the Clinton Whitewater scandal over 20 years ago, to bribery relating to the pardon of convicted criminal Marc Rich 10 years later, to Hillary’s email scandal where she sacrificed access to the nation’s top secret intelligence apparently to protect disclosure of payoffs to the Clinton Family Foundation, Comey has been centrally involved in investigations of both Clintons deciding not to prosecute.
The principle that emerges from that history is the same as was established during the attempted impeachment of President Clinton: establishment Democrats, like the Clintons, are above the law. Comey is an establishment Republican enabler of that breakdown of the rule of law. The breakdown has expanded over the last 8 years to exempt repeated lawbreakers in Obama’s increasingly lawless Administration from legal sanction, including President Obama himself.
Yet there was a silver lining this time in Comey’s latest decision and explanation regarding his non-prosecution of Hillary. Comey did not exonerate Hillary. Rather, he recounted numerous actions and statements by her that highlighted her dereliction of duty as Secretary of State, and that made clear she did violate the law.
Comey confirmed that Hillary’s egregious failure to follow common sense in placing top secret information on hackable private servers put our nation at risk. That experience is supposed to qualify her for promotion to President in charge of all of our nation’s intelligence and top secrets? We don’t think so, and we think a majority of patriotic Americans will agree.
That can end up with some helpful political ramifications, from the perspective of the integrity of our democracy. Had the FBI/Justice Department indicted Hillary, Democrat delegates to their Philadelphia convention might have decided last night to nominate someone else less tarnished and more likely to win for Democrats in November.
They might have opted for Joe Biden, who though a dim bulb, is not as TOXIC as Hillary, and would have a better chance of defeating Trump. Or they may have chosen the more celebrated, though less experienced, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). But now the Democrats are stuck with Hillary.
Hillary has escaped an indictment. But she has sustained real, though less obvious, political damage than an indictment would have produced. She is now – even more than before – damaged goods that the Democrats gathered in Philadelphia might have preferred to unload. But once Comey decided not to indict her, she could not be stopped.
Consequently, for the rest of the campaign, Trump and his Republicans can quote Comey
directly to argue that as Secretary of State Hillary:
--“Was extremely careless” with the nation’s secrets on a hackable private server for her own
convenience;
--Circumvented/ignored protection of clearly secret and top secret documents and lied about it;
--Demonstrated poor management skills as evidenced by the inadequate “security culture” at the
State Department that persisted through Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.
In addition, the Bill/Hillary multi-million-dollar foundation, with vast payments from foreign governments for “speeches” even while Hillary was Secretary of State, further confirm that she and Bill are “above the law.” Hundreds of thousands of dollars contributed by Goldman-Sachs and other Wall Street/K Street special interests have never been addressed or investigated.
Already, we have seen Hillary in free fall in the polls since Comey’s decision, losing her lead over Trump to even fall behind now nationally. A shocking 56% now openly say they disagree with the decision of the FBI Director not to recommend an indictment. But without an outright indictment, the Democrats are now stuck with her, warts and all.
Lewis Uhler is Founder and Chairman of the National Tax Limitation Committee and National Tax Limitation Foundation (NTLF), who worked for and with Ronald Reagan when he was government and president. Peter Ferrara formerly served in President Reagan’s White House Office of Policy Development and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush. He is currently Senior Policy Advisor to NTLF, among other posts.