Tornado Alley (PROG)

[ForReal]

As Justice Department veteran David Laufman writes, “We are now truly at a break-glass-in-case-of-fire moment for the Justice Dept.” But does anyone give a damn

Why should they become so concerned now?

FBI, Justice Department officials upset by Barack Obama's comments on Hillary Clinton email use, watchdog finds

Then-President Barack Obama’s 2015 comments about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server led to concern among top FBI and Justice Department officials, a new report from the Justice Department’s internal watchdog found.


The detailed report, released by the department’s inspector general Thursday, found that FBI officials, as well as prosecutors in the Justice Department, exchanged emails and told the Office of the Inspector General of their issues with the comments made during Obama's October 2015 interview with “60 Minutes.”

During the interview, Obama said Clinton’s use of a private email server was a “mistake,” but said it did not “pose a national security problem” and was “not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered.”

“[W]e opened up criminal investigations. And you have the president of the United States saying this is just a mistake. … That’s a problem, right?” former Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s National Security Branch John Giacalone told the Justice Department’s watchdog.

That sentiment was echoed by the former assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, Randy Coleman, who said the bureau had “a group of guys in here, professionals, that are conducting an investigation. And the … president of the United States just came out and said there’s no there there.”

Michael Steinbach, who also formerly served as the executive assistant director for the FBI’s National Security Branch, told the Office of the Inspector General that Obama’s comments created “controversy” within the bureau.

“[Y]ou’re prejudging the results of an investigation before they really even have been started,” he said, according to the report. “That’s … hugely problematic for us.”

Prosecutors within the Justice Department also exchanged emails raising concerns about Obama’s comments to “60 Minutes."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbi-doj-officials-upset-obamas-comments-hillary-clinton-email-use-ig-finds

AND>>>>>>>> From Comey himself....

James Comey book: President Obama and Loretta Lynch 'jeopardized' the Hillary Clinton email investigation
Comey said Obama’s public statements about the investigation “jeopardized” the investigation’s credibility in multiple interviews and seemed to absolve Clinton of any crime before FBI investigators completed their work.

“Contributing to this problem, regrettably, was President Obama. He had jeopardized the Department of Justice’s credibility in the investigation by saying in a 60 Minutes interview on Oct. 11, 2015, that Clinton’s email use was “a mistake” that had not endangered national security,” Comey writes. “Then on Fox News on April 10, 2016, he said that Clinton may have been careless but did not do anything to intentionally harm national security, suggesting that the case involved overclassification of material in the government.”

“President Obama is a very smart man who understands the law very well. To this day, I don’t know why he spoke about the case publicly and seemed to absolve her before a final determination was made. If the president had already decided the matter, an outside observer could reasonably wonder, how on earth could his Department of Justice do anything other than follow his lead.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/james-comey-book-president-obama-and-loretta-lynch-jeopardized-the-hillary-clinton-email-investigation