By now, you've probably heard some news about a bewildering letter sent to Congressional leaders by the Director of the FBI.
This is all a bit confusing, and much of the reporting has been misleading or downright inaccurate, so I want to take a minute to walk through this. Bear with me!
Here's the quick backstory: In July, FBI Director James Comey concluded a year-long investigation by deciding not to go forward with any case about Hillary's emails. It wasn't even a close call, he said. In his words, "no reasonable prosecutor" would have brought charges.
Yesterday, in a surprise to us all, Comey wrote a very strange letter to Congress that was long on innuendo and short on facts. He said that in a completely separate investigation, the FBI had found some emails that may or may not be related to Hillary, and indeed may or may not be significant at all.
It's since been reported that these emails may not have even been sent by or to Hillary; that they weren't withheld by Hillary or the campaign in the earlier investigation; and most or even all of them may be duplicates of emails already in the FBI's possession.
It's being reported that Comey sent this letter over the objections of Department of Justice officials who told him that it was inconsistent with longstanding policy of both Democratic and Republican administrations not to take action that might impact an election. It's an unprecedented intrusion into a close presidential election with 10 days until Election Day.
But by being vague and obfuscating, Comey opened the door to conspiracy theories, Republican attacks against Hillary, and a surge of fundraising for Trump and his team. So this bears repeating: There is no evidence of wrongdoing, no charge of wrongdoing, and no indication that any of this even involves Hillary.
Voters deserve answers.
Comey needs to come clean with the American people about what he found and answer all the questions about why he took this unprecedented step less than two weeks before the election.
Here's what this changes for you and this campaign: Absolutely nothing.
Trump has spent more than a year trying to bully his way to the presidency. He's been browbeating the FBI (indeed, many have speculated that Comey took this extraordinary action in part to reduce the pressure on his agency that Trump's campaign and his Republican Congressional allies has been building up), leading crowds in chants of "lock her up," and even saying Hillary should be in prison -- and if he won, he'd put her there.
The facts be damned -- Trump's always shown a complete disregard for the truth. In spite of there being no new information, he's already raising money off the bizarre letter (he literally sent a text message asking for money within an hour of the story breaking!) and he's more fired up than ever on the trail today.
Joseph, these are the actions of a desperate man. Trump knows he can't win on his character, temperament, or his policies. He's behind, so he'll cling to whatever he can.
So, no, our strategy doesn't change. But Joseph, our intensity needs to, because we can't let him get away with this.
Our organizers and volunteers on the ground are rallying behind Hillary in what will be the biggest volunteer weekend of the campaign so far. You need to get her back, too. You need to say you're not willing to let Trump bully or buy his way into the presidency, and you're not going to let anything stop us from making history.
There are ten days to go. Let's buckle down, stay focused, and win this.
