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[BlastProcessing]

WaPo: How a dubious Russian document influenced the FBI's handling of the Clinton probe

In the midst of the 2016 presidential primary season, the FBI received a purported Russian intelligence document describing a tacit understanding between the campaign of Hillary Clinton and the Justice Department over the inquiry into whether she intentionally revealed classified information through her use of a private email server.

The Russian document mentioned a supposed email describing how then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch had privately assured someone in the Clinton campaign that the email investigation would not push too deeply into the matter — a conversation that if made public would cast doubt on the inquiry's integrity.

Current and former officials have said that document played a significant role in the July decision by then-FBI Director James B. Comey to announce on his own, without Justice Department involvement, that the investigation was over. That public announcement — in which he criticized Clinton and made extensive comments about the evidence — set in motion a chain of other FBI moves that Democrats now say helped Trump win the presidential election.

But according to the FBI's own assessment, the document was bad intelligence — and according to people familiar with its contents, possibly even a fake sent to confuse the bureau. The Americans mentioned in the Russian document insist they do not know each other, do not speak to each other and never had any conversations remotely like the ones described in the document. Investigators have long doubted its veracity, and by August the FBI had concluded it was unreliable.

In the supposed email, Wasserman Schultz claimed Lynch had been in private communication with a senior Clinton campaign staffer named Amanda Renteria during the campaign. The document indicated Lynch had told Renteria that she would not let the FBI investigation into Clinton go too far, according to people familiar with it.

Current and former officials have argued that the secret document gave Comey good reason to take the extraordinary step over the summer of announcing the findings of the Clinton investigation himself without Justice Department involvement.

Comey had little choice, these people have said, because he feared that if Lynch announced no charges against Clinton, and then the secret document leaked, the legitimacy of the entire case would be questioned.

Wasserman Schultz and Benardo said in separate interviews with The Washington Post that they do not know each other and have never communicated. Renteria, in an interview, and people familiar with Lynch's account said the two also do not know each other and have never communicated. Lynch declined to comment for this article.

Moreover, Wasserman Schultz, Benardo and Renteria said they have never been interviewed by the FBI about the matter.

After the bureau first received the document, it attempted to use the source to obtain the referenced email but could not do so, these people said. The source that provided the document, they said, had previously supplied other information that the FBI was also unable to corroborate.

While it was conducting the Clinton email investigation, the FBI did not interview anyone mentioned in the Russian document about its claims. At the time, FBI agents were probing numerous hacking cases involving Democrats and other groups, but they never found an email like the one described in the document, these people said.

About a month after Comey's announcement, FBI officials asked to meet privately with the attorney general. At the meeting, they told Lynch about a foreign source suggesting she had told Renteria that Clinton did not have to worry about the email probe, because she would keep the FBI in check, according to people familiar with the matter.

”Just so you know, I don't know this person and have never communicated with her,'' Lynch told the FBI officials, according to a person familiar with the discussion. The FBI officials assured her the conversation was not a formal interview and said the document ”didn't have investigative value,'' the person said.

Nevertheless, the officials said, they wanted to give the attorney general what is sometimes referred to as a ”defensive briefing'' — advising someone of a potential intelligence issue that could come up at some future point.

The agents never mentioned Wasserman Schultz to Lynch but told her there was some uncertainty surrounding the information because of ”possible translation issues," according to a person familiar with the discussion.

Lynch told them they were welcome to speak to her staff and to conduct a formal interview of her, the person said. The FBI declined both offers.

More at the link. Read it and weep. Comey got played.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1379649

 

[Lunar15]

This makes me less confident in Comey, but more afraid of Russian influence.

 

[BlastProcessing]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1379649

Oopsie Doosies

 

[B.O.O.M]

Holy shit

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Oopsie Doosies

I'm going to read this is a Jon Lovett doing Sebastian Gorka voice.

 

[sangreal]

Is this the nonsense that Graham wants to investigate instead of Trump?

Don't see it as Comey getting played -- it's the appearance of impropriety that led to his press conference not actual impropriety. That would have existed whether the document was real or fake, but more importantly it already existed because of the Lynch/Clinton tarmac meeting

 

[BlastProcessing]

I'm going to read this is a Jon Lovett doing Sebastian Gorka voice.

That was my intent!

 

[ShadowSwordmaster]

I'm going to read this is a Jon Lovett doing Sebastian Gorka voice.

Glad that I'm not the only one.