Just one day after Senate minority leader Harry Reid had the audacity to claim that FBI Director Jim Comey had broken the law by writing a letter to Congress updating them about the Hillary Clinton investigation, the Director is finding an unlikely defender in President Obama.
Reid wrote an open letter to Comey on Sunday in which he claimed that the Director “may have broken the law”. Reid was referring to the claim that Comey had violated the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits executive branch officials from engaging in political activity.
Through his partisan actions, FBI Director Comey may have broken the law. https://t.co/rDcYbKBa8G
— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) October 30, 2016
While Harry Reid is well known to be a political hack who never lets the truth get in the way of winning an election (I don’t have to remind Republicans about the time Reid knowingly lied about Romney not paying taxes), it is nice to see someone on the other side of the aisle not jump on the opportunity to turn everything into a partisan fight. Obama’s take on the issue is undoubtedly the strongest defense of Comey by a Democrat thus far, and his dismissal of Reid’s claim carries a good bit of weight among voters considering his partisan leanings.
When questioned about Reid’s claim that Comey’s letter to Congress violated the Hatch Act, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest stated the following:
The president’s assessment of his integrity and his character has not changed. The president does not believe that Director Comey is intentionally trying to influence the outcome of an election. The president does not believe that he is secretly strategizing to benefit one candidate or one political party. – White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest
Earnest went on to say that Comey is “in a tough spot” and that “nobody at the White House has insight into the decision that Director Comey made.”
Before these statements from the White House, the Clinton campaign had been attacking Comey and demanding that he release more information about the investigation. Most of the mainstream media had also jumped on the bandwagon and criticized Comey for the timing of the letter, but in a private memo to Bureau officials, Comey stated that he had only found out about the new emails on Thursday of last week.
It is still unclear when the FBI’s investigation will conclude, but it is suspected to take more than a couple of weeks. Director Comey has not made a public statement since writing the letter to Congress, but the White House’s dismissal of Reid’s attacks should slow down the partisan criticism.
In a letter dated June 13, 2012, to the State Department Inspector General, five Republican members of Congress—Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Trent Franks of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Thomas J. Rooney of Florida, and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia—claimed that Abedin “has three family members – her late father, her mother and her brother – connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.”[24][25][26] The five members of Congress alleged that Abedin had “immediate family connections to foreign extremist organizations” which they said were “potentially disqualifying conditions for obtaining a security clearance” and questioned why Abedin had not been “disqualified for a security clearance.”[25]
The claims in the letter were generally rejected, and were labeled by some as conspiracy theories.[24][27] The Washington Post editorial board called the allegations “paranoid,” a “baseless attack,” and a “smear.”[24] The letter was also criticized by, among others, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Representative Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, the first Muslim member of Congress, who called the allegation “reprehensible.”[28] Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, also rejected the allegations, saying “The letter and the report offer not one instance of an action, a decision or a public position that Huma has taken while at the State Department that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government….These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis and no merit.”[28] Bachmann’s former campaign manager Ed Rollins said the allegations were “extreme and dishonest” and called for Bachmann to apologize to Abedin.[29] The Anti-Defamation League condemned the letter, calling upon the Representatives involved to “stop trafficking in anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.”[30]