What Happens Next?

You’ve all heard that the FBI has reopened the criminal investigation into Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton; her use of a private, unsecured email server to conduct State Department official business; and the passage through that system of classified emails, some of which she received copies of, some of which she relayed, some of which she originated, and with at least one of which—after a classified fax transmittal attempt failed—she instructed the originator to strip off the markings and send the thing unclassified through her unclassified system.

What happens now?  Some possibilities occur to me.

  • President Barack Obama (D) instructs his Attorney General Loretta Lynch to halt the renewed investigation
  • Obama pardons Clinton in advance soon, as in before the election in a few days
  • Clinton gets elected with the FBI’s investigation still running, and then Obama instructs Lynch to halt the renewed investigation
  • Clinton gets indicted, likely after the election since even a renewed investigation will take time to run to completion, and Obama pardons her
  • In the unlikely event the investigation survives the interferences and continues until after President-elect Clinton is inaugurated, Clinton has Lynch (her minion rewarded with continuation as AG) halt the investigation, or she pardons herself

Most likely, though, this investigation will peter out with a sham conclusion, just as the original investigation did.

If that last is the case, though, then why would FBI Director James Comey reopen it at all?  My speculation: all those “angry FBI agents” who were disgruntled over the handling of that earlier investigation answered Comey’s “‘twarn’t me” memo with a letter back to Comey containing words to the effect of, “Reopen this investigation and let us do it right, or we’ll resign.  Loudly.”

Which lets the investigation go forward, but leaves Comey, Lynch, Clinton, and Obama in position to quash it at a suitable later time—and with a Clinton administration in place, little recourse for the rest of us.

Clinton’s Emails and Anthony Weiner

The FBI appears to have no search warrant with which to search the laptop and cell phone(s) that Democratic Party Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s senior aide and close confident Huma Abedin shared with her (now estranged) husband Anthony Weiner (at least as I write this Sunday).

The FBI still must dicker with Loretta Lynch (D) and her Department of Justice:

As of Saturday night, the FBI was still in talks with the Justice Department about obtaining a warrant that would allow agency officials to read any of the newly discovered Abedin emails….

“We do not have a warrant,” a senior law enforcement official said. “Discussions are under way [between the FBI and the Justice Department] as to the best way to move forward.”

The best way to move forward.  Which, of course, includes whether Lynch will allow the FBI to move forward at all.

There’s another item here that comes to mind, though, that stems from this aspect of the investigation of Weiner over his sexting escapades.

Did Weiner have access to any classified government documents on his laptop and iPhone[?]

It seems all too likely that these emails that Abedin has on the shared laptop (if not also on the iPhone (or iPhones—might Weiner have had more than one?)) include emails that have Clinton as a CC (or BCC) addressee, emails TO Clinton, emails FROM Clinton, or some combination of those alternatives.

Whether Clinton-involving emails are present or not, it’s all too likely, also, that at least some of Abedin’s emails that don’t include Clinton in distribution contain classified information.  In either case, it now seems imperative that the FBI include steganographic analyses of the imagery Weiner sent (and received?) on his iPhone(s), and on the shared laptop.

Update: Instapundit is reporting that Bret Baier is reporting that Weiner is cooperating with the FBI, so warrants aren’t needed.  Additionally, the Washington Examiner is reporting that the FBI has obtained two warrants for searching the Abedin/Weiner laptop.