Every adult and child in the USA well knows the "creatures" of Halloween - Ghost and Goblins, witches and monsters, gargoyles and ghouls. Of course, there is always the traditional "trick or treat" door-to-door parades featuring costumed children and buckets of candy. For the most part, this annual pre-thanksgiving tradition on October 31st, launches the Month of November and announces the arrival of the winter season. 2016, with its deplorables, Russian hackers, and mean-spirits engaged in the presidential race, features our political set of "scary" folks. Perhaps the most frightening "ghouls" to be engaged this year is former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani (or Ghouliani). While Donald Trump has played "trick or tweet" all these many months, behind the scenes Rudy has been devolving into a paranoid psychotic spewing conspiracy theories from the alt.right and casting blame on Hillary Clinton including everything from the Big Bang forward. With an attitude, bearing, posturing, and threatening presence that was last seen in the person of Bela Lugosi in the original "Dracula", Giuliani (the Ghoul) has stalked Hillary on behalf of Donald Trump since the start of this year.
Just last week, in an appearing on FOX News, Ghouliani, responded to a question about the status of the Trump campaign, given that Hillary's polling was 7+ points ahead of the Donald. Rudy folded his arms and with a smug snarl on his face announced "don't worry, we have some surprises up our sleeve." When pressed to explain his comment, he declined saying simply, "in the next few days, wait and see." He was smiling, smug, self-satisfied, and confident that whatever was going to happen, would have a major impact on the election. Trick or Tweet?
Within a few days FBI Director Jim Comey sent a letter to several Congressional Committee Chairs containing three paragraphs informing the House Members that he had authorized a review of additional e-mails on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Although the letter did not allege any wrong-doing by anyone, but merely said that a review was in order, his announcement was like throwing a 5 gallon bucket of gasoline onto a dying ember. In fact, at the time of Comey's announcement, investigators had not seen one e-mail and could not say whether Hillary has sent or received any of the subject messages or if any of them were duplicates of e-mails already reviewed, or had any official business information on them at all, much less any indication that anyone had any intent to violate any law whatsoever. Nevertheless, within 48 hours Rudy Giuliani in interviews - and Donald Trump at rallies - were pounding away at Hillary and suggesting that she was within days of being INDICTED according to "FBI sources." In fact, FOX TV reported that a Hillary indictment was a fact and was imminent - a statement that they later had to retract and issue an apology. Giuliani clearly said that he had inside information from "FBI sources" that this was coming in the days before the Comey announcement and that it would have a material effect on the election. Whether he did or not, I cannot say. Giuliani has denied his original statement saying that what he really meant that he got the information from some vague "retired FBI agents" who were dissatisfied with Director Comey's July statements clearing Hillary of any wrong-doing beyond being "sloppy." Others have inferred that Comey was "forced" to make his recent statement because of rogue agents who were about to "leak" the news of the newly-discovered e-mails (again, without any knowledge of what they contained). Of course, all of this was both a tempest in a tea pot and, more significantly, a clear violation of FBI policy and practice.
Whether this announcement was pre-planned, shared with the Trump campaign by the FBI Director or by FBI agents before it was announced makes little difference in the impact of the statement. The new letter had a significant impact on the election because it came while early voting was underway, and, this information, unclear as it was, came within 10 days of the election. During this past week, polling data on the race showed that Trump closed the poll gap as Hillary lost some marginal support. But, in a close race such as this one, that could have a material impact on the outcome - no small matter. And, since the announcement, some Republicans in the House and Senate have threatened to "impeach", investigate, and otherwise harass President Clinton, tying her up in investigation after investigation to cripple her new administration, deny her appointments to the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, and, even worse, denying the millions of American citizens whose votes made her the president in the first place. Further, the impact on down-ballot Democratic candidates for US Senate and House certainly isn't helpful. The suspicion is, however, that Comey may very well have tilted the majority in the Senate toward the Republican candidates, intentionally or not.
US Department of Justice and FBI policy holds that silence is the rule during the course of investigations up to the point that an indictment is secured against someone. All of us have heard the "no comment in connection with on-going investigations" response to questions of the FBI as to the status of some case or other. In this case, at the time of the Director's announcement, the FBI had not even sought or secured a search warrant to read the e-mails on the Abedin computer, shared with her husband, Anthony Weiner. In other words, they had no idea what e-mail messages were on the laptop and whether or not they had any bearing at all on Secretary Clinton. This was clearly a case calling for "no comment." In fact, there was no "investigation" related to Hillary on these messages because they had not read a single message at that point! Nevertheless, Director Comey announced through his written communication that a review of the emails was in order, tying Hillary into the issue WITHOUT ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER. So, maybe the "no comment" rule doesn't apply to non-investigations with no evidence of wrong-doing at all, or in reviews of someone else's e-mails? What is really behind all of this? Trick or tweet! Are these things that go "bump" in the night? Perhaps, these are just scary ghosts, goblins, and ghoulianis from the dark side? Time and election day will tell.
I have no explanation for Comey's announcement. What I do know is that, on its face, he violated FBI and Department of Justice "no comment" policy, and that his violation has had a material impact on the election. Whether that was what he intended that outcome or not, remains to be discovered. And, just as the FBI - Comey included - in July concluded that Hillary did not have the requisite intent to violate the law in her use of a personal e-mail server after a 10 month investigation, perhaps someone should investigate Director Comey, Rudy Ghouliani, and the rumored "rogue" FBI Agents who were leaking information to damage a presidential candidate. And, should "intent" to impact the election be found, then a prosecution may be in order. Perhaps the chant "lock her up" will morph into a close variation - "lock HIM up."
In my view, our democracy really cannot survive if we do not prevent the finger of political motivation to invade the institutions that we rely on to save us from ourselves - the dual agencies that we count on to make us a nation of law and not men. Justice needs to be even-handed in reality as well as in theory. And, that means no politics in the judicial system, no favoritism from judges based on your political views, and certainly no locking up people based on political party membership. These things happen in other backwater countries, in dictatorships, in autocratic governments where all of the judges are appointed by the winner and all of the law enforcement leaders are all from the same political party. Lock up opponents, prosecute the press that dares to disagree, clamp down on dissent or on voters who are of a different religion. This is not our tradition. In fact, those behaviors are what drove many refugees of the 17th and 18th century to these shores to seek a new way and to escape the oppression and prosecution that they suffered in the old world. And, the success of those early settlements and sentiments was the source of celebration at those early Thanksgivings, having left the horrors of the old world behind. Ghouliani, Trump, Breitbart, the alt. right, racists, xenophobics, anti-immigrant thinking, banning one religion or ethnic group from participation, all represent throwbacks to places that we have been in the past and beliefs that we have abandoned long ago. This election should be a celebration of democracy. Instead, it has become a battle for the survival of our civic life, our civility, and our ability to accept one another as Americans. Will we choose the dark side and return to the brutal past with torches and pitchforks or will we turn to a hopeful future and find a way to work together in the common interest and for the common good as the founders hoped? Your votes will tell the tale next Tuesday. The question is, trick or tweet?
At the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin was asked what form of government the Convention gave the nation. Franklin responded, "a republic, if you can keep it." I am hoping that Philadelphia as well as many other places in our nation will stand with me and rescue our republic and our democracy from the greatest political threat that it has faced in a very long time, the election of a psycho, know-nothing, autocratic Donald Trump. The election of Hillary Clinton can save us from the seething anger that turns us against one another and, instead, encourages us toward a more hopeful effort of solving the problems that we face as a nation together and returns us to the art of compromise rather than dividing us based on fear and hate. The Clinton slogan reads, "Stronger Together", and, we surely are. I hope that we will once again be, in fact, stronger together come Tuesday. Good Luck and Good Night.
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