For some time the Obama administration Department of Justice has been at odds over the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The DOJ feud is between former FBI Director James Comey three key figures from the Obama DOJ:F ormer Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. All three of these prominent DOJ figures have found themselves in disagreement with Comey in relation to events that were a part of the Clinton investigation.
Comey vs. Lynch
Time and time again, Comey has questioned Lynch's actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation. He blamed Lynch for his decision to publicly announce the results of the investigation.
Per Daily Caller:
In his forthcoming book, “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey references unknown information involving Lynch that he said would have undermined the entire Clinton investigation if it had become public.
He said “the unverified material would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation.”
Comey cited the information — a “development still unknown to the American public to this day” — as his reason for taking a more public role in the Clinton investigation, rather than deferring to Lynch.
Comey testified last June that he believed Lynch had a “conflict of interest” in the Clinton investigation, and that he thought she should have recused herself from the investigation.
He also testified that Lynch told him to downplay the Clinton investigation and inaccurately refer to it as a “matter,” instead of as an investigation. The directive “concerned me because that language tracked the way the campaign was talking about the FBI’s work and that’s concerning,” Comey said.
Comey vs. McCabe
In a report that came out Friday, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, McCabe misled Comey repeatedly about a leak to the Wall Street Journal tha twas authorized by McCabe.
The deputy director repeatedly misled federal investigators about his role in the leak, as well about his misleading statements to Comey, the IG report said. The leak was “designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership,” the report said.
McCabe has said that Comey was aware of the leak to the Journal, which appears to clash with Comey’s testimony that he never authorized a leak to the media about the investigation.
McCabe’s lawyer slammed the IG report, which he claimed gave Comey more credibility than it should have.
Comey vs. Rosenstein
During an interview with ABC News, Comey ripped Rosenstein. He took things as far as comparing Rosenstein to a mob underling.
The reason? Rosenstein recommended that Trump fire Comey over his handling of the Clinton email investigation. (Trump later said he fired Comey over the Russia investigation.)
“The deputy attorney general, in my view, had acted dishonorably by putting out this pretext about why I was fired,” Comey said. Comey now considers Rosenstein to be part of a mafia-style family, headed by Trump. “He’s part of the family now. I can’t trust him,” Comey said.
Rosenstein slammed Comey’s leadership last May in a memo to Sessions that called for Comey’s firing.
“Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives. The way (Comey) handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong,” Rosenstein wrote.
“As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them.”
If James Comey is trying to kick up as much dust as possible and sell as many books as possible, then maybe this is the correct path to take. He seems to be at odds with everyone, which gives President Trump more credibility in their feud.
Wow, .@Comey puts down the American people for voting for @realDonaldTrump like he is the authority on morality. FBI is under investigation 4 HRC and Trump Russia investigation. It appears Russian chaos campaign aided unwittingly by Comey, Brennan, Clapper, McCabe & others - sad.
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) April 16, 2018
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