Today in Campaign 2016
- The Clinton campaign has accused FBI director James Comey of “jaw-dropping” double standards for releasing news of a fresh investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server while apparently withholding evidence of Russian support for Donald Trump – in case it were to influence next week’s election.
- Clinton’s spokespeople pointed to reports by CNBC and the Huffington Post claiming that Comey privately urged against naming Russia for apparently interfering in the election and hacking Democratic email accounts, with campaign manager Robby Mook saying the decision to hold back “defied all logic”.
- The White House also aired more tentatively-worded concerns about Comey’s actions and motivations; while the Guardian reported that the FBI director could himself face investigation for violating the Hatch Act, a law designed to prevent federal officeholders from abusing their power to influence an election.
- Meanwhile, a slew of allegations about Donald Trump, particularly concerning his alleged ties to Russia, have peppered the closing hours of October.
- Slate reported that analysis of communications between a Trump Organization server and a Russian bank, Alfa Bank, could suggest a “secretive” relationship – although the New York Times said the messages could be “marketing email[s] or spam”. The Trump campaign has denied any relationship with Alfa Bank.
- Mother Jones cited unnamed sources – not verified by the Guardian – to claim that Trump has been “cultivated” by Russia as its preferred candidate.
- The New York Times had a look at what can be seen of Trump’s tax records – he’s chosen not to release them, of course – and concluded that measures he took in the early 1990s were “so legally dubious his own lawyers advised him that the Internal Revenue Service would likely declare it improper if he were audited”.
- And NBC reported that the FBI has opened an inquiry into Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, in relation to his role in advising foreign politicians, including Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych.
Elsewhere
- CNN has parted ways with pundit Donna Brazile, the interim head of the Democratic National Committee accused of leaking debate questions to the Clinton campaign.
- Trump backer Peter Thiel says he takes the candidate’s Muslim ban “seriously but not literally”.
- Ohio governor and disappointed former Republican presidential contender John Kasich has cast his early ballot for John McCain, who isn’t on the ballot.
- Barack Obama will leave behind his @Potus Twitter account – and his 11 million followers – when he exits the White House. The handle will be passed on to President #45.
- And it was Halloween, well everywhere, but also at the White House:
The Man of Steel meets with the Commander-in-Chief. 🎃 pic.twitter.com/DCqRPXutHt
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 1, 2016
The live blog is back tomorrow, when it really is only one week to go till election day (except for the 23 million people who’ve already voted). Thanks for reading.
Updated
With all the usual caveats about polls, FiveThirtyEight’s latest totting-up gives Clinton a 75% chance of victory. Which means a one-in-four chance of President Trump. (Here’s our analysis of how wrong – or right – the polls might be.)
Our latest polls-only forecast gives Clinton an 75% chance to win the presidency: https://t.co/2uB2oq8m9u pic.twitter.com/nbVrXYWd5s
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) November 1, 2016
Associated Press says its own data shows rates of early voting are “far higher” than in 2012, with more than 23 million votes already cast:
That represents nearly 20% of the total votes expected nationwide, if turnout is similar to 2012. In all, more than 46 million people – up to 40% of the electorate – are expected to vote before election day.
In Colorado, Democrats lead Republicans by 3 percentage points in early voting, reversing a trend in the past two elections in which Republicans led in early voting and large numbers of Democrats voted on election day.
In swing state Iowa, Republicans trail Democrats in early voting as well, though by a smaller margin than four years ago. Both parties are well behind where they were four years ago.
An “active shooter situation” at the Clinton Library in Arkansas has been resolved and is “not at all related” to the election, police in Little Rock have confirmed:
Motive appears to be a robbery. Victim was selling blue jeans when shot. Incident not at all related to the upcoming presidential election.
— Little Rock Police (@LRpolice) November 1, 2016
The victim was reportedly shot in the leg but the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
For the next president of the United States, the Oval Office will come with more than 11m Twitter followers.
Barack Obama was the first US president to be on the platform, drawing 11.1m followers to the verified @POTUS account since signing up in May 2015.
The next president will take over the handle on Inauguration Day, 20 January 2017, but the slate will be wiped clean of tweets.
Obama’s 317 posts will be archived at a newly created handle, @POTUS44, by the National Archives and Records Administration.
The same will happen with Obama’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, along with other presences on Twitter, such as Michelle Obama’s @FLOTUS, Joe Biden’s @VP, @WhiteHouse and @PressSec.
The @POTUS Twitter account will only be “made available” to the next president, suggesting the successful candidate could choose to continue using their existing handle.
Both presidential candidates already have huge followings on Twitter, with Hillary Clinton followed by 10.1m people at @HillaryClinton and Donald Trump 12.8m at @realDonaldTrump – nearly 2m more than the @POTUS account.
As your antidote to politicians dressing up for Halloween (though let’s not pretend the Romney one was the last we’ll see), here’s two boys dressed up as Barack Obama at the White House trick or treating event:
Meta Romney:
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney dressed up for Halloween as...Mitt Romney? https://t.co/sKphR8kZO4 pic.twitter.com/EpDKQraZDf
— Rebecca Berg (@rebeccagberg) November 1, 2016
Former Republican hopeful John Kasich has cast his early ballot – and it’s for John McCain.
His spokesman Chris Schrimpf said Kasich had voted for the actual Republican candidates in every other contest, but on the issue of the presidency the Ohio governor
went with someone he could support and also kept his commitment and demonstrated his support for down-ballot Republicans.
It’ll count for naught, mind, as Associated Press says McCain – the 2008 nominee – isn’t one of the allowable write-in names in Ohio. It’s the thought that counts etc.
Further to that Slate report that a Trump Organization server could have been communicating with a Russian bank – a link the Trump campaign has denied – the New York Times has also been investigating the pinging between the two and came to … not the same conclusion as Slate. Instead it reports:
FBI officials spent weeks examining computer data showing an odd stream of activity to a Trump Organization server and Alfa Bank. Computer logs obtained by the New York Times show that two servers at Alfa Bank sent more than 2,700 “look-up” messages – a first step for one system’s computers to talk to another – to a Trump-connected server beginning in the spring.
But the FBI ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts.
This is Claire Phipps picking up the live blog from Scott Bixby.
And this is why (probably common-or-garden) IT glitches seem much more suspicious in the dying hours of “October surprise!” month:
The internal senate email server is down due to unknown network issue, investigation ongoing. Some staff haven't had access in hours.
— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) November 1, 2016
“A Halloween full of tricks.”
Thanks to friends & loved ones for support—on a Halloween full of tricks, you have been real treats.
— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) November 1, 2016
Paul Manafort, in response to a request for comment from The Guardian regarding an NBC story alleging the opening of an FBI inquiry into his foreign business ties, dismissed the report as “an outrageous smear.”
“The NBC story is an outrageous smear being driven by Harry Reid and the Clinton campaign,” Manafort said. “It is an attempt by them to take the focus off of the FBI’s announcement of last Friday on the FBI’s renewed interest in the Clinton email scandal and the Wikileaks release of DNC and Clinton campaign emails.”
“There is nothing of my business activities to investigate,” Manafort continued. “There is no FBI investigation and NBC even admitted that there is no criminal investigation. This is presidential politics and nothing more.”
Happy Halloween from Ted Cruz...
Two little girls... very excited to trick or treat with Mommy and Daddy. #HappyHalloween! pic.twitter.com/YyXxSCov95
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 1, 2016
More on Donald Trump’s alleged ties to a Russian bank:
Trump’s ties to Russia have long raised eyebrows. Several of the Republican nominee’s campaign staffers, including former campaign chair Paul Manafort, have long maintained business ties in Eastern Europe. Manafort was a longtime political adviser to deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, a close Putin ally.
The Republican nominee has long praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin and refused to condemn the Russian regime’s hostile actions towards neighboring countries, including Ukraine. He has even criticized Hillary Clinton for her criticism of Putin and the United States to cooperate with Russia in Syria, where the Russian air force has been repeatedly conducted air strikes on civilians in Aleppo.
Further, Trump has long worked with Russian business interests in real estate projects. His son, Donald Trump Jr, said in 2008, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
A statement from Karen Dunn, Huma Abedin’s attorney:
From the beginning, Ms. Abedin has complied fully and voluntarily with State Department and law enforcement requests, including sitting for hours-long interviews and providing her work-related and potentially work-related documents. Ms. Abedin’s willing cooperation has been praised by members of Congress and law enforcement officials alike. She only learned for the first time on Friday, from press reports, of the possibility that a laptop belonging to Mr. Weiner could contain emails of her While the FBI has not contacted us about this, Ms. Abedin will continue to be, as she always has been, forthcoming and cooperative.
Report: Donald Trump used 'legally dubious' tax avoidance maneuver in early 1990s
A five-byline New York Times story reports that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump availed himself of a tax-avoidance method in the early 1990s so legally hazy that Trump’s own lawyers warned him that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would deem it improper under audit.
The maneuver, the New York Times reports, helped Trump avoid reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in cancelled debt resulting from the failure of one of Trump’s casino businesses as taxable income. The IRS views cancelled debt in the same light as taxable income - which would normally mean that after the floundering of Trump’s Atlantic City casino business and the subsequent cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, Trump would have to pay taxes on that cancelled debt as income:
The strategy - known among tax practitioners as a ‘stock-for-debt swap’ - relies on mathematical sleight of hand. Say a company can repay only $60 million of a $100 million bank loan. If the bank forgives the remaining $40 million, the company faces a large tax bill because it will have to report that canceled $40 million debt as taxable income.
Clever tax lawyers found a way around this inconvenience. The company would simply swap stock for the $40 million in debt it could not repay. This way, it would look as if the entire $100 million loan had been repaid, and presto: There would be no tax bill due for $40 million in canceled debt.
The Trump campaign dismissed the Times’ allegations, which are based on documents uncovered during a search of casino bankruptcy filings from the 1990s.
“Your e-mail suggests either a fundamental misunderstanding or an intentional misreading of the law,” Trump campaign press secretary Hope Hicks told the New York Times. “Your thesis is a criticism, not just of Mr. Trump, but of all taxpayers who take the time and spend the money to try to comply with the dizzyingly complex and ambiguous tax laws without paying more tax than they owe. Mr. Trump does not think that taxpayers should file returns that resolve all doubt in favor of the IRS. And any tax experts that you have consulted are engaged in pure speculation. There is no news here.”
Congress banned the use of “stock-for-debt swaps” in 1993.
Updated
The White House has announced the “line of succession” for President Barack Obama’s official @POTUS Twitter handle, as well as that of first lady Michelle Obama.
Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account.
— President Obama (@POTUS) May 18, 2015
According to a thorough statement from the White House office of communications, “the handle @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017. The account will retain its more than 11 million followers, but start with no tweets on the timeline.”
Those tweets from Obama’s tenure will be maintained under @POTUS44. Those tweets will also be archived at National Archives and Records Administration, “where they will be preserved and accessible in the same manner as all other Presidential records.”
“This will also be the case for other Twitter handles, including @WhiteHouse, @FLOTUS, @PressSec, and @VP,” the White House stated. “Individual official accounts, like @KS44, will transition to NARA and continue to be accessible for the public to view as an archive of all tweets sent by White House staff.”
Trump campaign denies email server was used to communicate with Russian bank
The Trump campaign has denied that a Trump Organization server was used to send or receive communications with a Russian bank, responding to a story by Slate’s Franklin Foer that activity on the server indicated “a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump Organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank,” the largest private commercial bank in Russia.
“First of all, it’s not a secret server,” said Trump campaign press secretary Hope Hicks. “The email server, set up for marketing purposes and operated by a third-party, has not been used since 2010. The current traffic on the server from Alphabank’s IP address is regular DNS server traffic - not email traffic.”
“To be clear, The Trump Organization is not sending or receiving any communications from this email server,” Hicks continued. “The Trump Organization has no communication or relationship with this entity or any Russian entity.”
The report, based on Foer’s interviews with three anonymous Domain Name System (DNS) specialists and multiple named academics with expertise in DNS, concluded that the server in question “was set to accept only incoming communication from a very small handful of IP addresses.” Among them, according to the DNS specialists: two Alfa Bank servers, which the specialists said accounted for 87% of the DNS lookups involving the Trump Organization server.
The Guardian has been unable to independently confirm Slate’s report.
Hillary for America senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan declared the story proof of “the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,” calling the alleged “secret hotline” between the Trump Organization and Russian banks “the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia.”
“This line of communication may help explain Trump’s bizarre adoration of Vladimir Putin and endorsement of so many pro-Kremlin positions throughout this campaign,” Sullivan continued. “It raises even more troubling questions in light of Russia’s masterminding of hacking efforts that are clearly intended to hurt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia’s meddling in our elections.”
Campaigning with two of the most visible faces of the gun-control movement in the US, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton accused Republican rival Donald Trump of “selling out” to the gun lobby.
“Donald Trump won’t stand up to the gun lobby - he sold out to them.” Clinton said in Cincinnati, Ohio. “I will stand up to them as president. The gun lobby is spending more on ads to get Donald Trump elected more than any other group.”
The NRA has spent nearly $80m alternately against Clinton and in support of Trump.
Clinton appeared alongside former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly.
The Clinton campaign blasted FBI director James Comey for “jaw-dropping” double standards on Monday after claims that he had sought to withhold evidence of Russian support for Donald Trump for fear of influencing next week’s US election.
In a sharp escalation of the unprecedented war of words with federal law enforcement authorities, the campaign contrasted this apparent caution with Comey’s controversial decision to release new details of its probe into Clinton’s private email server to lawmakers on Friday.
“It is impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double standard,” her campaign manager Robby Mook told reporters, claiming the decision “defied all logic”, especially as other intelligence agencies had favoured disclosure of suspected Russian involvement.
“Through these two decisions he shows he favours acting alone and without consulting … these are not the hallmarks of a responsible investigation,” added Mook.
Both CNBC and the Huffington Post have reported that Comey privately urged against naming Russia for allegedy meddling in the election and hacking Democratic email accounts.
Though this advice has not been confirmed officially, it tallies with the fact the FBI’s name did not appear on a list of US intelligence agencies supporting the allegations.
“A foreign power was trying to undermine the election. He believed it to be true, but was against putting it out before the election,” one former official told CNBC. Comey’s position, this official reportedly said, was “if it is said, it shouldn’t come from the FBI, which as you’ll recall it did not.”
The Clinton campaign called on Comey to “immediately explain this incongruence’.
“He has set the standard for narrating a play-by-play,” added spokesman Brian Fallon. “If that is his way of handling things, he needs to take the same approach to the Trump campaign.”
Report: FBI opens inquiry into Paul Manafort's foreign business ties
The FBI has opened a preliminary inquiry into Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, in relation to his business ties to foreign entities, NBC is reporting. The inquiry, which is reportedly not a formal investigation at this time, was reportedly prompted by the mounting scrutiny that faced Manafort before his resignation details emerged of his role in advising foreign politicians, including Ukrainian strongman Viktor Yanukovych.
Manafort’s close connections to Russia through Yanukovych, at a time when Trump attempted to criticize Clinton for taking money from foreign donors for her family foundation, cast a pall over Trump and his longtime admiration for Russian president Vladimir Putin that the candidate has not yet been able to shake.
“None of it is true,” Manafort said to NBC in response to the story. “There’s no investigation going on by the FBI that I’m aware of.”
“This is all political propaganda, meant to deflect,” he said.
Donald Trump, the target of adverts saying he sets a bad example to children, has attempted to turn the tables by referencing his 10-year-old son.
He told a rally in Warren, Michigan, that Hillary Clinton lied repeatedly about her email server. He also highlighted the latest batch of emails released by WikiLeaks seeming to show Donna Brazile, the interim head of the Democratic National Committee and a CNN contributor, giving Clinton a tip-off about a likely debate question during the party primary.
“Nobody’s saying why did Hillary Clinton not turn it in,” Trump said. “I have a son named Barron and I want to tell you, she is a terrible example for my son and the children in this country. That I can tell you... We do want the answer to that question, media. Ask her: why didn’t she say that she had the questions to the debate? I hope you’e going to be able to give us that answer.”
He added: “Somebody said, oh, maybe that’s not that a big a deal. To me it’s a big deal. Getting the questions to the debate: that’s a big deal, that’s a big deal, and not turning yourself in. And if they fired Donna Brazile, why are they not firing Hillary Clinton? Why is she allowed to run?”
Trump’s rally started two hours late and numerous supporters left before the end. Trump raised the prospect of “a constitutional crisis” if Clinton becomes president. “We’re going to be tied up in court for the rest of our lives with this deal. She’s not going to win the election, but I’m just saying. If Hillary is elected, she would be under protracted criminal investigation, likely followed by the trial of a sitting president. This is just what we need.”
Donald Trump, the target of advertisements saying he sets a bad example to children, has attempted to turn the tables by referencing his 10-year-old son.
He told a rally in Warren, Michigan, that Hillary Clinton lied repeatedly about her email server. He also highlighted the latest batch of emails released by WikiLeaks seeming to show Donna Brazile, the interim head of the Democratic National Committee and a CNN contributor, giving Clinton a tip-off about a likely debate question during the party primary.
“Nobody’s saying why did Hillary Clinton not turn it in,” Trump said. “I have a son named Barron and I want to tell you, she is a terrible example for my son and the children in this country. That I can tell you... We do want the answer to that question, media. Ask her: why didn’t she say that she had the questions to the debate? I hope you’e going to be able to give us that answer.”
He added: “Somebody said, oh, maybe that’s not that a big a deal. To me it’s a big deal. Getting the questions to the debate: that’s a big deal, that’s a big deal, and not turning yourself in. And if they fired Donna Brazile, why are they not firing Hillary Clinton? Why is she allowed to run?”
Trump’s rally started two hours late and numerous supporters left before the end. Trump raised the prospect of “a constitutional crisis” if Clinton becomes president.
“We’re going to be tied up in court for the rest of our lives with this deal. She’s not going to win the election, but I’m just saying. If Hillary is elected, she would be under protracted criminal investigation, likely followed by the trial of a sitting president. This is just what we need.”
A United Nations group is investigating allegations of human rights abuses by North Dakota law enforcement against Native American protesters, with indigenous leaders testifying about “acts of war” they observed during mass arrests at an oil pipeline protest.
A representative of the UN’s permanent forum on indigenous issues, an advisory group, has been collecting testimony from Dakota Access pipeline protesters who have raised concerns about excessive force, unlawful arrests and mistreatment in jail where some activists have been held in cages.
“When you look at what the international standards are for the treatment of people, and you are in a place like the United States, it’s really astounding to hear some of this testimony,” said Roberto Borrero, a representative of the International Indian Treaty Council.
Borrero, a Taino tribe member who is assisting the UN forum in its interviews, told the Guardian on Sunday night that the activists’ stories of human rights violations raised a number of serious questions about police response. “A lot of it was just very shocking.”
The pipeline protests have become increasingly intense over the last two weeks as construction has moved closer to the Missouri river and as police have aggressively responded to activists’ demonstrations with arrests, pepper spray, riot gear and army tanks.
The Standing Rock camps first emerged in April and have since drawn thousands of Native Americans and climate change activists from across North America and beyond to rally against the $3.7bn oil pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the Bakken oil field to a refinery near Chicago.
North Carolina senator jokes about Hillary Clinton getting shot
North Carolina senator Richard Burr, a descendent of the only sitting vice president to shoot a man in a duel, joked about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton getting shot during a meeting with Republican volunteers this weekend, according to audio obtained by CNN.
Burr joked in a meeting with volunteers on Saturday that “nothing made me feel better” about walking into a gun shop than seeing a magazine “with a picture of Hillary Clinton on the front of it.”
“I was a little bit shocked at that - it didn’t have a bullseye on it,” Burr said, to laughter. “But on the bottom right, it had everybody for federal office in this particular state that they should vote for. So let me assure you, there’s an army of support out there right now for our candidates.”
Burr has apologized for the comments.
“The comment I made was inappropriate, and I apologize for it,” Burr told CNN.
Donald Trump’s speech in Warren, Michigan, is thinning out considerably:
Note suddenly empty seats on @realDonaldTrump riser & open spaces. Dozens upon dozens leaving #Trump speech as it continues. pic.twitter.com/WZrFTd2zRp
— Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) October 31, 2016
White House questions Comey's intentions in Clinton email investigation
The White House on Monday highlighted concerns over the FBI director’s decision to announce that the bureau is examining whether newly discovered emails may be relevant to its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, reports the Guardian’s David Smith in Washington, Spencer Ackerman in New York and Dan Roberts in Cleveland.
Press secretary Josh Earnest was careful to say FBI director James Comey is regarded by Barack Obama as a man of integrity and principle. But he also noted the importance of “longstanding tradition and practice and norms” and warned of the “risk” of communicating with Congress.
Earnest said one senior Republican official already had suggested that his party was considering impeaching a future President Clinton.
Comey has faced a fierce backlash for going public with the new FBI investigation just 11 days before a presidential election, reportedly against the advice and guidelines of attorney general Loretta Lynch and other senior figures at the Department of Justice. On Sunday the FBI obtained a search warrant to begin reviewing the emails, reportedly numbering 650,000 and found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
On Monday, a spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel indicated that the independent federal agency may be investigating Comey over an alleged violation of the Hatch Act, which guards against federal officials seeking to influence an election.
At a White House press briefing, Earnest said much that could be interpreted as critical of Comey, though he declined to do so explicitly.
“The president believes that our democracy has been very well served for more than two centuries by officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI observing longstanding traditions that limit public discussion of investigations, whether an election is around the corner or not,” he said.
“It is clear what Director Comey has done. What’s not clear is what led to the decision. Nobody at the White House has insight into the decision that Director Comey made. I’m not aware of any of the factors that went into Director Comey’s decision to send this letter to Congress on Friday.”
Updated
Robby Mook responds to Russia allegations against FBI director
Hillary for America campaign manager Robby Mook and campaign press secretary Brian Fallon are holding a press call to respond to a CNBC report that FBI director James Comey argued against the bureau fingering the Russian government for attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the US electoral process, it was too close to Election Day for the government to say so publicly.
“Director Comey ensured that the FBI would not be part of letting the American people know that the Kremlin was behind a direct effort to undermine our democracy,” Mook alleged, calling the difference in Comey’s treatment of the Russian hacking of DNC email servers and the discovery of emails potentially related to Clinton’s use of private servers “alarming and disturbing.”
Donald Trump, Mook continued, used the ambiguous language of Comey’s letter to congressional leaders as an opportunity to “wildly speculate and lie” about the FBI “re-opening” the case against Clinton, while the FBI kept mum about Russian involvement in hacking the Democratic party.
“The FBI had apparently agreed to the same conclusion by 17 intelligence agencies more than a month before the election that Russia was behind this attack,” Mook said, yet Comey “has no problem depriving information to the American people.”
“It’s impossible to view this as anything less than a blatant double-standard,” Mook continued. “These are not the hallmarks of a responsible investigation... The FBI had not even obtained access to review emails for any potential significance, and yet Director Comey insisted on revealing the agency’s discovering” to congressional leadership, creating a “firestorm” just days before the election.
“I am calling on Director to immediately explain this incongruence and apply the same standard to Donald Trump’s associates as he has applied to Hillary Clinton’s,” Mook concluded.
Chiming in, Fallon alleged that “this report suggests that Comey feels compelled to make disclosures about emails that he has not even read... but is insisting on Russian cyberattacks that he agreed was directed at our democracy.”
“It is not fair for him to stay silent about investigations into election-related hacks. If he believes that the Russians are behind it, he should say so.”
Anwering questions from journalists on the call, Mook called Comey’s “lack of further information” regarding the case “particularly frustrating” for the campaign, and Fallon accused Comey of “narrating a play-by-play” of the FBI investigation in Clinton without doing the same thing for the Russian hacking.
Updated
Donald Trump campaigns in Warren, Michigan
Watch it here live:
Donald Trump, about to appear in Warren, Michigan:
Wow! I hear you Warren, Michigan. Streaming live - join us America. It is time to DRAIN THE SWAMP!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2016
Watch: https://t.co/pjXELwc5E1
The largest Super Pac supporting Hillary Clinton has released another ad that’s composed solely of Donald Trump quotations:
Hillary Clinton: ‘There is no case’ in FBI email investigation
Hillary Clinton’s campaign embeds get tacos - a reference to the “taco truck on every corner” sensation.
Lots of excitement in the Clinton press corps that there is a taco truck waiting outside her plane. Trump would be appalled. pic.twitter.com/MSRfPBpfUS
— Dan Roberts (@RobertsDan) October 31, 2016
Speaking at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this morning, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump praised James Comey for writing to Congress about the FBI’s review of Hillary Clinton emails.
Trump said Comey had guts for the move and jokingly thanked Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner. He also said Clinton’s election would lead to a constitutional crisis.
The scene outside of Donald Trump’s upcoming rallies in Warren, Michigan:
"Just remember with Trump it'll all treats no tricks!" (At Trump Rally in Warren, MI) pic.twitter.com/CIo7mmVr8z
— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) October 31, 2016
Report: FBI concluded Russia undermining election, avoided saying so because it was 'too close' to Election Day
FBI director James Comey reportedly argued that although the FBI had concluded that the Russian government was involved in attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the U.S. electoral process, it was too close to Election Day for the government to say so publicly, according to a report from CNBC.
Citing a former FBI official, CNBC reported that Comey kept the FBI’s name off of a statement released on October 7 declaring that “the US intelligence community is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations,” and that “these thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process.”
“A foreign power was trying to undermine the election,” the official told CNBC. “He believed it to be true, but was against putting it out before the election.”
Comey clearly felt differently about possible emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer.
Congressman Jim Jordan, the chair of the Freedom Caucus of tea party-aligned Republicans in the House of Representatives, is one of the sharpest critics of Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration, but the latest person to receive criticism from the Ohio congressman is the Republican director of the FBI.
“I think this was probably not the right thing for [James] Comey to do - the protocol here - to come out this close to an election,” Jordan told Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade this morning. “But this whole case has been mishandled, and now it is what it is.”
“He probably felt in light of what he did before he had to bring this out,” Jordan continued. “Quite frankly, because he had done the press conference and all the things he had before he probably did have to send a letter to Congress like he did last week. But I would argue all of this has been wrong from the get go in the way it’s been handled.”
The Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency, will neither confirm nor deny any the existence of investigation into Comey for violating the Hatch Act, a law designed to prevent federal officeholders from abusing their power to influence an election.
Democratic party officials in four swing states have sought federal court injunctions against the Trump campaign and its affiliates, alleging they plan to intimidate minority voters on election day.
The lawsuits argue that the Trump campaign, along with the nominee’s close confidant Roger Stone and state Republican party officials are “conspiring to threaten, intimidate, and thereby prevent minority voters in urban neighborhoods from voting”, citing Trump’s ongoing efforts to recruit “election observers” and Stone’s plans, as revealed by the Guardian, to conduct unorthodox “exit polling” on election day, as evidence of potentially “virulent harassment”.
The lawsuits follow another legal action made in federal court in New Jersey last week by the Democratic National Committee, which argues that the Republican National Committee is in violation of a 1982 consent decree that forbids the organisation from monitoring polls on election day.
Stone told the Guardian last week his group “Stop The Steal” planned to conduct exit polling in nine major cities in swing states, ostensibly to counter “election theft” and gauge the accuracy of electronic voting machines. But a number of polling and election law experts cast doubts on the methodology and suggested the process could be a smokescreen for voter intimidation.
The Republican nominee has for months warned supporters of a “rigged election” and encouraged them to monitor polling areas in cities such as St Louis, Chicago and Philadelphia. The lawsuits, filed by state democratic parties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada would cover many of the cities Stone said he intended to target.
The filings argue that such efforts, along with Trump’s rhetoric, could violate both the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices in the American south and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which outlawed intimidation against African American voters.
Election law experts said it was unclear whether courts would issue a broad order, as requested in the filings, to simply prevent voter intimidation, but could look in more detail at the temporary restraining order requested against Stone’s exit polling.
“It could be useful in getting the word out about these activities and secondly getting the [Republican state] parties and [Trump] campaign on record saying they will not engage in these activities,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California and whose Election Law blog first reported the lawsuits on Monday.
The Republican National Committee has been under a consent decree since the 1981 gubernatorial election in New Jersey when the group sent armed off-duty law enforcement officers to patrol polls in minority neighborhoods. These volunteers wore arm bands that identified them as an unofficial “Ballot Security Task Force” and erected posters warning against voting fraud. The RNC dismissed the lawsuit as “completely meritless” last week.
Stone’s exit pollers, self-titled “vote protectors”, had originally planned to use similar non-official identification badges, until these were removed from the organisation’s website late last week. The organisation is still encouraging its volunteers to live stream video from polling stations.
The Guardian contacted Stone and the Trump campaign for a response to the recent lawsuits and is awaiting a response.
Hillary Clinton sought to play down the impact at her first public event of the week.
“Most people have decided quite a long time ago what they think about all this,” she told a rally in Ohio. “Now what people are focused upon is choosing the next president and commander-in-chief.”
But there was less direct criticism of the FBI than over the weekend and Clinton said they were welcome to look at the emails of her aide Huma Abedin.
“I am sure a lot of you may be asking what this email business is about and why in the world the FBI would decide to jump into an election without any evidence and it’s a good a question,” she said to boos from the young crowd at Kent State University in Ohio.
“By all mean they should look at them and I am sure they will reach the same conclusion as when they looked at my emails: there is no case.”
Donald Trump’s companies have deleted thousands of documents and records from court proceedings, often defying court orders, according to a Newsweek investigation - despite his anger at Hillary Clinton deleting emails from her private server.
Journalist Kurt Eichwald explains the tactics Trump would use to hide documents:
Over the course of decades, Donald Trump’s companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded in official proceedings, often in defiance of court orders. These tactics—exposed by a Newsweek review of thousands of pages of court filings, judicial orders and affidavits from an array of court cases—have enraged judges, prosecutors, opposing lawyers and the many ordinary citizens entangled in litigation with Trump. In each instance, Trump and entities he controlled also erected numerous hurdles that made lawsuits drag on for years, forcing courtroom opponents to spend huge sums of money in legal fees as they struggled — sometimes in vain — to obtain records.
Trump would file untruthful affidavits, ignore deadlines and employ top delaying tactics, says Eichwald.
Trump says it 'took guts' for FBI chief to send letter to Congress
Trump claimed on Monday that the FBI had stumbled across a digital “motherlode” and predicted they would discover missing work-related emails that had been deleted from Clinton’s computers.
“650,000?.. I think you are going to find the 33,000 that are missing,” he told supporters in Michigan. “I think we hit the motherlode as they say in the mining industry.”
He also urged FBI director James Comey to resist political pressure from those criticizing his decision to disclose the investigation.
“He’s gotta hang tough because a lot of people think he did the wrong thing, but he did the right thing,” Trump told the Grand Rapids rally. “I was not his fan but what he did he brought back his reputation.”
“It took guts for director Comey to do what he did,” he added, to chants of “lock her up” from the crowd.
UK golf resort owned by Trump summonsed for alleged privacy breach
A Scottish golf resort owned by Donald Trump is being taken to court for allegedly breaching the privacy of a rambler photographed by staff without her consent or knowledge.
The resort in Aberdeenshire was served with a court summons on Monday after Trump’s Scottish lawyers admitted that two staff members took mobile phone images of Rohan Beyts while she was on the course in April.
Trump International Golf Club Scotland, owned by the Republican presidential candidate, has been ordered to appear at Edinburgh sheriff court on 22 December to respond to a civil action lodged in the small claims court by Beyts this month.
Beyts is seeking damages of up to £3,000 ($3,650) after TIGCS rejected her initial requests by letter for an apology and damages. Her civil action claims the company is guilty of a criminal offence under the UK’s data protection and privacy legislation, after an investigation by the Guardian revealed the resort was in breach of the Data Protection Act.
The resort admitted it was not registered under the act with the Information Commissioner’s Office despite operating at least nine CCTV cameras and holding confidential records on its staff, its thousands of customers and its suppliers. It subsequently registered with the ICO in August.
In the US, meanwhile, Trump has threatened to sue any cinema that screens the documentary, You’ve Been Trumped Too. Made by Anthony Baxter, the film is a sequel to You’ve Been Trumped, in which Baxter was seen being forcibly arrested by police as he investigated allegations of intimidatory behavior against the property tycoon’s neighbors in 2010.
Read the rest of the article here.
Donald Trump’s campaign is refusing to pay a $767,000 bill to a Florida pollster, reports the Washington Post.
The Trump campaign hired GOP strategist and pollster Tony Fabrizio in May. Trump’s latest campaign filings show that it is disputing over three quarters of a million dollars to Fabrizio’s company.
The Trump campaign already paid $624,000 for Fabrizio’s services.
“Her election would mire our government and country in a constitutional crisis that we can not afford,” says Trump, arguing that an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email will last years and cripple the economy.
“Thank you Huma! Good job Huma! Thank you Anthony Weiner!” says Trump to laughter at Michigan, referencing how the FBI is examining emails that came to light due to the investigation of Weiner sexting with an underage girl.
“It took guts for director Comey to make the move he made in light of the opposition he had where they’re trying to protect her from criminal prosecution... it took a lot of guts,” says Trump in Michigan.
It's a festive stage for Trump today in Grand Rapids (📷: pooler @alivitali) pic.twitter.com/11SevR8sxj
— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) October 31, 2016
The pool reporter Ali Vitali also notes that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is also in attendance today.
“When I win on November 8, I am going to bring your jobs back to America,” Trump tells the crowd in Michigan.
“We’re going to make Michigan the economic envy of the entire world once again,” he says.
Donald Trump takes to the stage in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
White House will not 'defend or criticize' FBI chief
The White House says it will not “defend or criticize” FBI chief James Comey’s decision to alert Congress on Friday to new emails relating to the use of a private email server by Hillary Clinton just 11 days out from the election.
Josh Earnest, White House secretary, said Comey is a well-regarded official and that the White House does not have enough information to support or not support his actions.
“The president doesn’t believe that Comey is deliberately trying to affect the outcome of an election, or that he’s secretly strategizing to benefit one candidate or political party,” said Earnest in a press briefing.
Interesting article in the Washington Post about Evan McMullin, the independent candidate, who was an undercover CIA agent for a decade. Because of security concerns, little information about this time has previously been made public:
McMullin joined the CIA as a student trainee while an undergraduate at Brigham Young University. He would alternate semesters between the university and training at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. During that time, he spent a year in Israel and Jordan learning Arabic. He also worked for a refugee resettlement program run by the United Nations.
After graduating in 2001, McMullin joined the CIA’s directorate of operations, which runs clandestine missions abroad. He was in a computer training class at Langley headquarters when the 9/11 attacks occurred. After that, McMullin’s 18-month training to be an undercover operative was sped up, and he soon found himself in a southwest Asian country where the U.S. military was deeply engaged in the new war on terror. The specific country remains classified to protect his contacts there.
The CIA station chief who supervised McMullin in his first overseas assignment told me that McMullin stood out among all the new case officers because of his insistence on going outside the safe confines of the embassy to meet and develop human- intelligence assets. As a Mormon, McMullin could not indulge in the vices that often help to build such bonds, so he used his piousness and his experience before college as a missionary in Brazil to his advantage.
... McMullin served his later years as an undercover officer in Iraq while the U.S. military was battling a brutal Sunni insurgency and collecting intelligence on what was then called al-Qaeda in Iraq but is now the Islamic State. McMullin worked in Iraq until 2010, when the country achieved a degree of stability and the terrorist threat was temporarily minimized.
CNN 'completely uncomfortable' with leaked Clinton debate question
CNN is “completely uncomfortable” with news that acting DNC head Donna Brazile allegedly leaked debate questions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
CNN spokesperson Lauren Pratapas released a statement on the revelations from today’s latest Wikileaks release of emails supposedly from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, that show Brazile alerted Clinton that a question on the Flint water crisis would be asked during her debate with Bernie Sanders.
Pratapas’ statement reads:
On October 14th, CNN accepted Donna Brazile’s resignation as a CNN contributor. (Her deal had previously been suspended in July when she became the interim head of the DNC.) CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate. We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor.
Donald Trump falsely claimed at a rally on Sunday that Hillary Clinton wants to let “650 million people pour in” to the US and “triple the size of our country in one week”.
Speaking in an airplane hangar in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Trump again pushed his hardline immigration stance and warned of the dangers posed by what he described as Clinton’s “open borders” policy.
Trump took his alarmist rhetoric to a new height when boasting about his endorsement from the union which represents ICE and border patrol officers. He told them: “You know, it would be much easier working for Obama or working for crooked Hillary because frankly when you’re working for Hillary, she wants to let people just pour in.”
Trump continued: “You could have 650 million people pour in and we do nothing about it. Think of it, that’s what could happen. You triple the size of our country in one week. Once you lose control of your borders you have no country.”
The Republican nominee’s campaign has long used strident rhetoric about immigration. He alleged in his June 2015 campaign announcement that the Mexican government was deliberately sending rapists across the border and has repeatedly compared Syrian refugees to “the Trojan horse”.
Trump though has never suggested that Clinton, whom he has long derided as “a globalist”, supported tripling the size of the US through a mass migration unprecedented in world history.
Although Clinton is long on the record in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, there is no evidence she favors increasing the US population by 650 million, a total roughly equal to the combined population of Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
Read the rest of the article here.
New Podesta emails show Clinton received leaked debate question
A new batch of emails leaked by Wikileaks from the gmail account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager is out today, seeming to show Donna Brazile, the interim head of the DNC and a CNN contributor, giving Clinton a heads up about a likely debate question the day before she was due to take on Bernie Sanders at a primary debate.
Brazile 2 weeks ago: "I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did"
— Gabby Morrongiello (@gabriellahope_) October 31, 2016
Yeah, ok. pic.twitter.com/8jBOZ4G8q6
A woman did ask about the Flint water crisis at the next debate.
On October 11, Brazile released a statement – after earlier Podesta emails supposedly showed Brazile leaking a CNN town hall question – declaring: “As it pertains to the CNN debates, I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did.”
Donna Brazile statement on Wikileaks emails pic.twitter.com/LqblQt6Kjo
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) October 11, 2016
In another message, Podesta emails Neera Tanden, the president of Center for American Progress, about Clinton’s prospects and questions her “instincts” in the campaign.
WikiLeaks has been publishing batches of the leaked emails all month, after publishing leaks from the Democratic National Committee’s emails in October. Podesta and the Clinton campaign have refused to confirm the emails are genuine.
Updated
From Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts in Cleveland
The Republican campaign is seizing on signs of momentum to target an expanded map of states that it now sees as winnable, including once safely Democratic territory in industrial Midwest.
Donald Trump was due to speak in Grand Rapids and Warren in Michigan on Monday, before appearing with running mate Mike Pence in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
Until his polling gap began to narrow again last week, Trump had been forced back back to a dwindling number of competitive-looking swing states, while it was Hillary Clinton who was expanding her campaign ambitions by eyeing Republican territory in Utah, Arizona and Georgia.
But renewed optimism among Republicans, particularly after the FBI letter, has created an unusually vast national battleground for both candidates to cover, particularly as Trump’s economic populism scrambles traditional demographic dividing lines.
Michigan and Wisconsin have both been hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs and were the scene of surprise defeats for Clinton during the Democratic primary when large numbers of blue-collar workers favored Bernie Sanders.
Signs of fresh Democratic nervousness in Wisconsin first became apparent last week when the Clinton campaign suddenly announced a new advertising blitz. Sanders has now been despatched to help campaign for Clinton in the state on Wednesday.
The impact of early voting may also be forcing Trump to look further afield for the necessary electoral college votes however. States such as a North Carolina, which were seen as must win for Republicans, have seen heavy early turnout among Democrats and may be relatively immune from any late swing away from Clinton.
If he cannot win North Carolina but picks up the must-win states of Florida and Ohio, Trump’s best hope of pulling off a shock victory would rely on over-performing either in rustbelt states like Michigan and Wisconsin, or closing ground rapidly in the North East by wining New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and a congressional district in Maine.
Clinton meanwhile is redoubling her efforts to prevent Trump from even reaching this point. Two stops on Monday in Ohio will be followed by three stops in Florida on Tuesday and another swing to North Carolina later in the week as Democrats look to nip any resurgent Republican hopes firmly in the bud.
“It’s surprising to me that anybody would say that ‘you’re beyond the pale’ for a position that’s taken by around half the country,” says Peter Thiel, in his DC address.
“This is the first time I’ve done something that is conventional... and it’s been the most controversial thing ever,” he adds.
Clinton strong in Nevada early voting
Jon Ralston, dean of Nevada journalism, has been tracking early voting in Nevada and he thinks Hillary Clinton looks strong.
Dems are up 15 points in Clark (it was 16 in 2012), which is a point above registration, and that firewall is going to get to 60,000-plus, unless something strange happens. I repeat: Trump appears to have no path here, but the Senate race is not quite over yet.
Nevada is one of three states, with Ohio and Florida, to have voted for every presidential winner since 1996; it’s also a very important state for Trump this year.
After Sunday, the Dems are leading in Nevada by 34,000 votes. So far voter turnout is 31% of all voters.
“Real events seem like the rehearsals for Saturday Night Live,” says billionaire Peter Thiel, kicking off his chat about why he’s backing Trump.
Billionaire Peter Thiel is about to address the National Press Club in DC about why he supports Donald Trump.
Former AGs speak out against Comey's handling of Clinton emails
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal questioning the FBI’s handling of the entire investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
The publicity around the case “do no credit to him [FBI chief James Comey], or to the leadership of the Justice Department, of which the FBI is a part,” writes Mukasey.
He continues:
Friday’s announcement had a history. Recall that Mr. Comey’s authority extends only to supervising the gathering of facts to be presented to Justice Department lawyers for their confidential determination of whether those facts justify a federal prosecution.
Nonetheless, in July he announced that “no reasonable prosecutor” would seek to charge her with a crime, although Mrs. Clinton had classified information on a private nonsecure server—at least a misdemeanor under one statute; and although she was “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information such that it was exposed to hacking by hostile foreign nations—a felony under another statute; and apparently had caused the destruction of emails—a felony under two other statutes. He then told Congress repeatedly that the investigation into her handling of emails was closed.
Those decisions were not his to make, nor were the reasons he offered for making them at all tenable: that prosecutions for anything but mishandling large amounts of classified information, accompanied by false statements to investigators, were unprecedented; and that criminal prosecutions for gross negligence were constitutionally suspect.
Former AG Eric Holder’s Washington Post op-ed today also points out Comey’s previous public statements in July about Clinton’s emails were problematic and against DOJ policy.
This controversy has its roots in the director’s July decision to hold a news conference announcing his recommendation that the Justice Department bring no charges against Hillary Clinton. Instead of making a private recommendation to the attorney general — consistent with Justice Department policy — he chose to publicly share his professional recommendation, as well as his personal opinions, about the case. That was a stunning breach of protocol. It may set a dangerous precedent for future investigations. It was wrong.
Over the weekend, the Clinton campaign got nearly 100 former federal prosecutors and Department of Justice officials, including Holder and former Deputy AG Larry Thompson, to sign an open letter questioning Comey’s behavior.
Perhaps most troubling to us is the precedent set by this departure from the Department’s widely-respected, non-partisan traditions. The admonitions that warn officials against making public statements during election periods have helped to maintain the independence and integrity of both the Department’s important work and public confidence in the hardworking men and women who conduct themselves in a nonpartisan manner.
We believe that adherence to longstanding Justice Department guidelines is the best practice when considering public statements on investigative matters. We do not question Director Comey’s motives. However, the fact remains that the Director’s disclosure has invited considerable, uninformed public speculation about the significance of newly-discovered material just days before a national election. For this reason, we believe the American people deserve all the facts, and fairness dictates releasing information that provides a full and complete picture regarding the material at issue.
The full letter is available on Clinton’s website.
Peter Thiel to explain his support of Trump
Controversial billionaire Peter Thiel, who secretly funded the Hulk Hogan lawsuit that shut Gawker down, will speak at the National Press Club in Washington, DC at 11am today about why he supports Donald Trump.
Thiel, a Facebook board member, donated $1.25 million to the Trump campaign two weeks ago.
He wants today’s address to be a dialogue.
“Ideally, this will have the give-and-take of debate,” he told the New York Times. “Obviously, I’ll get some very tough questions about Trump. But I thought the best way to advance the discussion was not to have some completely contrived format. The future of this country depends on us engaging with the tough questions.”
Sport is surely more unpredictable than an election, but still.
Cubs have slightly better chance of winning World Series than Trump does winning Presidency. Split screen via @FiveThirtyEight @jonkarl pic.twitter.com/yx095451e1
— David Wright (@WrightUps) October 31, 2016
Original 'Daisy girl' stars in Clinton nuclear weapons ad
The original “Daisy girl”, from the 1964 Lyndon B Johnson ad warning of nuclear war, appears in a Hillary Clinton ad warning of Trump’s embracing of nuclear weapons.
“The fear of nuclear war that we had as children, I never thought our children would ever have to deal with that again. And to see that coming forward in that election is really scary,” says Monique Corzilius Luiz in the newly released ad.
"The fear of nuclear war that we had as children, I never thought our children would ever have to deal with that again." pic.twitter.com/7LYCDaUau9
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 31, 2016
And for old times sake, here’s the original Daisy ad (over 50 years later and it stands up well as a fear-inducing ad, don’t you think?).
On Thursday Melania Trump will deliver a speech in Philadelphia, her first since her address at the Republican National Convention in July, which was partly copied from a speech by Michelle Obama.
New: the next First Lady, @MELANIATRUMP, to deliver speech in suburban #Philly on Thursday. #MAGA
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 30, 2016
When Trump mentioned last week in an interview with George Stephanopoulos that Melania would be making two to three speeches before the election, she appeared surprised:
Donald Trump tells @GMA Melania will be making "two or three speeches" https://t.co/uK3nCE5p1h https://t.co/UFgEF1lcsT
— ABC News (@ABC) October 27, 2016
Ex-congressman Joe Walsh - he of the recent “if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket” comments - may despise Hillary Clinton, but he doesn’t agree with FBI chief James Comey’s actions either.
Politics aside, James Comey has screwed this thing up from the get go.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 31, 2016
He wrongly let her off in July & he wrongly stuck it to her Friday.
U may hate me, but I'll always say what I believe.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 31, 2016
I want Trump to win, but what Comey just did to Hillary Is wrong & really unfair to her.
Hillary is corrupt as hell, but the FBI Dir has no right to mess with an election.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) October 31, 2016
He goes public cuz of emails no one has seen? Just wrong
Happy Halloween and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. It’s a scary time for the Clinton campaign, after the director of the FBI alerted Congress on Friday to newly discovered emails relating to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. FBI chief James Comey has also had a fright, coming under fire for what might be seen as some rather partisan behavior.
The FBI has acquired a warrant needed to examine thousands of emails found on a laptop used by Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin, whose estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, is under investigation for allegedly sending illicit texts to a minor.
As many as 650,000 emails were found about a month ago during the separate investigation of Weiner, reports said. Some of them may have been sent through the Clinton private server and perhaps not examined by the FBI in its initial investigation of the Clinton emails, which ended with no charge in July.
Eight days out from the election, the effect of all this remains uncertain. Here, Dan Roberts asks if it will cost Clinton the election. Here, a Morning Consult/Politico poll has Clinton still three points ahead.
Comey slammed for election interference
Eric Holder, attorney general in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2015, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying Comey broke justice department policy by possibly interfering with an election and commenting on an ongoing investigation:
These rules have been followed during Republican and Democratic administrations. They aren’t designed to help any particular individual or to serve any political interest. Instead, they are intended to ensure that every investigation proceeds fairly and judiciously; to maintain the public trust in the department’s ability to do its job free of political influence; and to prevent investigations from unfairly or unintentionally casting public suspicion on public officials who have done nothing wrong.
Director Comey broke with these fundamental principles.
Holder joined dozens of formal federal prosecutors criticizing Comey for contacting Congress about the emails just 11 days out from the election.
Senate minority leader Harry Reid, meanwhile, launched a blistering attack on Comey, accusing him of possibly violating the law:
My office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan action, you may have broken the law.
Reid also claimed, without citing evidence, that Comey’s FBI had withheld information about links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Congressman Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Tennessee, called on Comey to resign:
If Director Comey cares about the bureau and the rule of law, as I have felt he has in the past, I’m sure upon reflection of this action, he will submit his letter of resignation for the nation’s good.
The Clinton campaign has called for Comey to explain what is going on – so far there is no indication that the FBI or Comey will clarify anything.
Clinton camp goes quiet
Joe Scarborough, host of NBC’s Morning Joe, noted this morning that Clinton surrogates avoided coming on TV to discuss the email drama:
We have been asking Clinton campaign officials and senior Democrats to come on the show all weekend.
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) October 31, 2016
The invitation remains wide-open.
Where the rallies are today
Today Trump is in Michigan, a state most expect to vote Democratic: he has a rally in Grand Rapids at 12pm, then another in Warren at 3pm. His VP pick, Mike Pence, is hosting three events in Florida. Clinton is in another battleground state, Ohio, hosting early vote rallies in Kent and Cincinnati. Her veep, Tim Kaine, is in North Carolina.
Please join us in the comments.
