FBI Director\'s strange letters and the outcome of US presidential election

Hillary Clinton was running away with the presidential election - and with the momentum also the Senate - until FBI Director James Comey decided to throw a bombshell on the campaign of the former First Lady. On Friday, October 28, with 11 days left before the election, he addressed a letter the Republican-dominated Congress that his agents while examining a laptop of disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner had found emails from his former wife Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton's closest aides, that could be related to the Congress-ordered FBI investigation into Hillary's email saga.
Comey went against the advice of the Department of Justice (DOJ), established protocol and the Orin Hatch Act - all red flags for him against addressing the letter to the Congress. The Orin Hatch Act makes it illegal for a federal government employee to speak or act in a partisan way when a presidential election enters the 60-day period from the date of the election. In addition to these red flags, Comey did not even know anything about the contents of the emails. There was a distinct feeling within the FBI that these emails found in Weiner's laptop were largely duplicates of those that FBI had gone through during the investigation ordered by the Republican-dominated Congress that had found no "smoking gun" in those emails to recommend a case against Hillary.
That FBI report had deeply disappointed Donald Trump and the Republicans. Since then elements in the FBI inclined towards Donald Trump (the Director is a Republican), had been desperate for new leads to the email saga of Hillary Clinton that has been the major chink in her armour against his opponent's countless such chinks. Thus when the emails were found in Weiner's laptop, these pro-Donald Trump FBI agents wanted to force the hand of the FBI Director to make a breaking story to stop Hillary Clinton from taking the election easily with just 11 days left for election day.
A leading surrogate of Donald Trump, who has thrown decency to the wind in insulting and demeaning Hillary Clinton, played the conduit in forcing the hands of the FBI Director. This surrogate, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in an interview with FOX TV two days before the FBI Director addressed his controversial and infamous letter, had said that within the next few days, they would hear about a story or two "that should turn the presidential election around". It is very well known in relevant circles connected with affairs in Washington that the former Mayor has strong links in the FBI.
The FBI Director came under fire from the Democrats because it derailed Hillary Clinton's momentum towards a decisive victory where the Senate also seemed sure to go to the Democrats. His letter has also been criticised by many leading serving Republicans in the Congress as well as those who have retired, some with connections to the DOJ. The FBI Director's action was so palpably wrong that there was no way for any right-thinking person in the country to say that he had acted appropriately.
The FBI Director should be knowing himself that based on merely a hunch and urged by elements in his agency, some now describe as "rogue", he had acted outside his terms of office. President Obama nailed this point when he said that by doing what he did, Comey turned the FBI from an investigating agency to a prosecuting one that is illegal, unethical, immoral and unconstitutional. As the uproar became strong and James Comey himself realised that he had illegally intervened in a presidential election, he worked against the clock to examine the emails in Anthony Weiner's laptop and tell the nation what his agency had found.
Sunday afternoon, James Comey addressed a new letter to the Congress informing the legislative body that after examining these new emails, the FBI saw no reason to change its earlier opinion about Hillary Clinton and her email saga, that there was no "smoking gun" in these emails to support a case against her. He mentioned in the letter that the new emails were mostly duplicates of those the FBI had examined earlier or mostly of personal nature without any relevance to the case.
That such an outlandish thing could happen in a country that prides in its system of governance where the highest-ranking official of an agency like the FBI would write such a game-changing letter in favour of one candidate against another in a presidential election on a mere hunch or urged by "rogue" elements in the Agency just 11 days from the election is something that is the stuff of a nightmare. Yet, this has happened and has placed Hillary Clinton from an unchallengeable position to becoming the 45th President of the United States to one where she cannot be sure of the outcome.
With just a day left for the election and nearly 40 per cent voters already casting their votes, there is no clear conclusion how much damage the FBI Director's letter of October 26 has caused and how much Hillary Clinton would now gain from the new letter clearing her name. Given that a large number of voters have voted in the early voting system and in key states like Florida while Hillary Clinton for no fault of hers was put under suspicion by the FBI Director's letter and on the issue of trust, there is no doubt that the former First Lady has suffered. In the least, the letter has taken a decisive victory away from the Democrats and with it perhaps the Senate that was firmly in their lap before the FBI Director's letter of 26 October.
Nevertheless, indications from early voting in key swing states of Florida and Nevada have seen a surge in Hispanic voters that is bad news for Donald Trump. And even after the letter of  October 26 had pushed Hillary Clinton on the defensive, she never lost the lead in the major polls that have only tightened. As the race stands at the time of filing this article [on Sunday], Donald Trump must win all the swing states of New Hampshire, North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Iowa to win. Hillary Clinton needs to win only one. The FBI Director's letter of November 06 giving Hillary Clinton a clean bill of health from her email problems may now give her some of these six swing states to ensure her comfortable victory.
The writer is a former Ambassador.
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