Tyler O’Neill writes at PJMedia.com that an active effort within the FBI to help Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton might have had the opposite effect.
A story of high tragedy is buried deep in the inspector general’s (IG) report published Thursday. Like Oedipus before him, FBI staffer Peter Strzok feared a terrible future and fought to prevent it. Ironically, his very efforts to stop Donald Trump from becoming president may have sealed that very fate.
Lisa Page, Strzok’s co-worker and lover, breathlessly texted him, “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” To this, Strzok replied, “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.” …
… One decision in particular stood out. Strzok seems to have been instrumental in delaying a key lead in the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails. In September 2016, the FBI discovered Clinton emails on the laptop of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). Rather than pursuing this lead in the Clinton investigation, the FBI — and Strzok specifically — sat on it. …
… Strzok’s decision to put Weiner’s laptop on the back burner seems particularly noteworthy. The IG report also suggested why Strzok made this decision.
“Under these circumstances, we did not have confidence that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over follow up on the [Clinton] investigative lead discovered on the Weiner laptop was free from bias,” the report stated. Talk about an understatement!
CNN’s Jake Tapper unleashed a tweet storm on Thursday, nothing the tragic irony of Strzok’s pro-Clinton bias perhaps costing Clinton the election.
“IG suspects Strzok was biased against Trump, and that may have influenced the decision to sit on the Weiner laptop for a month. Which might have ultimately set a course of events in motion that cost Clinton, his preferred candidate, the presidency,” Tapper tweeted.
