Written by Prof Michel Chossudovsky; Originally appeared at Globalresearch

Author’s note and Update

FBI Director James Comey confirmed in a Senate Judiciary Committee on  May 3 that his mandate required him to speak out regarding the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails trove, 11 days prior to the November 8 presidential elections.

Comey confirmed that he had no regrets: “It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election, but honestly, it wouldn’t change the decision, … To not speak about it would require an act of concealment in my view,… Concealing, in my view, would be catastrophic.”

In four hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey delivered his most impassioned defense yet of a decision that many Democrats believe cost them the White House: telling Congress 11 days before the Nov. 8 election that the FBI had uncovered a new trove of Clinton-related emails.

… He told the panel one reason for the FBI’s renewed interest in Clinton’s case was that investigators had found emails, some of them classified, forwarded by Clinton’s assistant Huma Abedin to her husband, who was not authorized to see such information. 

…Clinton said on Tuesday her election bid was derailed in part by Comey’s announcement about the renewed probe of her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. She said her effort also was damaged by the WikiLeaks release of her campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, allegedly stolen by Russian hackers. (Reuters, May 3, 2017)

It is important to recall the circumstances of the actions undertaken by FBI director Comey.

The evidence revealed by the FBI points to criminal wrongdoings and corruption on the part of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pertaining to:

1) The email trove while Clinton was Secretary of State,

2) Corruption, money laundering and conflict of interest in relation to the Clinton Foundation,

3) Meddling and corruption by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) with a view to manipulating the primary elections in favor and on behalf of Hillary Clinton and against Bernie Sanders.  This was fully revealed by John Podesta’s emails. The blame was placed on Russia’s alleged hacking of Podesta’s email. Meanwhile the broader issue of election fraud was forgotten. Bear in mind that if this DNC meddling had not occurred, Bernie would in all likelihood  have won the primaries, and would most probably have won the presidential elections against Trump. 

4) Barely acknowledged by the mainstream media Hillary Clinton had also bribed a senior FBI official who was subsequently put in charge of the investigation into her email trove.

Hillary had bought out the police chief, who in January 2016 was promoted Number Two Man of the FBI and put in charge of investigating her alleged wrongdoings.

The following article published by Global Research on November 7, one day before the presidential elections provides  evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton as well as serious divisions and conflicts within the FBI, resulting from the bribing  of  a senior FBI official by Hillary.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is casually reviewing the matter, while diverting attention away from Hillary-DNC meddling of the primaries to Russia’s alleged role in the hacking the DNC  as a means of supporting  Trump’s candidacy.

Will the truth be revealed? Highly unlikely.

This is what happened.  See below.

Michel Chossudovsky, May 3, 2017

  *      *    * 

FBI Director James Comey: Hillary Should Not Face Criminal Charges. But Who Conducted the Investigation? FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe Whose Wife Received $467,500

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research

November 7, 2016

FBI Director James Comey (image left) decided to issue a report two days before the November election confirming that there is no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Hillary in relation to the recent release of  650,000 Emails on October 28th. 

First let us outline the official MSM story as presented by the media (November 6): Washington Post  echoed by CNN Anderson Cooper et al. What the reports intimate is that the FBI worked assiduously around the clock and found nothing incriminating in the trove of 650,000 emails:

From the moment they secured a warrant, dozens of FBI agents worked night and day to analyze a trove of messages that they thought might help advance their probe of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, according to a U.S. official.

The pressure was intense. …. The agents’ work, at first, seemed endless. They had to use special software to sift through some 650,000 emails.

(WP, November 9, 2016)

According to CNN, Hillary is Clean. “Cleared” by the FBI:  “FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers Sunday the agency hasn’t changed its opinion that Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges  after a review of new emails.”

“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July,” Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen. (CNN, November 6, 2016)

There is however something fishy with the mainstream media story.  The report is accepted at face value by the media. No discussion, no debate of what’s in the emails, etc.  The Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus issued the following statement in a letter to Congress:

 “The FBI found evidence Clinton broke the law, that she placed highly classified national security information at risk and repeatedly lied to the American people about her reckless conduct.”

“None of this changes the fact that the FBI continues to investigate the Clinton Foundation for corruption involving her tenure as secretary of state. Hillary Clinton should never be president,”

 Washington Post Video

Who Was in Charge of the Investigation

About Turn at the FBI?  The media reports fail to mention the name of the FBI official who was in charge. It wasn’t Comey. It was his number two man, deputy director of the FBI Andrew McCabe. (image right).

While McCabe was in charge of the investigation, FBI Director Comey was entrusted with the release of a formal statement to the US Congressional committee.

There is reason to question the validity of the investigation led by Andrew McCabe.

To put it mildly: Andrew McCabe is in conflict of interest. (This has been the object of a previous article by the author)

Let us review the chronology.

1. Andrew McCabe is senior official of the FBI and husband of Dr. Jill McCabe who ran for the State senate of Virginia in 2015.

2. According to the WSJ, Hillary’s “Ally” Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe allocated $675,000 in support of Jill McCabe’s candidacy.

“The political organization of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, an influential Democrat with longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, gave nearly $500,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email use” (WSJ, October 23, updated October 24, 2016)

3. A few months later, in late January 2016, Andrew McCabe is promoted to the rank of Deputy Director of the FBI and put charge of the investigation into  Hillary’s Emails.

Screenshot of FBI Press Release, January 29,2016

4. Following the release of a WSJ report on October 23, the nearly $500,000 transaction in favor of Andrew McCabe’s wife is made public.

5. The WSJ as well as other reports suggest internal conflicts as well as corruption within the FBI: Possible divisions between Comey and his Deputy who was “indirectly” bribed by Hillary Clinton?

6. Five days later on October 28, FBI director James Comey decides “to go clean” with a Second letter to the US Congress.

7. Upon the release of Comey’s second letter, the FBI director is accused of breaking the law.

8. In a bitter irony, nobody actually points to the fact that Andrew McCabe rather than James Comey had broken the law. The fact that Andrew McCabe’s wife had received close to half a million dollars has gone totally unnoticed. Was James Comey being sidelined in favor of Andrew McCabe? Was Andrew McCabe involved in stalling the investigation? The Wall Street Journal (October 30, 2016) points to an Internal Feud within the FBI:

FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe

Laptop may contain thousands of messages sent to or from Mrs. Clinton’s private server

“…Others further down the FBI chain of command, however, said agents were given a much starker instruction on the case: “Stand down.” When agents questioned why they weren’t allowed to take more aggressive steps, they said they were told the order had come from the deputy director—Mr. McCabe.”

Was James Comey and the senior staff of the FBI pressured into accepting McCabe’s twisted report?

“… Others familiar with the matter deny Mr. McCabe or any other senior FBI official gave such a stand-down instruction. (Ibid)

9. Hillary had bought out the police chief, who in January 2016 was promoted Number Two Man of the FBI and put in charge of investigating her alleged wrongdoings. How convenient. Needless to say Andrew McCabe was NOT the object of a police investigation. If he had things would have turned out differently.

10.  While James Comey issued an official statement on November 6, “clearing Clinton” none of the news reports mentioned that Andrew McCabe rather than James Comey was in charge of the police investigation.

11. None of reports point to conflict of interest and the fact that Andrew McCabe was protected by Hillary Clinton.

12. Without getting into the detail of what’s in the trove of emails, which has been the object of  media coverage and analysis (See recent articles by Global Research), there are grounds to question the validity of both Andrew McCabe’s investigation as well as the official statement issued by FBI Director James Comey.