Sen Ron Johnson (R) WI released the original draft of Comey’s original statement on the investigation into Hillary Clinton and her illegal server. There are five major edits that changed the wording profoundly.
For example, it was changed from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” in order to make it seem like a minor misunderstanding rather than the felony it actually was.
Also, the original draft said that it was “reasonably likely” that Clinton’s server was hacked by hostile actors. That was changed to “possible.”
Sen Johnson has posted both the original draft and the edited version on his office website in their entirety. Comey, who wanted to keep his job after Hillary won was looking to curry favor with the new boss but was shocked when Trump won. After being fired for incompetence, Comey gave four memos to a friend in order for him to leak them to a liberal reporter, something Comey admits that he did but he claims that the memos weren’t classified but they were:
Chris Farrell: We have a sworn declaration from David Hardy who is the Chief FOIA Officer of the FBI that we obtained just in the last few days. And in that sworn declaration Mr. Hardy says that all of Comey’s memos, all of them, were classified at the time they were written and they remain classified.
“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statute proscribing gross negligence in the handling of classified information and of the statute proscribing misdemeanor mishandling, my judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey originally penned.
That passage, however, was edited to remove the references to “gross negligence” and “misdemeanor mishandling,” leaving a much more generic reference to “potential violations of the statutes.”
The FBI testified that the edits were made by subordinates and that Comey approved the draft with the edits. Sen Johnson sent a letter to new FBI Director Christopher Wray, which said in part:
“The edits to Director Comey’s public statement, made months prior to the conclusion of the FBI’s investigation of Secretary Clinton’s conduct, had a significant impact on the FBI’s public evaluation of the implications of her actions.”
“This effort, seen in light of the personal animus toward then-candidate Trump by senior agents leading the Clinton investigation and their apparent desire to create an ‘insurance policy’ against Mr. Trump’s election, raise profound questions about the FBI’s role and possible interference in the 2016 presidential election.”
One major edit that concerns Johnson is the original line that the FBI worked with other intelligence agencies to assess what the damage to national security might be. That was eliminated, causing Johnson to wonder if the other agencies assessment was different.
“We have done extensive work with the assistance of our colleagues elsewhere in the Intelligence Community to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the private email operation.”
The more we learn the more it looks like all the crimes were committed by the Deep State operatives such as Comey. Lock him up!
