When you want the fake news to be the truth
by digby
... you'll believe it, even if you know better.
The story about James Comey believing a fake Russian document implicating Hillary Clinton in a conspiracy with Loretta Lynch, thus propelling him to hold his July press conference is just depressing. We sort of knew the outlines of this before but this Washington Post story fleshes out the details:
The Russian document cited a supposed email describing how then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch had privately assured someone in the Clinton campaign that the email investigation would not push too deeply into the matter. If true, the revelation of such an understanding would have undermined the integrity of the FBI’s investigation.
Current and former officials have said that Comey relied on the document in making his July decision to announce on his own, without Justice Department involvement, that the investigation was over. That public announcement — in which he criticized Clinton and made extensive comments about the evidence — set in motion a chain of other FBI moves that Democrats now say helped Trump win the presidential election.
But according to the FBI’s own assessment, the document was bad intelligence — and according to people familiar with its contents, possibly even a fake sent to confuse the bureau. The Americans mentioned in the Russian document insist they do not know each other, do not speak to each other and never had any conversations remotely like the ones described in the document. Investigators have long doubted its veracity, and by August the FBI had concluded it was unreliable.
Comey's defenders are saying this justifies his actions last summer. But honestly, the man should have known better. By October everyone at the FBI did so there was no good reason for him to do what he did to tilt the election. But by all means lets not make a federal case out of Russian meddling because what could go wrong?
And yeah, a lot of people fell for this stuff. If my social media is any indication, they still are.
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