On Sunday, Harry Reid wrote a scathing letter to FBI Director James Comey, warning Comey that he may have broken the law.
“I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election. Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”
Which is a remarkable enough. But it’s far from the biggest charge in Reid’s letter.
“In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government -- a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity. The public has a right to know this information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public. There is no danger to American interests from releasing it. And yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information.”
Harry Reid is saying that the FBI not only knows of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but that the FBI is deliberately shielding this information, while misdirecting public attention toward the email ‘scandal’ without any valid information.
If Reid is right, then James Comey is guilty of something that goes far beyond just using his office to provide a competitive advantage to a candidate. Comey is using the full weight of the FBI to swing the election to a man he knows is in service to a foreign power.
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Reid’s accusations are extraordinary, and his statement that he approached Comey about this matter months ago certainly indicates that it’s far more than mere rumors.
To be clear, Democrats including Reid have argued for months and months that the Russian government wants Trump elected president, citing hacks into Democrats that intelligence officials say probably originated in Russia. Trump himself has stoked the fire by saying nice things about Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his former campaign manager's ties to Russian interests are well chewed-over.
But there is no public evidence to support Reid's claim of actual "coordination" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. And were that to be the case, it would be a scandal of epic proportions.
No public evidence. But Reid has been privy to classified briefings, and it’s the content of those briefings that seems to be at the heart of the push he’s making.
If Harry Reid has been told in briefings about evidence the Trump campaign is coordinating with the Russian government, information that has not been made public, then not only is Director Comey sitting on this information, but so are Republican Senators and Congressmen with access to the same briefings.
The highest officials of the Republican Party—including Comey—are hiding a connection that directly affects the integrity of the election and the security of the nation. That’s not electioneering. That’s a thousand times worse.
That’s not throwing this race for Donald Trump. It’s doing it for Vladimir Putin.
And if there’s any doubt that Reid no longer has the slightest shred of respect for Comey …
Reid closed his letter with a reminder that he had once “been a supporter” of Comey’s, even back when Republicans filibustered his nomination as FBI chief.
“I led the fight to get you confirmed because I believed you to be a principled public servant,” Reid concluded. “With the deepest regret, I now see that I was wrong.”
