FBI Agents Signed NDA For Matters Involving Hillary’s Emails

...and agents are angry, confused...and apparently feel Clinton should have been recommended for an indictment.
Before someone says this is standard procedure...NO, it is NOT...at least according to current and former FBI agents interviewed.

Is this more special treatment for Hillary Clinton....or....is Comey worried about something getting out about an ongoing investigation into the Clinton Foundation?

In an unusual move, FBI agents working the Hillary Clinton email case had to sign a special form reminding them not to blab about the probe to anyone unless called to testify.

Sources said they had never heard of the “Case Briefing Acknowledgment” form being used before, although all agents must initially sign nondisclosure agreements to obtain security clearance. “This is very, very unusual. I’ve never signed one, never circulated one to others,” said one retired FBI chief.


An FBI agent currently on the job admitted, “I have never heard of such a form. Sounds strange.”Meanwhile, FBI agents expressed their “disappointment” over FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to recommend charges against Clinton, sources close to the matter told The Post.


“FBI agents believe there was an inside deal put in place after the Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton tarmac meeting,” said one source.


Another source from the Justice Department was “furious” with Comey, saying he’s “managed to piss off right and left.”

nypost.com...

“FBI agents believe there was an inside deal put in place after the Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton tarmac meeting,” said one source.

My thoughts exactly.

The whole email deal stinks to high heaven.

Agents should not be required to honor it if something in their findings would have constituted her intent or the intent of her staff. That to me is an unlawful order and would set up Comey and Lynch for indictment. If I were an agent and I knew or had something I would reveal it to the media. Every single one of them would get a big envelope.

The NDA's were signed near the beginning of the investigation, as I understand it.

Actually, it's possible the NDA was not only to prevent leaks to the press or public about a high interest case, it could have also been to prevent them from disclosing information to defendants or others with direct interest in the case. If Lynch was in the loop however, Clinton probably knew what was going on anyway.

I still believe that Comey was honestly doing what he thought was best. Sorry to be repetitive, since I have mentioned it before, but I think that Comey knew that if he recommended indictment, he would never have been able to come out with the information he revealed in the press conference. This is confirmed by Lynch's refusal to reveal information at the hearing. Lynch would have squashed all discussion of the facts after she closed the case, regardless of Comey's recommendations.

Remember Lynch said she would follow the recommendations of FBI 'AND' senior prosecutors. These prosecutors work for her, and she knew full well what they would recommend. This case was never going anywhere, just like the IRS case.

So Comey got his true conclusions out into the public domain, and he gave us many facts to work with. Now the State Department can continue their investigation, Congress can do what they can, and FOIA lawsuits that were on hold can go forward. He even gave an opening by saying that others in that situation would face administrative or other penalties.

We really need to thank Comey and stop criticizing him. He was in a difficult situation, and I think his move was genius. He wants justice. The information he revealed was damning to Hillary, and she and Lynch are furious with him. He took a big risk that he did not have to take. Then on top of it, he is condemned by the public for not indicting.

a reply to: BlueAjah

I think NDA is to protect the Clinton Foundation investigation.

a reply to: BlueAjah

I agree with that assessment. That was the best Comey could do. Get the facts out on the table for the public otherwise it never comes out. Now everyone knows they would be voting for a proven liar without any doubt. It also leaves a crack in the door for more charges and cases to get their foot in.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Likely for the same reasons they were sworn to secrecy in the email case.
There is going to be hard core pressure on these agents, not only from media, but from those affected by the case.
Now the agents have a good reason to deny answering questions, no matter how powerful the person is who is pressuring them.

a reply to: neo96

Nothing about this entire government is transparent or honest.

originally posted by: IAMTAT
a reply to: BlueAjah

I think NDA is to protect the Clinton Foundation investigation.

I must agree with you, there has been a long quiet spell, since we first heard that the FBI was subpoenaing Clinton Foundation employees.

Hilley, Go directly to jail, Do not collect $200!

originally posted by: LifeMode
a reply to: BlueAjah

I agree with that assessment. That was the best Comey could do. Get the facts out on the table for the public otherwise it never comes out. Now everyone knows they would be voting for a proven liar without any doubt. It also leaves a crack in the door for more charges and cases to get their foot in.

Exactly. Comey carefully worded his statement to counter her lies.
Now we know some of the facts.
If Lynch was the only one making comments on the case, if at all, she would have said something like "innocent", or "no basis for charges". Then Hillary would have skated with no other information revealed.

It is also possible that going forward with the email case now might have compromised the Clinton Foundation case, as there might be some overlap.

Comey actually laid out a good case now for Congress to demand a special prosecutor for the Clinton Foundation case.

a reply to: AlaskanDad

Comey let it slip during his congressional hearing this week that there is an investigation.
There was a question regarding the Clinton Foundation, and he replied something like "I can not comment on an ongoing investigation".

Might have been a slip. Or might have been intentional. But when it came up in another question, he said he could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

ETA: And I hope Comey has good security. Because now Clinton and Lynch know he will go rogue, and I fear for his safety.

a reply to: IAMTAT

In cases involving national security and I was involved in a big one, the judge placed permanent injunctions on all the parties. Funny thing is, no one is allowed to destroy evidence of high crimes or criminal activity, by law. So I still have the 500 plus pages of documents, can't let anyone see them, can't destroy them. I've had this issue for 16 years, case was heard in 2000.

I imagine the FBI agents have the same kind of frustrating conundrum. You can't move forward, backward or even sideways. You can't unsee what you've seen or unknow what you know. They want to do what is right, but the risks are huge and no one is going to pay them a few million to disappear to a non-extradition treaty country. For them, it really is being between a rock and a hard place.

I expect though, there is a budding Snowden in there, but only when the frustration becomes to hard to bear.

Cheers - Dave

Pretty apt song for the occasion. Sure hope someone has the intestinal fortitude to require justice......... transparent justice..
www.youtube.com...

originally posted by: BlueAjah
The NDA's were signed near the beginning of the investigation, as I understand it.

If they were, there sure were a lot of leaks to the media along the way.

I see no reason for those leaks to stop now if there's something the public should know.

If the NDA is used in an attempt a cover up a crime, it's unenforceable.

a reply to: IAMTAT

This went mainstream.

Megyan Kelly is getting ready to talk about it.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: IAMTAT

This went mainstream.

Megyan Kelly is getting ready to talk about it.

Excellent. I'll have to catch it.

a reply to: BlueAjah

We really need to thank Comey and stop criticizing him.

And what may have happened if he closed his press conference with,

"Well, I will be out of a job tomorrow and the Wicked Witch Of North America gets a get out of jail free card. She should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but she has too many high ranking friends so we were ordered to stop. It is obviously time to start new proceedings under the Second Amendment!"

That is what a brave American might of done.

All he did was cover his arse and probably gets a promotion into the bargain. Watch and see!

P

a reply to: BlueAjah

Except Comey and the Clintons go way back. This isn't their first rodeo together. And, his conclusions seem to be the same.....no criminal wrong doing.

Comey’s first brush with them came when Bill Clinton was president. Looking to get back into government after a stint in private practice, Comey signed on as deputy special counsel to the Senate Whitewater Committee. In 1996, after months of work, Comey came to some damning conclusions: Hillary Clinton was personally involved in mishandling documents and had ordered others to block investigators as they pursued their case. Worse, her behavior fit into a pattern of concealment: she and her husband had tried to hide their roles in two other matters under investigation by law enforcement. Taken together, the interference by White House officials, which included destruction of documents, amounted to “far more than just aggressive lawyering or political naiveté,” Comey and his fellow investigators concluded. It constituted “a highly improper pattern of deliberate misconduct.”

Comey parlayed the Whitewater job into top posts in Virginia and New York, returning to Manhattan in 2002 to be the top federal prosecutor there. One of his first cases as a line attorney in the same office 15 years earlier had been the successful prosecution of Marc Rich, a wealthy international financier, for tax evasion. But on his last day as President in 2001, Bill Clinton pardoned Rich. “I was stunned,” Comey later told Congress. As top U.S. prosecutor in New York in 2002, appointed by George W. Bush, Comey inherited the criminal probe into the Rich pardon and 175 others Clinton had made at the 11th hour.

Despite evidence that several pardon recipients, including Rich, had connections to donations to Bill Clinton’s presidential library and Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, Comey found no criminal wrongdoing. He was careful not to let the investigation be used for political purposes by either party. When pressed for details in one case, he said, “I can’t really go into it because it was an investigation that didn’t result in charges. That may be a frustrating answer, but that’s the one I’m compelled to give.”

time.com...

a reply to: LifeMode

So basically you think Director Comey was lying and not only that but he got the agents on the case to lie too and swear to protect that lie.
Not very likely.