Justice Proof

"I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos."
--Sir Thomas More (A Man for All Seasons)

Yesterday FBI director James Comey announced that, despite evidence that Hillary Clinton broke the law related to managing state secrets, the Bureau would not recommend indictment to the DOJ. My subsequent feeling was not unlike the one nearly four years ago to the day when trying to make sense of the disjointed rationale of the Supreme Court's Obamacare ruling.

After systematically dismantling Clinton's defenses (nice associated vid here) and detailing various pools of evidence suggesting that Clinton violated related statutory law, Comey punted, claiming that intent to break the law was unclear and that 'no reasonable prosecutor' would take the case. Huh? As Comey surely understands because he has pursued such cases before (also see Greenwald here), intent is not a prerequisite for wrongdoing in this case. Gross negligence is enough. Parenthetically, it is also easy to construe from Clinton's nefarious actions that intent was indeed present.

John Lott submits that this is simply a case of needing more definitive evidence before going after a high ranking public official. If this is true it means, of course, that people are being treated unequally under the law.

A former FBI assistant director appeared dumbfounded about Comey's actions and suspects that they were politically motivated. He also suggested that many inside the Bureau share his view, They are concerned, he says, that Comey has cast their agency as vulnerable to political influence. He's right. Hopefully some inside the Bureau go rogue as a result and share more about the investigation with the public.

The extent to which this investigation weighs on her presidential bid remains to be seen. However, as of right now, Hillary Clinton remains above the law.

This course of events also reinforces the notion that our legal system is becoming increasingly justice proof.