FBI investigation fails to find evidence, but relies on alt-right propaganda

By Mark Sumner  
Wednesday Nov 02, 2016 · 10:00 AM EDT

FBI DIrector James Comey issued his letter informing Congress that the FBI was looking into new emails despite explicit instructions from the Justice Department to keep things low-key during the final weeks of the election. The decision violated policy and is proving to be incredibly damaging to the FBI and Justice as a whole. Now, as if Comey’s bludgeoning the election wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that when it comes to looking into the Clinton Foundation, the FBI hasn’t been able to produce evidence of wrongdoing. But that isn’t an issue. Because the FBI can just latch onto right-wing conspiracy theories.

The investigation, based in New York, had not developed much evidence and was based mostly on information that had surfaced in news stories and the book “Clinton Cash,” according to several law enforcement officials briefed on the case.

The author of the book Clinton Cash has a long history of false narratives belted together out of purposely distorted statistics, of basing his reports on proven hoaxes, and of making baseless accusations that he can’t back up. Almost as soon as the work hit the stands, it was shown to be full of errors and distortions. The author even indulged in the alt-right’s favorite theory that the Clintons secretly kill their enemies.

And yet, the book was greeted like a revelation by the New York Times, which indulged in wild speculation on top of the book’s proven false foundation, and which didn’t bother to mention when sections of the book they talked up turned out to be so wrong that the publisher actually made changes to the book to “correct” exactly those parts. In defending the book, the publisher of the Times made one of the great admissions of the season.

"We take information from all kinds of crackpots. That's called reporting."

He might have said “all kinds of crackpots”—so long as they’re attacking the Clintons. That appears to be the standard for the New York Times.

And sadly, the same appears to be true for the FBI.

Read more
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/2/1590022/-FBI-investigation-fails-to-find-evidence-but-relies-on-alt-right-propaganda