Podesta: Fix the FBI, and Quickly

Clinton campaign chair calls out 'deeply broken' bureau in wake of Russia hacks
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 16, 2016 10:00 AM CST
Podesta: Fix the FBI, and Quickly
John Podesta, campaign chairman, announces that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would not be making an appearance at the Jacob Javits Center in New York on Nov. 9, 2016.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has taken a long look at the Russian hacking scandal and the FBI's role in dealing with it, and his conclusion in a Washington Post opinion piece on Thursday: The FBI needs a serious overhaul. And what took the entire situation "from baffling to downright infuriating," in John Podesta's view, is that at the same time the FBI didn't deem it necessary to alert Democratic National Committee officials about cyberattacks, it did send two agents with Justice Department lawyers to Colorado to look into the commotion about Clinton's email server. "Comparing the FBI's massive response to the overblown email scandal with the seemingly lackadaisical response to the very real Russian plot to subvert a national election shows that something is deeply broken at the FBI," he writes.

Podesta ponders if the FBI is currently looking into several still-open questions, including Donald Trump surrogate Roger Stone's ties to WikiLeaks and Trump's business dealings in Russia. He knows "the election is over and the damage is done," but he lays out a blueprint for the "serious and sustained response" he still feels is necessary to address these hacking threats, including Obama declassifying info about the Russian hacks, filling in electors before the Electoral College vote on Monday, and asking Congress to "determine why the FBI responded overzealously in the Clinton case and insufficiently in the Russian case." "If ever there were a case of 'intense public interest,' this is it," he writes. Podesta's full essay here. (What Obama plans on doing about the hacking.)

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