The NY Times and the Wall Street Journal
both reported on Monday morning that an FBI warrant application to a
federal judge over the weekend for permission to search Huma Abedin's
emails and laptop had been granted. The application was made on the
basis of the Clinton email investigation. Necessarily, that application
(as required by the Constitution's Fourth Amendment) would have been
supported by FBI affidavits.
This new fact is a development of immense potential significance – both for Mrs. Clinton personally and for us as American citizens. It is also unprecedented in American history.
At a minimum, it enables us to pierce the thick cloud of black ink and disinformation released over the weekend by Team Hillary and which is being widely misreported in the current news cycle.
The FBI agents had to make this warrant application because their existing Fourth Amendment search authority was on the basis of Anthony Weiner's (unrelated) suspected misconduct with an underage girl. That investigation was already a grand jury matter. However, that grand jury's authority – which is supervised by a federal judge -- did not authorize the Bureau to pursue information which might be pertinent to the inquiry into Mrs. Clinton's use of a personal email server while she was Secretary of State. Making that application, under standard DOJ protocol, required approval from Main Justice. In this case, the assistant attorney in charge of the Criminal Division, if not the attorney general.
Since the application was made, it's safe to conclude that the Criminal Division at Main Justice authorized the warrant application. Thus, at a minimum, the senior leadership of the Justice Department is not as unanimously condemnatory of FBI director Comey's letter to Congress on Friday as media reports would lead us to believe.
This new fact is a development of immense potential significance – both for Mrs. Clinton personally and for us as American citizens. It is also unprecedented in American history.
At a minimum, it enables us to pierce the thick cloud of black ink and disinformation released over the weekend by Team Hillary and which is being widely misreported in the current news cycle.
The FBI agents had to make this warrant application because their existing Fourth Amendment search authority was on the basis of Anthony Weiner's (unrelated) suspected misconduct with an underage girl. That investigation was already a grand jury matter. However, that grand jury's authority – which is supervised by a federal judge -- did not authorize the Bureau to pursue information which might be pertinent to the inquiry into Mrs. Clinton's use of a personal email server while she was Secretary of State. Making that application, under standard DOJ protocol, required approval from Main Justice. In this case, the assistant attorney in charge of the Criminal Division, if not the attorney general.
Since the application was made, it's safe to conclude that the Criminal Division at Main Justice authorized the warrant application. Thus, at a minimum, the senior leadership of the Justice Department is not as unanimously condemnatory of FBI director Comey's letter to Congress on Friday as media reports would lead us to believe.
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