By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

Suffice to say, the book does not portray President Trump in a flattering light.

“The FBI has always been the nemesis of criminals. Today the FBI is under attack by the president of the United States,’ writes McCabe, a lifelong Republican who is married to a Democrat.

He also takes shots at others, according to a review in the Guardian newspaper:

Pulling no punches, he takes to task Loretta Lynch, Obama’s second attorney general, for her refusal to recuse from the Clinton email investigation while attempting to maintain a show of being above it all. As McCabe sees it, Lynch and Sally Yates, then deputy attorney general, wrongly viewed “the investigation of Hillary Clinton … likely nominee of the Democratic party, who was being supported by the president of the United States, to whom they owed their jobs … as a case they could handle without prejudice”.

According to McCabe, Lynch and Yates “made a feckless compromise”. Specifically, “they designated career professionals in the National Security Division as decision-makers in this case but didn’t unambiguously commit to abide by those people’s decisions”. It was, he writes, “the worst possible choice afforded by the situation”.

It didn’t end there. There is Lynch’s meeting with Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport and again McCabe does not mince words: “The tarmac meeting was a horrible lapse in judgment by Loretta Lynch. She should have recused herself … she did not – she made things worse.”

With the advantage of hindsight, McCabe is critical of the decision taken by Comey, his boss at the time, to publicly announce the FBI’s recommendation that no charges should be pursued against Hillary Clinton. In “retrospect”, as McCabe frames it, “perhaps I would have said to Comey, ‘Don’t do it. Let’s be the normal Bob Mueller, say-nothing FBI of old.’”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A lot of questions have been raised about the meeting between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

To find out more about the June meeting, the American Center for Law and Justice filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday for access to more information, CBN News reports. 

The meeting happened just days before FBI Director James Comey opted not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton.

“The arrogance and inappropriate actions of the Obama administration cannot go unchallenged and that is why we have gone to federal court today and filed this critical lawsuit,” Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, said. “This administration has gone out of its way to hide information from the American public — information that is extremely troubling.”

“The stakes are high,” he continued. “The American people deserve a Justice Department with integrity. We must demand accountability for corruption. If we don’t, a constitutional crisis is imminent. The corruption must have consequences.”

Body cams, via Wikipedia

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

After the rash of police shootings of black men across country, the Justice Department plans to award more than $20 million to law enforcement agencies to use or enhance body cameras.   

Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the grant Monday, saying the money will be awarded to 106 state, city, tribal and municipal law enforcement agencies, the Chicago Tribune reports. 

“Of course, even as we strive to support local leaders and our law enforcement partners in their work to protect their communities, we are mindful — we know, we see every day — that effective public safety requires more than arrests and prosecutions,” Lynch said. “Because It also requires winning, and keeping, the trust and the confidence of the citizens we serve.”

Lynch alluded to the police shootings to raise the importance of body cameras footage.

“There is no doubt that these are challenging times for law enforcement and communities alike,” Lynch said. “Where the relationship of trust has frayed and frankly broken, we see the mistrust within the community; we also see the underlying fear within many of our friends and neighbors that when they are threatened by violence, they will have no one to call.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is expected to announce today that she will accept the recommendation of prosecutors and the FBI who are investigating Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, a Justice Department official told the New York Times. 

Lynch plans to discuss her handling of the case this morning in Aspen, Colorado.

By accepting whatever recommendation is handled down, she is removing herself as a political appointee who could overrule investigators.

The announcement comes after a private meeting between Lynch and President Bill Clinton this week.

Republicans claimed that the meeting undermined the independence of the investigation.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI plans to release a printed, partial transcript today of the conversations between the police and the gunman who opened fire at the Orlando nightclub.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch made the announcement Sunday on several news shows.

ABC News reports that Lynch wants to build a complete profile of gunman Omar Matteen to help prevent future attacks.

“As you can see from this investigation, we are going back and learning everything we can about this killer, about his contacts, people who may have known him or seen him. And we’re trying to build that profile so that we can move forward,” Lynch said.

Lynch plan to meet with investigators Tuesday in Orlando.

Hillary Clinton

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Attorney General Loretta Lynch sought to assure the public that President Obama’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton won’t compromise the investigation into the former secretary of state’s use of a private e-mail server.

Lynch told “Fox News Sunday” that Obama has not been a part of the investigation and that no conflict of interest exists.

The FBI is investigating whether Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server violated the law.

Republicans have been questioning the fairness of an investigation led by Obama’s administration.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

In an effort to make transition from jail to freedom easier for convicts, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch is urging governors to provide parolees with state identification cards.

The announcement is part of the nation’s first National Reentry Week, which began Sunday, the Christian Science Monitor reports. 

“National Reentry Week highlights the many ways that the Department of Justice – and the entire Obama Administration – is working to tear down the barriers that stand between returning citizens and a meaningful second chance – leading to brighter futures, stronger communities, and a more just and equal nation for all.”

The move is part of a bigger push for justice reform intended to make it easier for convicts to land jobs and thus stay out of trouble.

By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

Any way you put, when the FBI probe into the Hillary Clinton emails is finished, FBI Director James Comey and his agents, along with Attorney General Loretta Lynch,  are bound to get a lot of grief.

If Hillary walks free, the Hillary fans will say it all proves it was a witch hunt and a waste of money and time investigators could have better spent looking at far more important things like terrorism, medicare fraud and public corruption. If she gets indicted, they’ll cry foul and accuse the feds of meddling in the political process.

Conversely,  if there’s no indictment, conservatives will scream that that the FBI and Justice Department are toadies of the Obama Administration, which has an interest in Hillary winning the presidential election.

It’s a no win. But the FBI and Justice are banking on the hopes that people see they did a thorough job and tried to call the shots objectively.

Either way, it would only be fair that investigators wrap it up as soon as possible. A presidential election could be in the balance, and the closer November gets, the more the FBI and Justice subject itself to accusations of tampering with the political process.

It’s not an unenviable spot to be in.