Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta is calling for an investigation into how his emails were stolen and published in the run-up to the election, and called it the “political equivalent of 9/11” in a Washington Post op-ed.
“We need a robust, independent investigation into what went wrong inside the government and how to better protect our country in the future,” Podesta wrote.
That starts at the FBI, which discovered the DNC hack in September 2015 and didn’t directly alert leaders at the DNC, and instead left messages with the organization’s information technology desk. Podesta wrote that it was “downright infuriating” that no one bothered to drive over to the DNC to tell leaders about the hack, but found the time to go to Denver to investigate a firm that maintained his boss’ private 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 wrote.
FBI Director James Comey was unreasonably public about the investigation into Clinton’s email server, holding a lengthy press conference in July and sending a letter to congressional leaders in October that called into question Clinton’s integrity, Podesta wrote.
This was a kind of hypocrisy, in Podesta’s eyes. Comey was happy to talk about Clinton’s email server, but wasn’t willing to sign a letter from intelligence officials regarding Russian hacking because “he reportedly didn’t want to appear ‘political,'” Podesta wrote.
Podesta questioned whether the FBI is investigating links between Trump and Russia, as it did Clinton’s email server, and said House Republicans are resistant to investigating the Russian hacking he says swung the election to Trump. But the FBI is the worst offender because “this is part of a trend.”
“The Justice Department’s Inspector General issued a damning report this summer about the FBI’s failure to prioritize cyberthreats more broadly,” Podesta wrote.
He called on the Obama administration to declassify whatever it could about the Russian hacks on the DNC and his emails, and brief members of the electoral college on the hack before Monday’s vote. Podesta also wants Congress to authorize a commission similar to the 9/11 Commission to investigate the hack.
“Finally, Congress should more vigorously exercise its oversight to determine why the FBI responded overzealously in the Clinton case and insufficiently in the Russian case,” he wrote.
“The FBI should also clarify whether there is an ongoing investigation into Trump, his associates and their ties to Russia,” he added. “If ever there were a case of ‘intense public interest,’ this is it. What’s broken in the FBI must be fixed and quickly.”
