Liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman accused the FBI and its director, James Comey, of fixing the election in favor of Republican Donald Trump.
In an op-ed published Monday morning, Krugman echoed a familiar line from Trump, who regularly says the election is “rigged” against outsider candidates, but he said it’s Democrat Hillary Clinton who has the disadvantage.
“The election was rigged by James Comey, the director of the F.B.I. His job is to police crime — but instead he used his position to spread innuendo and influence the election,” he wrote. “Was he deliberately putting a thumb on the electoral scales, or was he simply bullied by Republican operatives? It doesn’t matter: He abused his office, shamefully.”
Krugman continued, “The election was also rigged by people within the F.B.I. — people who clearly felt that under Mr. Comey they had a free hand to indulge their political preferences. In the final days of the campaign, pro-Trump agents have clearly been talking nonstop to Republicans like Rudy Giuliani and right-wing media, putting claims and allegations that may or may not have anything to do with reality into the air.”
In July, Comey said Clinton was “extremely careless” in using a private email server when she headed the State Department, though he said there was no case to bring criminal charges against her.
Nearly two weeks ago, however, Comey sent a letter to Congress stating that new emails from the server had surfaced on devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.
Comey said on Sunday that those emails, too, did not merit any criminal activity.
