FBI Director James Comey needs to be fired.

It wasn't enough that he broke protocol and defied common sense by releasing the FBI investigative notes about the Clinton emails. It wasn't enough that he dribbled them out each time that Clinton surged ahead in the polls. Typically after another blunder by Trump.

Now, he's done the unconscionable. He's released a vague letter to Congress stating that emails in an unrelated case may be pertinent in the investigation. And he's releasing this letter, yet again when Clinton is surging in the polls and Republican control of the House is at risk.

He couldn't wait two weeks. He couldn't wait a month. No, he has to release just right: just in time for people to misread the letter, for Trump to misrepresent it, and to impact this damn election because of the damn emails all over again.

The relevant paragraph in this brief letter is the middle one, where Comey writes that the FBI “has learned of the existence” of emails that it previously did not review. In response to this new information, the FBI will now “allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information.”

The FBI, in other words, is not reexamining its previous findings. It is not questioning its previous legal conclusion that “no reasonable prosecutor” could determine that charges are warranted. Based on the letter, it appears that the FBI will simply provide the same scrutiny to these newly uncovered emails as it previously applied to the emails it already reviewed when it determined that criminal charges are not warranted.

Director James Comey just came off of a humiliating loss in court in Oregon, when his department's investigation couldn't even generate a win against the Bundy gang...and they live streamed their illegal activities.

He's paid millions to hack a phone, thus encouraging the same activity he's supposed to end.

And he's done nothing to stop the Russians from hacking Democrats in order to influence the election.

Now this.

Director Comey doesn't need to say he supports Trump. The stamp of it is all over his actions. Of course, he wants Trump. Unlike Clinton, Trump can be easily manipulated into giving the FBI everything it wants, regardless of the rights of the people in this country. And Director Comey does not care about our rights.

Director James Comey needs to be fired.
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Update: Pete Williams at NBC News has managed to glean a few more details, all of which point to the premise that Comey's vague statement was not a necessary or required one, nor is the narrative Trump is spinning accurate.

Update 2:

Update 3

We now know that the separate investigation has to do with the alleged sexting of a 15-year-old by Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of Huma Abedin, and the emails in question were recovered on his device. There's no indication that the emails were from or to Clinton, or related in anyway to her email server. More on this in a separate C&L post.

Clinton campaign chief John Podesta issued a blistering statement on the timing and vagueness of Comey's letter:

Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call. In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen. Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is “reopening” an investigation but Comey’s words do not match that characterization. Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that came to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant.

It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.

The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.

I do know that the FBI issued a subpoena for Weiner's cellphone and records well over a month ago. The timing of Comey's letter is suspect.