Debbie Wasserman Schultz Attacks FBI Director James Comey

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida has decided to go on the offensive against James Comey, the Director of the FBI. She reportedly confronted Comey on Friday during a confidential briefing about the whole Russian hacking scandal.

Wasserman Schultz has been looking for ways too remain a relevant figure in the Democratic political leadership since she was forced out at the Chair of the Democratic National Committee last summer.

Comey makes for an easy target as he is seen by Democrats as having unfairly interfered in the Presidential election last year. And Wasserman Schultz is certainly not the only one attacking him.

Democrats do have a legitimate grievance against the FBI Director. After breaking with protocol by holding a public press conference about the whole Hillary Clinton private e mail server investigation, he followed that with an open letter to the Congress released just 10 days before the election in which Comey stated that he had reopened the investigation. This is believed to have turned the election in favor of Donald Trump who won six key states by less than 100, 000 votes, and who not only failed to win a majority of the popular vote, but also received 3 million fewer votes in total than Hillary Clinton.

So what does this have to do with the Russian hacking of senior Democrats, Clinton campaign officials And Wasserman Schultz herself? Well Democrats are fuming at how Comey kept his investigation into the matter confidential while going public about Hillary Clinton. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has begun an investigation f the FBI over the matter.

And Debbie Wasserman Schultz has a personal score to settle here. Part of the reason why she was forced out of her role at the DNC were the revelations that she worked behind the scenes to help Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination for President. A party chair is supposed to be neutral when it comes to primary elections and only work for the good of the party as a whole. But Wasserman Schultz worked against the insurgent candidacy of Bernie Sanders and this was revealed, in part, through the release of hacked e mails.

The Hill quoted a Democrat who described the confrontation as follows: “Essentially Debbie asked, how was it that the FBI knew that the DNC was being hacked and they didn’t tell her? He gave some bulls–t explanation, ‘That’s our standard, we called this one, we called that one’ — [she said] ‘Well, why didn’t you call me?’ ”

Adam Schiff, Democratic Representative from California and the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told The Hill, “There are a lot of concerns about whether there was a double standard employed in openly and repeatedly discussing the Clinton investigation, and the unwillingness you saw during the Armed Services Committee hearing in the Senate, when Angus King asked whether the director was behind an investigation of Trump campaign ties, potentially, to the Kremlin.”

And Wasserman Scultz released a statement about the meeting saying, “However, the FBI Director must clarify for the American people, the agency’s policies for investigating and alerting those who are hacked by foreign governments. There are further questions that must be answered by Director Comey, who must provide more clarity on this and other questions that have arisen surrounding the FBI’s handling of Russian hacking during the 2016 election cycle.”

President Elect Donald Trump has, of course, been denying that the Russian hacks had anything to do with his victory in the elections.

As for Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she was just reelected to a seventh term in Congress and needs to find ways to stay in the public eye as her Democratic Party remains in the minority. James Comey certainly makes for an easy punching bag for all Democrats.