QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Why did Comey not present this matter to the grand jury? Isn’t it the role of the grand jury to decide to indict or not?
ANSWER: The rules for a Grand Jury have been so altered, they really have been reduced to a rubber stamp. Nevertheless, James Comey had to punt and take one for the government especially in light of the Inspector General’s report on Hillary, who BTW, was independent under Roman law and was suppose to indict government officials which under US law was stripped of such power. Today, effectively, the Grand Jury has been stripped of all safeguards and this demonstrates that we live in a system where all the protections created by the American Revolution have been wiped out. Still, Comey could not risk allowing this matter to go to the people to decide because the Grand Jury comes under the Judiciary and not the Executive branch. There remains a wildcard he cannot control in such a high profile case where the jurors will know who Hillary is and what this is about. The prosecutor cannot 100% control the outcome in this type of case. Hence, no way would Comey allow a real investigation to take place and nobody in mainstream media would dare even explain the truth in this matter.
The idea of a Grand Jury was to PREVENT political legal persecution. The Supreme Court over the years has virtually destroyed the grand jury system claiming that you have the Petit Jury in a public trial to hear both sides. The prosecutor can even KNOW of evidence that proves someone is innocent and it is routine now that he is under NO OBLIGATION to present any evidence whatsoever to show he might be wrong. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in NYC wrote: “Despite recent movements for revision of grand jury procedure, a prosecutor is not presently obligated to search for and submit to a grand jury evidence favorable to the defense or negating guilt…” US v Ciambrone, 1001 F2d 616, 622-623 (2d Cir 1979). This allows the Justice Department to engage in legal persecution or, as Comey has just done, not to evfen conduct any investigation to prove guilt or innocence.
Now, that said, the U.S. Attorneys Manual states that prosecutors “must recognize that the grand jury is an independent body, whose functions include not only the investigation of crime and the initiation of criminal prosecution but also the protection of the citizenry from unfounded criminal charges” and that targets of investigations have the right to, and can, “request or demand the opportunity to tell the grand jury their side of the story.” This pretend right is rarely afforded if at all to anyone who is a target. However, in the case of Hillary, she would have demanded it. On top of that, she is too well known so the Grand Jury may have subpoenaed without restriction others to testify. Comey would NEVER present the case to a Grand Jury for in the matter of Hillary, some may have been politically motivated to really investigate. The Grand Jury comes under the Judiciary and not the Executive Branch/Department of Justice. Normally, they just rubber stamp whatever the prosecutor recommends but in this case, they know the controversy and might really investigate and call witnesses.
The Supreme Court has chipped away at the Grand Jury to remove any barrier to government who wants to engage in political legal persecution. They can destroy anyone at any time. They can throw you in prison, deny bail, and postpone a trial indefinitely while stripping you of any lawyer and imposing on you a court appointed lawyer who routinely loses 99% of all cases to get the job of working for the court. It was John Stuart Mills (1806-1873) who wrote in his classic work, On Liberty: “let us not flatter ourselves that we are yet free from the stain of legal persecution.” id/Oxford World’s Classics 1998, p34. Yet, the Grand Jury can investigate on its own. That is the risk which Comey would not take.
Most people do not know, but there are so many laws, the average person commits three felonies every day. There are people in federal prison for paying off one credit card with another (money laundering), withdrawing cash from your account three times at $9,900 each (structuring), to shooting a moose out of season or driving without a license in your immediate possession on federal property. The statue Comey was using for Hillary was just one of many under which she could have been charged:
44 U.S.C. Chapter 31
§ 3101. Records management by agency heads; general duties
The head of each Federal agency shall make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency’s activities.
Then we have 18 U.S. Code § 2071 – Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally, which Hillary violated, carries a 3 year term of imprisonment and/or fine. Section B also states: “and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.” This wording is very clear. She should not be allowed to even run for president. Then we have yet another:
18 USC §793 reads
(f)
Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
Here are just three statutes and you will find people prosecuted under them who have done far less than Hillary. There is no doubt Hillary SHOULD BE charged. There is also no question Hillary WILL NEVER BE CHARGED. As I have stated, it is not the Department of Justice – it is the Department of “Just Us”. There was no possible way Comey would have allowed this to even go to a Grand Jury for they could have done a real investigation. Once upon a time, the Grand Jury was a fundamental part of our liberty – those days are gone:
“In the secrecy of the investigations by grand juries, the weak and helpless-proscribed, perhaps, because of their race, or pursued by an unreasoning public clamor – have found, and will continue to find, security against official oppression, the cruelty of mobs, the machinations of falsehood, and the malevolence of private persons who would use the machinery of the law to bring run upon their personal enemies.”
Hurtado v California, 110 US 516, 554-555 (1884)(dissent of Justice Harlan)
With all the legal machinations, Comey could not risk a grand jury (people) to fulfill their constitutional duty to investigate Hillary. They might have indicted. OMG! What then?
Centinel2012 