Held accountable

Benenson: Comey should be held accountable

By NOLAN D. MCCASKILL

Former Hillary Clinton chief strategist Joel Benenson said Friday that FBI Director James Comey “should be held accountable” for interfering in the presidential election, although he refused to offer specifics of how he should be punished.

The Justice Department’s inspector general announced Thursday that it would launch a broad review of how the FBI handled its investigation into Clinton’s private email server.

“I'll leave it to them to conduct their investigation,” Benenson told MSNBC, arguing that from Day One Clinton aides had called Comey’s interference “unprecedented” and a violation of longstanding FBI procedures and principles. “Now what remedies the FBI or the Department of Justice will take after they conclude this investigation, that’s up to them. But certainly he should be held accountable for violating those principles.”

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz will look into whether Comey violated protocol when he alerted Congress to new evidence agents discovered — a move that gave Republicans fresh fodder to attack Clinton with 11 days before the election, only to be told the Sunday before Election Day that the FBI stands by its decision not to recommend charges against the former secretary of state.

Benenson said what's done is done. “But it is important for the credibility of law enforcement agencies that when they have principles they’re supposed to abide by, they do it,” he added. “I don’t think a slap on the wrist would be satisfying to any voter in America, nor should it be.”

Benenson, who has not spoken to Clinton about the inspector general's review, asked what took so long, insisting “it was evident from the moment this happened” that Comey had violated the agency’s principles.

He refused to say whether Comey should resign, though, instead remarking that the decision is Comey’s to make.

“He’s gonna face the music inside the Justice Department. If he steps down, they may abandon the investigation,” Benenson said. “Let’s have a full investigation. Let’s hear all the details of whether there was political intent behind this or not and then let them take the appropriate action.”

Noting the FBI director’s appointment is a 10-year term, Benenson explained that he won’t say Comey should resign for political reasons because the position is supposed to be “above and beyond politics.”

“I think sitting here from a political perspective and say he should resign now before we have all the facts contravenes exactly what we should do in a case like this,” he said. “When someone has a 10-year appointment, do the investigation, let the appropriate authorities in the Justice Department and in the FBI take the appropriate actions, and I believe they will at the end of the day.”