VI. Concerns of Weiner Case Agent and Conversation with SDNY AUSAs on October 19 As early as October 3, the case agent assigned to the Weiner investigation expressed concern that no action appeared to be occurring with regard to the Clinton emails discovered on the Weiner laptop. He began documenting these concerns in contemporaneous emails and also discussed his concerns with his supervisor and the SDNY AUSAs assigned to the Weiner investigation. In an October 3 email, the case agent stated that a “significant number” of the emails on the Weiner laptop “appeared to be between Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton (the latter who appears to have used a number of different email addresses).” The case agent also noted in that email that he was “obviously” unable to “review any emails 170 “Data carving” is typically the last phase of processing an electronic device and involves recovering files and data that have been either deleted or no longer contain complete metadata. to which Anthony Weiner is not a party (such as emails between Ms. Abedin and Mrs. Clinton).” The October 3 email was serialized and inserted into the Weiner case file in Sentinel, the FBI’s case management system, on October 5. The case agent told the OIG that no one had contacted him about the laptop and, as the case agent, “the only person who has the authority to release that laptop’s image is me.” The case agent explained his growing concern by stating: The crickets I was hearing was really making me uncomfortable because something was going to come crashing down…. And my understanding, which is uninformed because…I didn’t work the Hillary Clinton matter. My understanding at the time was I am telling you people I have private Hillary Clinton emails, number one, and BlackBerry messages, number two. I’m telling you that we have potentially 10 times the volume that Director Comey said we had on the record. Why isn’t anybody here? Like, if I’m the supervisor of any CI squad in Seattle and I hear about this, I’m getting on with headquarters and saying, hey, some agent working child porn here may have [Hillary Clinton] emails. Get your ass on the phone, call [the case agent], and get a copy of that drive, because that’s how you should be. And that nobody reached out to me within, like, that night, I still to this day I don’t understand what the hell went wrong. The case agent told us that he scheduled a meeting on October 19 with the two SDNY AUSAs assigned to the Weiner investigation because he felt like he had nowhere else to turn. He described AUSA 1, the lead prosecutor, as a friend. He added, “I felt like if I went there and [AUSA 1] got the attention of Preet Bharara, maybe they’d kick some of these lazy FBI folks in the butt and get them moving.” The case agent stated that he told the AUSAs in detail about the emails he had seen between Clinton and Abedin. He continued: And I told her, I’m a little scared here. I don’t know what to do because I’m not political. Like I don’t care who wins this election, but this is going to make us look really, really horrible. And it could ruin this case, too. And…I said the thing that also bothers me is that Comey’s testimony is inaccurate. And as a big admirer of the guy, and I think he’s a straight shooter, I wanted to, I felt like he needed to know, like, we got this. And I didn’t know if he did. The AUSAs both told us that the case agent appeared to be very stressed and worried that somehow he would be blamed in the end if no action was taken. AUSA 1 stated that the case agent worried that the information relating to the Clinton emails had not been provided to the right people and AUSA 2 observed that the case agent “was getting, for lack of a better word, paranoid that, like, somebody was not acting appropriately, somebody was trying to bury this.”
Instant Messages Referencing the Midyear Investigation On July 6, 2016, the day after Comey’s Midyear declination announcement, Agent 1 and an FBI employee not involved with Midyear exchanged messages about the investigation. During the course of this discussion, Agent 1 described the prior weekend’s activities, which included the interview of Clinton. A portion of this instant message exchange follows. The sender of each message is noted after the timestamp.
15:07:41, Agent 1: “…I’m done interviewing the President – then type the 302. 18 hour day….”
15:13:32, FBI Employee: “you interviewed the president?” 15:17:09, Agent 1: “you know – HRC” [Hillary Rodham Clinton] 15:17:18, Agent 1: “future pres”
15:17:22, Agent 1: “Trump cant win”
15:17:31, Agent 1: “demographics dont line up”
15:17:37, Agent 1: “America has changed”
13:46:48, Agent 5: “jesus christ… Trump: Glad FBI is fixing ‘horrible mistake’ on clinton emails… for fuck’s sake.”
13:47:27, Agent 5: “the fuck’s sake part was me, the rest was Trump.”
13:49:07, Agent 1: “Not sure if Trump or the fifth floor is worse…” 13:49:22, Agent 5: “I’m so sick of both…”
13:50:25, Agent 5: “+o( TRUMP”
13:50:30, Agent 5: “+o( Fifth floor”
13:50:34, Agent 5: “+o( FBI”
13:50:44, Agent 5: “+o( Average American public”
10:39:49, Agent 1: “I find anyone who enjoys [this job] an absolute fucking idiot. If you dont think so, ask them one more question. Who are you voting for? I guarantee you it will be Donald Drumpf.”
10:40:13, Agent 5: “i forgot about drumpf…”
10:40:27, Agent 5: “that’s so sad and pathetic if they want to vote for him.”
10:40:43, Agent 5: “someone who can’t answer a question” 10:40:51, Agent 5: “someone who can’t be professional for even a second”
08:56:43, Agent 5: “i’m trying to think of a ‘would i rather’ instead of spending time with those people”
08:56:54, Agent 1: “stick your tongue in a fan??”
08:56:58, Agent 5: “i would rather have brunch with trump” 08:57:03, Agent 1: “ha”
08:57:15, Agent 1: “french toast with drumpf”
08:57:19, Agent 5: “i would rather have brunch with trump and a bunch of his supporters like the ones from ohio that are retarded”
08:57:23, Agent 5: “:)”