Americans Deserve a New, Independent Hillary Clinton Investigation

With the revelation that former FBI Director James Comey began drafting a letter exonerating Hillary Clinton at least two months before his investigators even interviewed the embattled Democratic Party nominee, there can be no doubt about it anymore: Justice was not served in 2016.

While liberals despised and mocked the “lock her up” chants that filled arenas around the country last year, the facts all point in the same direction. Hillary Clinton broke the law, and thanks to the Obama administration, she got away scot-free. Now America deserves a new, independent investigation into her crimes. Now America deserves to see justice served.

Contrary to his campaign rhetoric, Donald Trump appeared to lose interest in prosecuting his rival once elected president. In the weeks after the election, he insisted that the Clintons were “good people” that he didn’t want to hurt further by pushing the Justice Department towards a new investigation. And while Trump’s magnanimity can be admired, the call is ultimately not up to him. It’s up to the Justice Department and, perhaps, the congressional majority to decide whether or not there was enough funny business tainting this investigation to warrant a new one. And it’s overwhelming obvious that the answer is yes.

Trump sees it. In light of the new report that showed what a sham the investigation really was, he tweeted that it was further evidence of his claim that we were living in a “rigged system.” And really, how else can you describe what happened? No one other than a Clinton would have gotten away with her “gross carelessness.” By statute, even Comey had to admit in his big exoneration speech that Clinton and her aides were technically in violation of federal law governing classified material. Now the jig is up.

With the way the FBI is stonewalling outside parties who want documents pertaining to the investigation, it’s clear that conflicts of interest abound. Thus, the only right decision is to appoint a second special counsel, in the manner of Robert Mueller, to start the investigation anew. This time, it needs to be run without the political biases that colored the original sham of an inquiry. This time, it needs to take seriously the lies Clinton told, the danger she put the country in with her recklessness, and the conspiracy she and her aides engaged in to keep thousands of emails hidden from public view.

If a new investigation leads the special counsel to the same conclusion as Comey reached, so be it. We can accept that. Hillary is, after all, no threat to run for president again. But right now, we have a crisis of faith in the Justice Department that can only be resolved with answers. The American people have a right to those answers.

Now.