Hypothetical Questions (On Clinton E-Mail Probes Round 2)

[Kaane]

I know this will never happen but let's just say the new FBI probes into Clinton's e-mail account incriminate her like, 2 days before the election. Since this is potentially an important development, I wanted to get your guys' opinions on it since this could potentially drastically change the race.

#1: If she's incriminated by the FBI, is she still eligible to run for the presidency?

#2: Will enough people still vote for her if she's eligible?

#3: If she's not eligible, who do you think will fill the gap Clinton leaves behind, if at all?

#4: Will Trump still be able to get the magic number of 270 electoral votes even if his greatest opponent is out of the picture?

#5: Will the Democrats manage to somehow stall the presidential election in the worst case scenario for them?

#6: What kind of ramifications for the public and their opinion on the race are we looking at?

#7: Will she get incriminated at all?

#8: Favorite flavor of ice cream?

I realize that the Presidential election thread ended pretty badly, and if admins want to delete this one it's cool. But I figured if we keep the discussion focused it should be manageable.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

1. Yes, she would still be eligible, but she won't be indicted before the election (and probably won't at all).
2. Yes
3. N/A
4. N/A
5. Impossible
6. Probably negligible, though a lot of people may lose trust in the FBI because of the director's mishandling of this issue.
7. No. The emails in question are probably irrelevant.
8. Chocolate. No substitutes.

 

[Mr.BossMan]

#8 Vanilla

Side Note: Hillary's corrupt.

 

[Dawyn]

1. Even convicted felons can, technically speaking, be elected and serve as president, since the Constitution is extremely minimalist and the Supreme Court has made no ruling on that matter. Even if she is indicted, that won't stop her from taking the presidency, and it is unclear if a conviction would either or whether or not she could actually be put in prison while in office, US vs Nixon only indicated that presidents don't have total immunity from prosecution but didn't go further than that. The congressional opinion around the time of Clinton's husband indicated that Congress would prefer to impeach rather than prosecute a president for things such as this, so there's that too. It's an interesting question. Regardless, the justice system moves so slowly that even if she were to be convicted, it would not happen for years.

2. Probably at this point yes, unless those emails reveal some huge shocker like she sacrifices children to Satan.

3. N/A probably Kaine, I would assume if anything happened to her, he would take her place on the ticket.

4. N/A, maybe not? A lot of people I've talked to who support Trump only do so because they loathe Hillary, maybe they would be more inclined to support Kaine?

5. Literally not possible, unless both candidates and their running mates somehow died. I'm not sure what would happen in that event.

6. Depends how much information is released and what kind it is. If it's just more of "oh look how typically corrupt Hillary is", probably not much more than a point or two in the polls. People know she isn't the most honest politician, but are voting for her anyway. Only something really terrible would sway much at this point.

7. Honestly doubtful from the way the FBI has phrased things, and even if there was enough evidence to move forward, I don't think they have enough for a conviction since they need to prove criminal intent and that would be a massive blow to the agency's credibility.

8. I like chocolate and vanilla the best, or cookies and cream.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

2. Probably at this point yes, unless those emails reveal some huge shocker like she sacrifices children to Satan.

I'd like to hear about Satan's domestic policy agenda before I start judging him.

 

[Dawyn]

I'd like to hear about Satan's domestic policy agenda before I start judging him.

He'd certainly be effective in convincing people to go along with his agenda. Why, he even got Adam and Eve to defy God himself to go along with his agricultural policy.

 

[Jinan B]

I'd like to hear about Satan's domestic policy agenda before I start judging him.

immigration up 666%

 

[Mr.BossMan]

What do all of the Hillary supporters think of this new information brought forth by Comey?

 

[Brandon Rhea]

What do all of the Hillary supporters think of this new information brought forth by Comey?

What new information? That's the whole problem with Comey's letter - there is no information.

When Comey sent that letter, he hadn't read the emails. The FBI didn't even have a warrant to read the emails yet. He violated Department of Justice policy by even commenting on it. It's likely that the emails contain nothing pertinent to the previous investigation (why would Anthony Weiner be involved in that at all?) and many are probably duplicates of what the FBI has already read and investigated.

Comey blew this one, big time.

 

[Mr.BossMan]

I don't think he blew anything.

The FBI found more emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop, to which he shares with his wife Uma Abideen. He basically said this information wasn't brought forth by the Hillary camp when they initially did their investigation back in June/July. He said that it was extremely careless and negligent on Hillary's part.

Bottom line is she had classified material on an email server that was not secure. It's negligence.

However he won't bring it forward to a prosecuter simply because "No reasonable prosecutor would send this to trial." All because of a lack of evidence. Probably due to Hillary and her goons deleting and destroying any evidence that could have incriminated her. I mean hell, they bleached an entire server then destroyed any relevant laptops with hammers.

It's a shame really.

 

[Richie B.]

The emails just show that Hillary is literally one of the most smart corrupt officials out there, sad thing is her opponent is a dude that doesn't know a single god damn thing so the emails should have already made her lose the primaries, but now that its bringing brought up last minute it might be all trump needs to win the election by literally the skin of the skin of the skin of the teeth.

This election has made me realize how messed up the whole thing is.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

He basically said this information wasn't brought forth by the Hillary camp when they initially did their investigation back in June/July.

How could he know that? How could he know if they're relevant or not if he hadn't read them? How could he know if they're relevant or not if the FBI didn't even have warrant to read them?

When his letter was sent to Congress, the FBI had not yet read a single one of these Weiner emails. Legally they were not allowed to, because they did not yet have a warrant. Odds are they are duplicates of what they have already read. The ones that aren't duplicates are probably irrelevant to the previous investigation.

The Department of Justice told Comey not to release that letter because it violated DOJ policies. He did it anyway.

Fun fact: Comey won't publicly talk about how the FBI is 99% certain that Russia is attempting to interfere in the US election because that's a campaign issue, which Trump is criticized for, and it's too close to the election to say anything. That's proper. That's DOJ policy not to release info that could swing an election. Yet he released this letter, which said nothing and which was sent despite him having no information about the emails. It was then used by the Republicans as a campaign tool, and now the girl Weiner sexted is being used in political propaganda (her words, not mine).

Fun fact 2: Comey is a Republican.

 

[Mr.BossMan]

How could he know that? How could he know if they're relevant or not if he hadn't read them? How could he know if they're relevant or not if the FBI didn't even have warrant to read them?

I think your missing the point here. He didn't know if it was relevant, this is true. However he didn't know this because these emails were not brought forth by the Hillary camp. So he did what he had to do, he investigated them further. He only did his job and the only reason he's doing it now is simply because Hillary didn't do her job, for the FBI, the first time around.

When his letter was sent to Congress, the FBI had not yet read a single one of these Weiner emails. Legally they were not allowed to, because they did not yet have a warrant. Odds are they are duplicates of what they have already read. The ones that aren't duplicates are probably irrelevant to the previous investigation.

The Department of Justice told Comey not to release that letter because it violated DOJ policies. He did it anyway.

I think is what your trying to reference here is the "Hash" act. Which was implemented so that a federal institution couldn't sway the election. However if your doing this you must understand how hypocritical it is. Comey was just doing his job, he even says in his brief 15 minute speech or so that he investigated this without his political compass involved. Also, before you bash Comey, you should understand that it was the Democrats who chose a canidite that was under FBI investigation. So this only rest on the Democratic's shoulders. Don't fault a man for doing what he needs to do.

Side Note: Comey was appointed by Barrack Obama.

Side Note 2: Obama was quoted to say "Appointing Comey was the worst mistake of my presidency."

Side Note 3: Obama here recently said "I trust Comey, he's a man of integrity."

Side Note 4: If you think Loretta Lynch is going to prosecute Hillary, your sorely mistaken. She is bias as hell and obviously leans Democrate. Did you know, about a day or two before Hillary's initial hearing to congress, Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton had a "Private" meeting. On her campaign plane.

Its shady. That in and of itself breaks DOJ policy.

Fun fact: Comey won't publicly talk about how the FBI is 99% certain that Russia is attempting to interfere in the US election because that's a campaign issue, which Trump is criticized for, and it's too close to the election to say anything. That's proper. That's DOJ policy not to release info that could swing an election. Yet he released this letter, which said nothing and which was sent despite him having no information about the emails. It was then used by the Republicans as a campaign tool, and now the girl Weiner sexted is being used in political propaganda (her words, not mine).

Again he's only bringing up the emails in fault of Hillary and new information came out that could be important to the investigation.

Side Note: I'm pretty sure the FBI said Trump has no connection to Russia. Just a side note, but I'm not sure, however I think I heard that.

Fun fact 2: Comey is a Republican.

And? Your Democratic president said he was a man of integrity.

Also Loretta Lynch is a Democrat.

 

[Gamov]

Here's a fun hypothetical for Trump supporters.

They all love to bash Hillary for her ties to the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as Secretary of State. Even as she said she would distance herself from the foundation so as not to create a conflict in interest. Honestly that doesn't seem to have been the case, but I digress.

Should Trump win the election, do you think it would be fair to likewise require him to remove himself from Trump Corporation? And if he refuses, and it's obvious he intends to use his position as President to unfairly benefit his company, would you be as critical of him as you were of Hillary?

I personally predict a near 100% chance of him not distancing himself from Trump Corporation should be win the election. Or if he does, it would be a token gesture at best as he would no doubt continue to retain vicarious influence through his wife and children - who are all named as executive vice presidents of Trump Corporation.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I think your missing the point here. He didn't know if it was relevant, this is true. However he didn't know this because these emails were not brought forth by the Hillary camp. So he did what he had to do, he investigated them further. He only did his job and the only reason he's doing it now is simply because Hillary didn't do her job, for the FBI, the first time around.

This is the only part I'm responding to because it's the only part relevant to this new so-called "scandal."

The FBI has no idea if these emails were from her private server. It looks like they probably weren't. So again, why would the Clinton camp have brought them forward?

Also, if the FBI had not seen the contents of the emails, how could they know if the Clinton camp hadn't brought them forward before?

You're making a lot of assumptions here, based on no information - because the FBI has provided no information.

 

[Mr.BossMan]

Here's a fun hypothetical for Trump supporters.

They all love to bash Hillary for her ties to the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as Secretary of State. Even as she said she would distance herself from the foundation so as not to create a conflict in interest. Honestly that doesn't seem to have been the case, but I digress.

Should Trump win the election, do you think it would be fair to likewise require him to remove himself from Trump Corporation? And if he refuses, and it's obvious he intends to use his position as President to unfairly benefit his company, would you be as critical of him as you were of Hillary?

I personally predict a near 100% chance of him not distancing himself from Trump Corporation should be win the election. Or if he does, it would be a token gesture at best as he would no doubt continue to retain vicarious influence through his wife and children - who are all named as executive vice presidents of Trump Corporation.

I don't see why he should give up his connection to his company, should he become president. However before you judge me I think this goes both ways. Hillary, as much as I don't like her, I don't see why she should give up her connections to her foundation.

To me I think this fair. Also, its just my opinion.

@Brandon Rhea

Fair enough.
I'm only trying to defend Comey simply because he's getting a lot of flack for just doing his job. This goes on both sides of the political spectrum, Democrats and Republicans both.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The thing about the "just doing his job" argument is that his job entails discretion. His press conference in July announcing that there wouldn't be an indictment AND his letter to Congress were both in violation of Department of Justice policy. He's going outside the norm on this one. That's why he's getting flack. Regardless of how you feel about Hillary Clinton and the decision the FBI reached, he's objectively wrong in the public communication process that he's using.

 

[Green Ranger]

Just so I'm getting this right, Comey (who flat out breached established protocol in the eleventh hour of the election campaign with this letter of no actual information that casts HRC rather conveniently in a negative light) deserves the benefit of the doubt, But HRC (who, despite repeated investigations, hasn't been charged with anything involving this whole email fiasco, and isn't even the first person to have kept emails on a private server like this anyway (not to mention that these new emails have like....a 99% chance of being unrelated or unimportant anyway) ), doesn't?

Just so we're clear here.

 

[Deviant]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/06/polit...ss-fbi-has-not-changed-conclusions/index.html

"The emails, thousands found, were mostly duplicates of what had already been seen and personal emails, law enforcement officials said in explaining how the conclusion was reached so quickly. The laptop which was found was around a decade old, with lots of personal content on it not relevant to the investigation, according to one source."

Well, looks like that's all over with.

Also, my favorite ice cream flavor is cookie dough. Mmm.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Shocker