First, it was the FBI and Director James Comey that were responsible for Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign.
Then, there was Green Party candidate Jill Stein claiming voter fraud and voter hacking, which turned out to be a farce.
Now, according to a few members of Congress, the CIA has assessed through "circumstantial evidence" that Russia was responsible for hacking into the Democratic National Committee's emails and providing those emails to WikiLeaks, which released them to the public.
The claim is that Russia did so in an attempt to influence the election. After 24 hours of this latest rambling, we're now learning that the FBI doesn't necessarily agree with the CIA, and worse, that the top overseers of the U.S. intelligence community have not embraced a CIA assessment.
The first question that comes to mind is exactly what circumstantial evidence is there that led the CIA to believe not only that Russia hacked into the DNC email system, but that it did so with the clear intent to influence the election? That would mean they would have had some idea as to what would be in those emails.
Did Russia know the emails would expose clear-cut criminality by Secretary Clinton and her family, and her former staff as it relates to using her office to solicit tens of millions of dollars from foreign heads of state, for her family's foundation?
There was also clear evidence, that Clinton's campaign staff colluded with CNN journalists prior to her debate with Donald Trump in order to assist her in the debate and the election.
Lastly, did they also know that Clinton's campaign staff and the DNC colluded to undermine and destroy the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders?
Clinton's staff and members of the DNC were well aware of the fact that Sanders was soliciting millions of dollars for his presidential campaign, knowing that while doing so, they were all covertly conspiring to do everything in their power to undermine his campaign and guarantee his failure.
In the federal legal circles, I'm pretty sure that's called honest services fraud, but I haven't heard anyone mention that.
So someone, perhaps the Russians, Chinese, or some moron sitting in a Starbucks, allegedly hacked into the DNC's emails, which exposed all of this criminal conduct that our illustrious members of Congress just ignored and made believe never happened, but they're all about figuring out the identity of the mysterious hacker.
Who were the senators in the intelligence committee that were briefed and then publicly spewed the contents of that briefing to the general public? What exactly was their purpose — political perhaps?
To interfere with this election, I'm sure, especially given that Nancy Pelosi's daughter has called for a full intelligence briefing prior to the Dec. 19 Electoral College vote.
Interesting.
As it stands right now, no one knows for sure who hacked into the DNC, or who gave those emails to WikiLeaks. No one knows for sure if it was Russia, or what its true intent was if Russia was the culprit.
However, if during this next briefing, the FBI, CIA, or any other three-letter federal agency authenticates and validates the emails that were leaked by WikiLeaks that exposed all of this criminal conduct, I'm curious if these same members of Congress will do their job and refer the matter to the FBI for criminal investigation.
What's far more dangerous than the hacking itself, is the criminal conduct that was exposed in those emails by members of our own government, in an attempt to undermine our election, and sway our democracy in a way that's never been done before.
If Congress wants to accomplish something real for a change, then they need to forward their findings to the FBI and demand a criminal investigation into the conduct contained in those emails.
We can speculate on who, how and why later, but for now, there is plenty of evidence that crimes were committed. If we're serious about doing something about it, do it.
Bernard Kerik was New York City's 40th Police Commissioner.
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