Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Apparently so is integrity. Consider how so many supporters of Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton praised FBI Director James Comey weeks ago after he announced the investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s use of a personal email server turned up a number of examples where classified material were improperly sent, but said there was no evidence anything was intentional so the FBI thought no crime was committed.

Many who agreed with the decision said Comey was fair and above politics. Others who thought Mrs. Clinton had acted improperly said the FBI was too easy on her. Now the perspective has changed after Comey announced Friday the FBI was reopening the investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s emails after discovering thousands of emails belonging to an aide to Mrs. Clinton.

Many Clinton supporters say its improper Comey revealed an ongoing investigation. Some said it was unfair, perhaps politically motivated to make this announcement so close to the election. Some even said Comey had broken the law, the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from being involved with political activities.

The issue about the newly discovered emails is tricky. Yes, it’s unfair to Mrs. Clinton to raise this issue so close to the election, suggesting she may have broken the law especially if the issue isn’t likely to be settled before the vote next week. But then would it be fair to let people assume the email issue was settled and Mrs. Clinton had been exonerated as was announced several weeks ago, if it now appears that may not be the case?

It’s hard to believe the FBI would publicly announce the reopening of this investigation unless there was some indication of a problem. If the initial review of the newly discovered emails only found routine emails of no consequence as far as classified information or such, would Comey have publicly announced the investigation was being reopened?

You would think some initial review of these emails found some that were questionable. As it stands, no one really knows what to think. Comey didn’t say they’d found anything specific that pointed to a problem — so we’re all left to wonder.

It’s a lose-lose situation for Comey and the FBI. Say nothing now and let word of the new emails get out after the election. Then the suggestion would be they held back to benefit the Democrats. But announcing the investigation has been reopened just days before the election only to announce afterwards no problem emails were found will likely be seen as an effort to benefit the Republicans. What most think should have been done likely depends on their political leanings.   

 We don’t know if there’s any smoke, much less any fire in all this and likely won’t find out untilafter the election has beendecided.

WILL CHAPMAN

PUBLISHER