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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Best with June Grosso. On the eve of

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Speaker 1: the presidential election, just a few days before, FBI Director

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Speaker 1: James Comey informed Congress that the FBI was going to

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Speaker 1: review emails between Hillary Clinton and her aid Uma Abadon

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Speaker 1: that had been found in an unrelated investigation of Aboden's

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Speaker 1: estranged husband, Anthony Weener, on Mr Weiner's computer. The disclosure

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Speaker 1: caused a barrage of negative publicity for Clinton, and she

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Speaker 1: said that she believes it's one of the factors that

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Speaker 1: ended up costing her the presidential election. Now, a judges

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Speaker 1: unsealed the search warrant for those additional emails, and Clinton

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Speaker 1: Clinton lawyers and campaign officials say that the FBI's case

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Speaker 1: for further investigation was exceedingly thin. Joining us to discuss

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Speaker 1: this search warrant and uh it's ramifications are is. Michael

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Speaker 1: Vadis a partnered Steptoe and Johnson who is an expert

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Speaker 1: on cybersecurity and was the the founding director of the

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Speaker 1: National Infrastructure Protection Center at the FBI. Michael, welcome to

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Speaker 1: the program. We're very happy to have you here today,

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Speaker 1: happy to be here with you. So why don't we

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Speaker 1: start by talking about what exactly. The search warrant says,

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Speaker 1: now that it's been unsealed, what was the basis for

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Speaker 1: the FBI going into these emails? Essentially, when they were

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Speaker 1: going through Anthony Weiner's laptop, did they they saw header

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Speaker 1: information on emails indicating that there were emails on the

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Speaker 1: laptop belonging to Wiener's wife, um whom Aberdeen. The Clinton

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Speaker 1: aid uh, and the rationale in the affidavit to the

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Speaker 1: search warrant was that we know that between two thousand

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Speaker 1: nine and two thousand thirteen, Abdeen and Clinton sent thousands

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Speaker 1: of emails to one another, and that a large number

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Speaker 1: of those emails containing classified information. That's what they learned

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Speaker 1: from the the investigation that had gone on into whether

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Speaker 1: Clinton had violated any law in their handling of classified information.

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Speaker 1: And they said that they found emails from Aberdeen between

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Speaker 1: Abode and Clinton on we There's laptop during that same period. Therefore, UH,

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Speaker 1: there was probable cause to believe that some of those

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Speaker 1: emails contain classified information. Now, the man who the attorney

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Speaker 1: who requested the unsealing of this suit on December twelfth

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Speaker 1: is Randall Schoenberg, and he said that he was appalled

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Speaker 1: when he saw the what was in this application and

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Speaker 1: why didn't the FBI disclose to Judge Fox that Aberdeen's

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Speaker 1: lawyers had already turned over all relevant emails on Aberdeen's

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Speaker 1: laptop and BlackBerry. Don't you think that that would be

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Speaker 1: something that the judge should know? Uh? You know, I'm

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Speaker 1: not really uh in a position to comment on whether

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Speaker 1: whether Schoenberg was properly appalled or not. UM. I think

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Speaker 1: that really the only legally important question is whether the

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Speaker 1: affidavit established probable cause to believe, uh that there would

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Speaker 1: be of a crime on the laptop, And in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: it does because um, uh, there was information in the

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Speaker 1: classified information and the classified information and emails that were

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Speaker 1: previously discovered, um, which you know, technically is a violation

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Speaker 1: of the Espionage Act. Uh. The FBI director in the

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Speaker 1: summer said that no reasonable prosecutor would actually bring a

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Speaker 1: case even if there was technically a violation. UM. That

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean that there wasn't evidence of a crime on

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Speaker 1: the laptop. It just, you know, it may mean that

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Speaker 1: they were unlikely to find any additional information beyond what

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Speaker 1: they had already found, but it doesn't mean that there

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Speaker 1: wasn't evidence of of a crime on the laptop. What

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Speaker 1: about the timing of this the nine days before an election,

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Speaker 1: when you're not sure what's on that computer and this

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Speaker 1: can be an ongoing investigation. That's a very different question

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Speaker 1: that there. The question is was it appropriate for the

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Speaker 1: FBI director to in form Congress in a way that

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Speaker 1: was obviously going to be made public nine days before

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Speaker 1: the election of this sort of investigative step. My my

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Speaker 1: opinion on that is, no, it was not appropriate. He

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Speaker 1: should have known what these quesses would be, especially since

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Speaker 1: it did seem unlikely that any new information would be found.

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Speaker 1: But that's that's an entirely different question from whether there

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Speaker 1: was probable caused justifying the search of the of the

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Speaker 1: Wiener laptop as a legal matter. Well, I guess that

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Speaker 1: it's hard to sort of separate these two questions in

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Speaker 1: everybody's minds, right about whether it was appropriate to get

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Speaker 1: the warrant in the first place and whether it was

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Speaker 1: appropriate to disclose the existence of these emails because they

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Speaker 1: are so bound up together. But now that we've seen

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Speaker 1: what this search warrant looks like, and it's a lot

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Speaker 1: of people are saying, you know, it looks as though

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Speaker 1: they should have been able to figure out that even

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Speaker 1: before they got the emails, that these emails are basically

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Speaker 1: the same ones that they had already concluded wouldn't justify prosecution.

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Speaker 1: Does that further undermine the way Comey handled this thing? No,

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Speaker 1: you know, look, I look, I voted for Clinton. I

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Speaker 1: worked in the in the Bill Clinton administrations. You know,

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Speaker 1: I would have preferred that she had gotten elected. I

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Speaker 1: also think Comey made a mistake. But but I think

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Speaker 1: we it is important to separate out these issues. And

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of Clinton supporters are are making

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Speaker 1: arguments that don't make legal sense because they're there. Their

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Speaker 1: analysis is clouded by their political bias. Uh. And and

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Speaker 1: that's unfortunate because I think they're they're casting expersions on

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Speaker 1: career FBI agents and on a federal magistrate um for

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Speaker 1: making decisions that you know, they wish had hadn't been made.

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Speaker 1: Um And Uh. You know, I think the bottom line again,

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Speaker 1: as you can't you can't know what the emails are

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Speaker 1: unless you look at them. The FBI agents who are

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Speaker 1: examining Weiner's laptop didn't look at the content of the

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Speaker 1: emails that were from between Abbden and Clinton because they

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Speaker 1: were not pertinent to the Wiener investigation, and so that's

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Speaker 1: why they felt they needed to get us effort Church warrant.

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Speaker 1: They looked at only at the head or information that shows,

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Speaker 1: you know, the two and front lines and the and

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Speaker 1: the date uh the emails were sent. And that's what

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Speaker 1: gave him the basis to speak a search warrant. To

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Speaker 1: then look at the content. You can't know if they're

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Speaker 1: completely duplicative of emails they already had unless you look

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Speaker 1: at the content. And just as a point of interest

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Speaker 1: to our audience, the lawyer in this case, Randall Schoenberg,

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Speaker 1: is the attorney who is depicted in the film Woman

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Speaker 1: in Gold. Then he represented Maria all And against the

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Speaker 1: government of Austria in getting five Gustav Clint paintings from

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Speaker 1: her and estate played by Ryan Reynolds. Just a point

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Speaker 1: of interest, Yes, yes, so he so. I mean he's

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Speaker 1: not part of the Clinton administration or the Ruther Clinton

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Speaker 1: political apparatus. Um what even if they find or or

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Speaker 1: to see if justice was done? Perhaps, Um what could

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Speaker 1: be done now? I mean, is anything to be done now?

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Speaker 1: If if this, if this happened, is is that comy

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Speaker 1: if somewhat if a lot of lawyers go forward and

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Speaker 1: say this there wasn't probable cause. Is that just a

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Speaker 1: blot on Comey's record or what again? I you know,

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Speaker 1: I think I think Comy's decision to send a letter

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Speaker 1: to Congress in a way that was obviously gonna be

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Speaker 1: made public shortly before the election was a mistake that

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Speaker 1: will always be a blot on his record. That was

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Speaker 1: an error of judgment. Though it wasn't an error of

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Speaker 1: of law or or somehow malfeasance on his part, it

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Speaker 1: was an error in judgment. He was put I think

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Speaker 1: it's important to remember too, he was put in a

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Speaker 1: very difficult situation, uh by Bill Clinton, because it was

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Speaker 1: Bill Clinton's in name decision to go onto the airplane

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Speaker 1: of the Attorney General at the time his wife was

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Speaker 1: being investigated by the Justice Department, which caused the Attorney

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Speaker 1: in General then to recuse herself um from the decision

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Speaker 1: over whether to bring up an indictment against Hillary Clinton

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Speaker 1: and say that she would accept the recommendation of the

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Speaker 1: FBI director. Whatever it was that put Comy front and center.

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Speaker 1: If that whole thing at the airport hadn't happened, it

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Speaker 1: would have been up to the Attorney General uh, to decide,

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Speaker 1: you know, what to tell Congress and when, uh, and

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Speaker 1: whether to seek an indictment. So you know, you can

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Speaker 1: thank Bill Clinton for the fact that Comey was the

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Speaker 1: one making these decisions about what to say and when

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Speaker 1: to say it. So, Michael, that is says more trouble

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Speaker 1: in the Clinton marriage. That's what we should conclude from this. Huh.

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Speaker 1: You know what I conclude from this is all these

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Speaker 1: lawyers who are spending their time wondering, you know, saying

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Speaker 1: there wasn't probable cause for the search warrant should be

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Speaker 1: focused on how to stop Donald Trump from implementing a

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Speaker 1: disastrous agenda that that he's putting forward now or stopping

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Speaker 1: some of his disastrous UH nominees for important cabinet positions,

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Speaker 1: rather than relitigating the election, which is which is over

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Speaker 1: and done. Well, that's Michael Vadis and we will definitely

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Speaker 1: have definitely have Michael on again. He's been on before

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Speaker 1: and he's a terrific guest. Thanks very much for being here, Michael.

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Speaker 1: He's the founding director of the FBI s UH National

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Speaker 1: Infrastructural Protection Center and a partner at Steptoe and Johnson.

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Speaker 1: Coming up on Bloomberg Law. We will be discussing Facebook,

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Speaker 1: which is in trouble with European regulators. Apparently, European regulators

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Speaker 1: believe that uh Facebook may have failed to disclose information

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Speaker 1: about what it could share in terms of data with

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Speaker 1: What's App when it acquired What'sapp in two thousand fourteen,

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Speaker 1: and there may be very very large European finds that

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Speaker 1: Facebook is going to have to pay. That's coming up

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Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Law. This is Bloomberg