"Crooked Comey" is what we all ought to call the director of the FBI if yesterday's announcement that recently discovered new emails on Huma Abedin's computer has led the agency to more investigations means investigations that do not produce a comment or update until after the Americans vote for their president. 

Indeed, because millions of Americans voted after Comey exonerated Hillary, the political corruption of the federal criminal justice system is already established.  Indeed, because Comey made his announcement – surprise! – on a Friday, just as prior announcements that might hurt Hillary have been made by the FBI on Friday, the political corruption of the federal criminal justice system is already established. 

All this would have been different if in July Comey simply declined to give any report before the election, which would have left Hillary dangling under the sword of Damocles, with Americans left guessing whether that sword would fall on her if she was elected president.  Comey could have said in July what he seems to be saying now: that there is so much evidence of possible misconduct by Hillary and her flacks that no investigation can shift through the mess for many months, which would have protected the reputation of the FBI without pronouncing formally that Hillary is a crook.

Comey had other options.  He could have asked a team of respected and retired FBI agents to review the evidence and confirm or repudiate his recommendations, which would have allowed the dignity of the agency to be protected by those who could not be fired or demoted for speaking their minds.  Comey had lots of choices about how to handle what seems to most Americans who understand the law to be clear criminality by Hillary and her operatives.  These options did not have to mean recommending prosecution before the election.

Instead, Comey has behaved precisely how one would have expected the bought and paid for police chief of a mob-controlled city to behave – he has provided political cover for Hillary by allowing every Democrat operative to parrot the message that the FBI has looked at everything and determined that nothing criminal occurred.

We will know very soon if Comey is simply inventing a dilatory ruse to drag a presumed "investigation" past the election so that in late November he can inform America that, well, darn it, I guess we just elected someone who may have committed a bunch of federal offenses, so we, the agency, did our job but just ran out of time.  If that happens – and no one ought to put anything past these people – then no American ought to ever trust anything said by the FBI or the Department of Justice. 

The ramifications of this for our nation are profound.  The next time the FBI presents evidence in a criminal trial of a mob boss, his defense attorney ought to tell the jury: "Of course, we all know how crooked the FBI is believed to be by many Americans."  The next time the Department of Justice tells us it has uncovered a potential terrorist threat, sensible Americans ought to wonder if the attorney general or the designated department representative is lying to us.  Indeed, horrible as this sounds, the next time an FBI agent asks for Americans to cooperate in any sort of investigation, those Americans will have to wonder if the investigation is honest or if the agents are being pushed around politically to reach a particular conclusion.

What will happen if, before the election, Crooked Comey finds more serious evidence of criminal misconduct by Hillary, but she wins by a close margin?  Are those who cast absentee ballots that gave Hillary the election going to be allowed to withdraw their votes?  What happens if the leftist establishment media slothfully underreports the story of this latest "investigation" until after the election?  Do ordinary Americans get to recast November ballots in December? 

The best Americans can hope for is a quick and decisive preliminary report days before the election by Crooked Comey that Hillary, alas, is probably guilty of myriad crimes, and he is oh, so sorry for exonerating her and not finding this new stuff out until after millions of Americans had voted.

That's something, but not enough.  Unless Hillary loses – well, even if she loses – the FBI, thanks to Crooked Comey, has suffered permanent damage to its reputation.