James Comey thinks it’s normal to smash old cell phones with a hammer

OPINION:

One of the more fascinating nuggets not broadcast in Sunday’s interview with James Comey on ABC News was an exchange over the Clinton email investigation. 

Interviewer George Stephanopoulos asked the former FBI Director about Clinton staffers destroying their Blackberries, a fact that has understandably raised suspicion for those who believe Hillary Clinton and those surrounding her may have destroyed evidence during the 2016 investigation overseen by Comey and Andrew McCabe. 

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the things that President Trump and his allies bring up is that at some point, her staff smashed Blackberries, also whitewashed the server?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah. There was evidence that old Blackberries, after she was finished with them, they destroyed them, which I think a fair number of people do to make sure that if it’s resold, someone doesn’t end up with your information. And that after they produced information back to the d— to the Department of State, they used— a software program to clean the server to make sure there was nothing on it, or clean laptops to make sure there’s nothing on them.

Think about this for a second.  

James Comey thinks it’s pretty normal for people to destroy their cell phones when they are done using them because “if it’s resold, someone doesn’t end up with your information.” Um… how, exactly, does one sell a destroyed cell phone? Perhaps Comey meant that he thinks it’s common for people to destroy their cell phones to ensure that they are not resold. 

Perhaps Mr. Stephanopoulos (a former White House official during Mrs. Clinton’s time as First Lady) should have asked a follow-up question on this one. 

And, perhaps he should have said “Wait.. you think it’s common for people to smash their cell phones with a hammer?  Who do you know that does that? I don’t know anyone who does that. Have you done that?”

Alas, Bill Clinton’s former Comms Director and adviser was too intent on moving on to all the Russian hooker talk he had to get to. 

But, just so we are clear, Team Clinton obliterated their Blackberries and it sure smells like destruction of evidence: 

The FBI said in a report that the aide, Justin Cooper, recalled “two instances where he destroyed Clinton’s old mobile phones by breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer.”

Clinton used a number of phones while serving as secretary of state. The FBI said it identified 13 mobile devices used to possibly send emails using Clinton’s private email server.

Oh, and Clinton originally claimed she used the unauthorized email server out of “convenience” so she could just have one device for all her correspondence. And yet, during her 4 years as Secretary of State, she had 13 devices.