Who’s even more powerful than the king? The person who gets to pick the king. And as of this morning that person is, quite possibly, FBI Director James Comey.

Today’s Morning Joe reported breaking news from the New York Times: Attorney General Loretta Lynch has decided that she will accept the recommendation of the FBI regarding its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. If Comey recommends against an indictment of Hillary, that would lift a huge cloud that has been dragging her candidacy down. It would put Hillary in a very strong position to become the next president. But should Comey recommend the indictment of Hillary, her candidacy would effectively be destroyed. Dems might scramble to replace her as their candidate, but in any case Donald Trump would be well-positioned to win the election.





James Comey Just Became the Most Powerful Person in America from Mark Finkelstein on Vimeo.

As the Morning Joe panel discussed, Lynch’s stunning announcement came in response to the bipartisan uproar over her private meeting with Bill Clinton earlier this week. Although she has not explicitly admitted that the meeting was a mistake, her decision today is a tacit acknowledgment thereof.

Joe Scarborough mentioned that in an off-the-air conversation with Rudy Giuliani, who knows Comey well, the former NYC May said that the FBI Director is a “straight shooter.” That should send chills down Hillary’s spine. As Scarborough said “unless Loretta Lynch already knows something coming out of the FBI, this is bad news for the Clintons . . . I guarantee you: the Clintons did not want that political protection removed from them.”

Bonus Coverage: Donny Deutsch Jokes About Alleged Romance Between Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski

The New York Post’s Page Six reported yesterday that Mika Brzezinski had quietly divorced her husband, and further, that it is an open secret at MSNBC that Joe Scarborough, who is also divorced, and Mika are a couple. At the top of the show, before the breaking news about Lynch, the mischievous Donny Deutsch, playing off the Joe/Mika rumors, joked “the rumors about Willie [Geist] and I? Not true. Not true.” Scarborough squelched him: “okay, okay, okay, okay,” and moved on to another topic.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The New York Times is reporting that Attorney General Loretta Lynch plans to announce that she will accept whatever recommendation career prosecutors and FBI Director James Comey make about whether to bring charges related to Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server. The paper says her decision removes the possibility that a political appointee will overrule investigators in the case. This development comes after criticism around the attorney general’s meeting with former President Bill Clinton on board her plane at a Phoenix airport earlier this week, raising questions about what the two may have discussed after months of the Justice Department investigating the presumptive Democratic nominee’s use of a private server while Secretary of State. . . . MARK HALPERIN: I’ve got to say this doesn’t really fix the problem for people who are suspicious of the meeting, because she’s still the head of the Justice Department. She probably should have taken this step before. And the other thing is she didn’t admit it was a mistake. And the White House didn’t admit it was a mistake. And this is an implicit admission that it was an error. JOE SCARBOROUGH: But I will tell you this. This is actually, Willie Geist, unless Loretta Lynch already knows something coming out of FBI, this is bad news for the Clintons because Rudy Giuliani worked with Comey, and said very early on in the process, I asked him off the set, is this guy a straight shooter? He said, oh, he’s a straight shooter. Now whether the Justice Department will him go after her if she’s broken the law is another question. But this guy is a straight shooter. So, I guarantee you, the Clintons did not want to have that political protection removed from them and Jim Comey. Because he is — HALPERIN: If Comey had wanted to indict and Lynch squelched it, it would have come out that he had wanted to indict and they would have had a huge problem. JOE: But guess what, she wouldn’t have been indicted. . . . JOE: Donny Deutsch, Donny Deutsch goes to Nantucket to buy his summer jackets. HALPERIN: Do you know what Donny is? He is tonight’s guest host on With All Due Respect. JOE: That’s huge. Looking very Waspish, by the way. DONNY DEUTSCH: And by the way, the rumors about Willie and I, not true. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Ohhhh. I knew it! DEUTSCH: Not true. You can read — JOE: Okay, okay, okay, okay. How you doing, Willie? GEIST: I’m great, thank you.

UPDATE (KK 10:05 AM)

NEWS: Key clarification from DOJ official re what @LorettaLynch plans to say today (v diff than @nytimes lede): pic.twitter.com/d1c4RUEe00 — Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 1, 2016



