Was FBI Director Comey recommendation not to indict Hillary fraught with conflict of interest?

"FBI Director Comey is a board member of Clinton Foundation connected bank HSBC."

It seems that our beloved FBI Director is or until very recently was a director and board member of HSBC, which is tightly connected to the Clinton Foundation. Check out some of these links:
http://www.hsbc.com/news-and-insight/2013/former-us-deputy-attorney-general-joins-hsbc-board

“Mr. Comey’s appointment will be for an initial three-year term which, subject to re-election by shareholders, will expire at the conclusion of the 2016 Annual General Meeting.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/10/hillary-clinton-foundation-donors-hsbc-swiss-bank

“Clinton foundation received up to $81m from clients of controversial HSBC bank”
https://www.clintonfoundation.org/search/node/HSBC

It’s like a revolving door of money and special projects that the bank and the CF are involved in.

This is the same HSBC that was accused of laundering drug cartel money, was heavily involved in the LIBOR scandal, and who knows what else, and all while our esteemed FBI Director James “she didn’t intend it” Comey was part of the senior leadership.

h/t AllenS...

"Clinton sought secret info on EU bailout plans as son-in-law's doomed hedge fund gambled on Greece"

Fox News:   Hedge fund manager Marc Mezvinsky had friends in high places when he bet big on a Greek economic recovery, but even the keen interest of his mother-in-law, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wasn't enough to spare him and his investors from financial tragedy.

In 2012, Mezvinski, the husband of Chelsea Clinton, created a $325 million basket of offshore funds under the Eaglevale Partners banner through a special arrangement with investment bank Goldman Sachs. The funds have lost tens of millions of dollars predicting that bailouts of the Greek banking system would pump up the value of the country’s distressed bonds. One fund, exclusively dedicated to Greek debt, suffered near-total losses.

Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in 2013 to run for president. But newly released emails from 2012 show that she and Clinton Foundation consultant, Sidney Blumenthal, shared classified information about how German leadership viewed the prospects for a Greek bailout. Clinton also shared “protected” State Department information about Greek bonds with her husband at the same time that her son-in-law aimed his hedge fund at Greece.

That America’s top diplomat kept a sharp eye on intelligence assessing the chances of a bailout of the Greek central bank is not a problem. However, sharing such sensitive information with friends and family would have been highly improper. Federal regulations prohibit the use of nonpublic information to further private interests or the interests of others. The mere perception of a conflict of interest is unacceptable. (lots more)

"Texas Judge Sanctioned After Keeping His Own Divorce On His Docket"

Jonathan Turley:  Herrera filed for divorce on June 6, 2012 and the case was randomly assigned to his court. He said that he was still trying to work things out with this wife, Melissa Carrasco. He said that they had emails trying to avoid litigation. However, on July 16, 2012, a lawyer representing Carrasco, Angelica Carreon-Beltran, filed a counterpetition for divorce. Herrera insists that Carreon-Beltran is a political enemy of his who improperly solicited his ex-wife as a client to retaliated against him. However, Carreon-Beltran insists that she is a long-time friends of Carrasco. She added that Carrasco told her that no one in the town would represent her because of her husband’s position. She also said that the wife said that she was being “railroaded.”

So Herrera kept control of his own case while trying to get his wife to do what he recommended for the divorce. That would seem more serious than just a reprimand-worthy offense.

In issuing a reprimand, the Commission found that Herrera “failed to comply with the law, demonstrated a lack of professional competence in the law, and engaged in willful and persistent conduct that was clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of his judicial duties.” Yet, Herrera insisted that “The fact that it was in this court made no difference. It stayed there. I wasn’t actively doing anything. Me and my former spouse were working on everything. She and I were working on everything carefully.”

While he admitted that it may have been “poor judgment” he concluded to insist “at that time there was no issue, there was no rush. There was nothing.” (read more)

More Clinton appearance of conflict of interest

"CNN Debate Moderator Was Member of Clinton Global Initiative"

The Clinton Foundation later told Mediaite that none of these journalists were asked to pay the $20,000 membership fee required of  members. However, it's safe to say that access to big name journalists was a key selling point for paying Clinton Global Initiative members. In a nutshell, Anderson Cooper helped Hillary Clinton raise money, and now he's presented as an impartial moderator for tonight's debate.

Then there is this story at the Washington Post.... "While at State, Clinton chief of staff held job negotiating with Abu Dhabi"

During her first four months at the State Department, [Cheryl] Mills also held another high-profile job: She worked part time at New York University, negotiating with officials in Abu Dhabi to build a campus in that Persian Gulf city.

At the State Department, she was unpaid in those first months, officially designated as a temporary expert-consultant — a status that allowed her to continue to collect outside income while serving as chief of staff...

Mills reported her NYU income on public federal disclosure forms. She did not reference the Abu Dhabi element of her role on the forms, which ask only that employees identify the sources and amounts of their outside income....

Under ethics laws, employees are prohibited from participating in matters that would have a direct and predictable effect on themselves or an outside employer.

Mills said she didn’t “recall any issues” at the State Department that would have required her to consider recusing herself and said she would have consulted with the ethics office if one had come up....

In recent years, more than 100 State Department employees annually have typically been granted a designation that allows them to hold outside employment, including scientists, foreign affairs officers and Abedin, a senior adviser. But experts said that a dual employment arrangement is rare at the chief-of-staff level and that the nature of Mills’s non­governmental work made her situation even more atypical.

“This is exceedingly unusual, perhaps exceptional in the history of modern federal bureaucratic leadership. I’ve never seen it before,” said Paul C. Light, an NYU professor who has studied government employment in depth...

After Clinton spoke at an NYU graduation ceremony in New York in May 2009, a top university official e-mailed Mills to thank her for her “help and guidance” in getting Clinton to the event, according to correspondence recently released by the State Department.

In 2011, Mills forwarded to Clinton an e-mail she had received from a university official describing a new NYU campus planned for Shanghai.