12 FBI agents, not 147.

[kstewart33]

Yep, leave it to the media to get it wrong:

Sources close to the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton's email are knocking down suggestions that 147 federal agents are working on the case, a figure first reported — and now revised — by the Washington Post, citing a lawmaker.

The Post updated the figure on Tuesday, stating that while the "FBI will not provide an exact figure," there are "fewer than 50" FBI personnel involved in the case.

But a former federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the Clinton investigation tells MSNBC an estimate anywhere near 50 agents is also off base.

"There are currently about 12 FBI agents working full-time on the case," says the source, who would only speak anonymously about an open investigation.

"147 was such a ridiculous number," said the source, adding that 50 also sounded unrealistic for this kind of inquiry. "You need an act of terrorism to get 50 agents working on something," said the former FBI official.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fed-source-about-12-fbi-agents-working-clinton-email-inquiry-n548026

[insta8er]

1. I think this is the proof we all have been waiting for, clearly..less then 50? she must be innocent.

[cosmicone]

2. LMAO .. a lot of people ... republicans and some here

will need therapy now.

[revbones]

3. ROFL "A former FBI official, also speaking anonymously, says" nt

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Who was the source behind the original report? nt

[WhiteTara]

4. I wonder if the lawmaker talked with

Joseph diGenova? After all, he's been saying there would be an indictment since January. Any fitzmas day now.

[kstewart33]

9. Aw, Joe the longtime Republican operative and favorite of Faux News.

Geez Louise.

[HereSince1628]

5. "There are -currently- 12..." seems like it leaves an openning for more in the past

I now find myself always looking for qualifiers. One never knows what verb of being might not be what it appears.

[kstewart33]

11. Whoa, that's splitting the hairs a bit thin, isn't it? nt

[HereSince1628]

17. Not when your dealing with people who can parse a split hair and braid the resulting strands

[Gothmog]

6. The 147 number was always bogus

[Jarqui]

7. Why is the reported lower number from an anonymous source

any more valid that the higher number reported by several anonymous sources several times since last fall?

"currently" in the article above talks about where they are now - getting ready to talk with Hillary and her employees - not on a big investigation of the 60,000 emails anymore - they've got through those.

I'll bet there were a lot more than 12 at it's peak. Not all were grunts - some in supervision.

Apparently, six servers or backup devices to go through.
60,000 emails to go through. 30,000 that had to get recovered from being deleted.
Batches of them had to be sorted out and traced to find missing emails and traced for missing ones by going down email chains.
They had to chase a bunch down that were classified some to other departments.
They wouldn't just be looking at classified. They had the Clinton Foundation for example - which is a major task unto itself.
Then they had to crawl over the server looking for evidence of various way to hack.
As they were going they had to figure out the laws and how they applied to this case to develop focus or leads to chase down.
Where classified stuff did get out, they'd be liaising with others to help minimize damages.
Then they'd be associating emails with photos of Hilary using her Blackberry as reported or with other documents and events.

I'm going through a legal case right now of a few hundred emails and a few hundred documents. It's a big job - just to get my head around it. You get into it, rolling along thinking a certain way until you run into something and you either have to make note to catch during a another pass or back up a few steps. Sure there are plenty of domestic things that don't mean much but there are others where you can spend considerable time on a single email.

Just the Clinton Foundation alone - picking through the 60,000 - mapping it all out. Big job because they were so intertwined in the emails - several people involved - accounting traces and you're trying to tie two organizations together over a four year period probably through a complex web of business dealings.

On top of all this, people obviously wanted it in a hurry - so for some period, they very likely had a bunch of agents.

Having said that, one agent investigating me for anything would be lousy news.

[kstewart33]

8. You're right about one agent.

But 147 really? I think it's a matter of priorities. Like other federal agencies, money isn't flowing into the FBI. I think investigating suspected terrorists might be a bit more important. As the agent said, it would take a terrorist attack to get 50 on the job.

[Jarqui]

15. Who knows for sure? We might find out someday

But that was a pretty big undertaking. No stone could be left unturned or corner cut because the GOP, Dems and media and lawyers will be all over them. Sadly, the shear volume of effort will probably leave a few things they never thought of undone. And they couldn't take forever.

They probably went through phases of various numbers of agents. A smaller number at the start to get their heads around it. A quick panic when the state department was releasing classified info for FOIAs. Probably had a separate IT team on it for cyber security stuff for example. Probably peaking when they sorted through the 60,000 emails - and maybe a bunch were not full time during the peak - spun off to people who could handle parts easily. A separate group was probably working the Clinton Foundation angle. And after that, they're back down to a much smaller number as they interview and pull the case together.

As well, agents from the Intelligence Community, folks working for the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, folks working for the Inspector General of the State Department, folks from the Attorney Generals office and for a period, folks from the Department of Defense and other government Departments worked on it. Maybe it was that combination that tailed 147. I imagine it was a lot more than 12.

[MineralMan]

12. Another unnamed source?

They're all full of crap. The FUN does not release this kind of info...ever. All of these stories are wrong. Why are otherwise intelligent people so gullible? Sheesh!

[lumberjack_jeff]

13. Yup, that's an important distinction.

Last edited Wed Mar 30, 2016, 08:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Will it be totally no big deal because there's only one special prosecutor?

[ozone_man]

14. Only as many as it takes.

[blueintelligentsia]

16. Anonymous source....

"There are currently about 12 FBI agents working full-time on the case," says the source, who would only speak anonymously about an open investigation.

[neverforget]

18. Bernie 0, Hillary 12. She leads in FBI agents

and she can have it