Clinton indictment will come to nothing: Analyst

Press TV has conducted an interview with Paul Street, a journalist and political commentator from Iowa, to discuss the latest developments around US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's email scandal.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: Why are we seeing FBI conduct this questioning now when this email scandal was revealed months ago and what kind of impact do you believe this will have on her campaign for the Oval Office?

Street: Well, they are wrapping up. I do not expect an indictment prior to the convention if there is going to be one. If there was going to be an indictment which seems unlikely to me, in all likelihood it would happen after the convention. It is costing Hillary some points; her lead over Trump in the polls has fallen from 14 percent to about 9 percent and now we have the rather extraordinary polls finding that more Americans find Donald Trump trustworthy than they find Hillary trustworthy. So, it is certainly a negative for her as we move into the general election to swing it.

Press TV: Just in case of the worst case scenario if the FBI does indict Clinton what would that mean for the presidential race in the United States?

Street: I think it would raise the possibility of the Democrats having to think about an emergency fielding of a different candidate.

Press TV: Would that open the door for Bernie Sanders?

ُStreet: You know the corporate and financial elite do not want Bernie Sanders to be a major party presidential nominee and one reason I think that if there is an indictment it will come after the convention is that if it came before it would open the door for the superdelegates on the floor of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia to act instead for Bernie Sanders who after all did very very well in the primary campaign.

If the indictment comes after, then it would raise the possibility of them putting together an emergency ticket of for example Joe Biden, the current vice president, and the current Secretary of State John Kerry, incredibly enough. I think the Democratic elite leadership is cynical enough that they will be willing to circumvent the incredible popular support that Bernie Sanders has had and try to put forth a Biden-Kerry ticket believe it or not. 

Press TV: Do you see this as a true FBI investigation or do you think perhaps the bureau is just trying to appease certain factions in the states and just going to the motions that would never really file on Clinton because she is someone that they may see as a front-runner for the presidency and someone that they might likely need something from or to be added on their side in the future should she become president?

Street: Well, it's complicated and it's hard to know. It's possible. It strikes me from some of the research I've done that the current FBI director may be sincere in wanting to move forward on this but the question is whether the Obama administration would really allow that to happen and more broadly whether the American power elite really is going to permit something as preposterous as a reality television show buffoon white nationalist and possible proto-fascist named Donald Trump having an opening become the president of the United States. So, my guess is at the end of the day that there will be a meeting of elite minds in the United States to prevent an actual indictment so that this will end up being a show; it will cost her some points in her margin over Donald Trump but she still has a fairly comfortable margin. I don't expect an indictment but you know anything is possible.

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