memeorandum: Harry Reid: Comey may have violated the Hatch Act (Caroline Kenny/CNN)

12:10 PM ET, October 31, 2016

Top Items:

James Comey is a good man, but he made a serious mistake — Eric Holder was U.S. attorney general from 2009 to 2015. — I began my career in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section 40 years ago, investigating cases of official corruption. In the years since …

Discussion: CNN, New York Magazine, Occupy Democrats, Talking Points Memo, CBS New York, Hot Air, Towleroad, The Root, AOL, The Week, NBC News, The Atlantic, Law News, Politico, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and The Hill

Devlin Barrett / Wall Street Journal:

FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe — Laptop may contain thousands of messages sent to or from private server — Federal agents are preparing to scour roughly 650,000 emails contained on the laptop of former Rep. Anthony Weiner to see how many relate to a prior probe …

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Abedin tells colleagues she's in dark about new email trove — Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has told colleagues she was taken aback when she learned that the FBI found her emails on a laptop belonging to her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, and doesn't know how the messages got there …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNN, Common Dreams, Law News, Jezebel, The Week, Political Wire, TalkLeft and New York Times

Hillary Clinton 2016:

Open Letter from Former Federal Prosecutors and High-Ranking Officials of The U.S. Department of Justice — Sunday, as reported by the Associated Press, a group of nearly 100 former federal prosecutors and high-ranking DOJ officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations …

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Week, Washington Times, The New Civil Rights Movement and twitchy.com

Michael B. Mukasey / Wall Street Journal:

The FBI Director's Unworthy Choice — Comey acceded to the apparent wish of Obama that no charges be brought against Clinton. — We need not worry unduly about the factual void at the center of the FBI director's announcement on Friday that the bureau had found emails—perhaps thousands …

Discussion: Politico

James Hohmann / Washington Post:

The Daily 202: How a 12-term congressman is trying to survive the Trump headwinds in Florida — THE BIG IDEA: — WINTER PARK, Florida—October has been full of surprises. Donald Trump's 1995 tax records came out on the 1st of the month. The video of the Republican nominee bragging …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, America Rising, ABC News, NBC News, zerohedge.com/fullrss2 … and NPR

Philip B. Heymann / USA Today:
Ex-Justice official: FBI now Trump's political football

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Salon, Washington Post and The First Street Journal

Justin Miller / The Daily Beast:
Clinton Campaign Asks Ex-Prosecutors to Criticize FBI Director James Comey

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Breitbart, Washington Free Beacon, LewRockwell and New York Times

Page Pate / CNN:
Don't blame Comey for this mess

Discussion: Jezebel, LewRockwell, Scott Adams' Blog and ThinkProgress

Editorials / New York Daily News:
FBI mad bomber James Comey needs to resign

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The Week and Guardian

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Deeply Disturbing — James Comey's decision to send his letter …

Discussion: Daily Wire, New York Magazine, Breitbart, The New Civil Rights Movement, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Balloon Juice, Guardian, Business Insider, RedState, Mediaite, Politicus USA, twitchy.com and The Moderate Voice

ABC News:
Former DOJ Officials Pen Letter Criticizing Comey

Discussion: Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Washington Times

Ed Klein / Daily Mail:
EXCLUSIVE: Resignation letters piling up from disaffected FBI agents, his wife urging him to admit …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Vox Popoli

Caroline Kenny / CNN:
Harry Reid: Comey may have violated the Hatch Act

Discussion: Townhall.com, Scared Monkeys, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The Federalist, BizPac Review, Wall Street Journal and twitchy.com

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:
FBI agents pressed Justice unsuccessfully for probe of Clinton Foundation

Discussion: New York Magazine, Infowars, Telegraph, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Caller, RedState, TheBlaze.com, Power Line, Mediaite, Politicus USA, Townhall.com, Raw Story and Mother Jones

The Hill:
Holder, ex-Justice officials question Comey's ‘breach of protocol’

Discussion: ABC News, alan.com and Raw Story

NBC News:
FBI Obtains Warrant for Newly Discovered Emails in Clinton Probe — as Reid Accuses Comey of Hatch Act Violation

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Washington Free Beacon, CNBC, BizPac Review, American Prospect, NBC News, Independent Journal Review, The Week, Althouse, Washington Post, BBC, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, Infowars and CNN

Jake Sherman / Politico:

Poll: Comey's bombshell changes few votes — The race for the White House is tight, but it has not been radically changed by the FBI director's bombshell announcement last week. — Hillary Clinton has a slim three-point lead over Donald Trump one week before Election Day …

Discussion: New York Magazine, TheStreet.com, Hot Air, TheBlaze.com, New York Times, Althouse, Associated Press, Guardian, NBC News, Political Wire, The New Civil Rights Movement, Bloomberg and Washington Post

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Harry Reid's incendiary claim about ‘coordination’ between Donald Trump and Russia

Discussion: AOL, Daily Kos, The Week, Breitbart, Vox and The Daily Caller

CBS News:
Harry Reid accuses Comey of sitting on proof of Trump-Russia ties, possible Hatch Act violation

Discussion: CBS Philly and CANNONFIRE

Erin Kelly / USA Today:
Harry Reid says FBI director ‘may have broken the law’

Discussion: The Week

Kurt Eichenwald / Newsweek:

DONALD TRUMP'S COMPANIES DESTROYED EMAILS IN DEFIANCE OF COURT ORDERS — U.S. DONALD TRUMP 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HILLARY EMAILS — Over the course of decades, Donald Trump's companies have systematically destroyed or hidden thousands of emails, digital records and paper documents demanded …

Discussion: alan.com, Joe.My.God., Raw Story and CANNONFIRE

Jugal K. Patel / New York Times:

Voting Early, and in Droves: Nearly 22 Million Ballots Are Already In — With nine days until the general election, almost 22 million people have already voted, through early voting and absentee ballots. — In many states, the number of early voters is lower than at the same point in the 2012 cycle.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

New York Times:

Early Turnout Tilts Toward Democrats in Swing States — Hillary Clinton has established a slim edge over Donald J. Trump in early-voter turnout in several vital swing states, pressing her longstanding advantages in state-level organization and potentially mitigating the fallout from her campaign's latest scrap with the F.B.I.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Political Insider blog, AOL, Old North State Politics, electionlawblog.org, Post On Politics and electionsmith

Marshall Cohen / CNN:
Early voting update: Positive signs for both parties in battleground states

Discussion: Breitbart, PoliPundit.com and Full Feed

Scott Clement / Washington Post:

Clinton loses popularity edge in tight race with Trump, new Post-ABC Tracking Poll finds — Registered voters see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a nearly identical negative light, mirroring a persistently close split in overall vote preference in a new Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll.

Discussion: TheStreet.com and USA Today

Gary Langer / ABC News:
Deep Unfavorability for Clinton, Trump Marks the Election's Sharp Divisions (POLL)

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Political Wire

CNN:

Trump stokes skepticism of Colorado voting system — Greeley, Colorado (CNN)Donald Trump for the second day in a row questioned the validity of this swing state's largely mail-in voting system, the latest instance of the Republican nominee expressing skepticism about the legitimacy of the electoral process.

Discussion: Vox, The Huffington Post, AOL, Guardian, alan.com, Raw Story, New York Magazine, Jezebel and Little Green Footballs

Justin Baragona / Mediaite:
CNN Stealth Edits Article That Originally Made False Claim Trump Told Supporters To Vote Multiple Times

Discussion: BizPac Review

Josh Rogin / Washington Post:

Inside Evan McMullin's 10 years undercover in the CIA — Conservative independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin is rising in the polls and stands a fair chance of stealing the red state of Utah from GOP nominee Donald Trump. So it's no surprise that pro-Trump Republicans and others …

Heather Caygle / Politico:

Embattled Issa: I'd advise Clinton if she asked — CARDIFF-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — For most of Barack Obama's presidency, Rep. Darrell Issa has relished his role as White House enemy No. 1, taunting the president as “corrupt” and even floating the idea of impeachment.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo and The Week

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The GOP's Age of Authoritarianism Has Only Just Begun — And it will not end with a Clinton presidency. — There is a fusty old school of thought called the Great Man Theory, which attributes the tides of history to the decisions and character of a handful of fateful men.

Discussion: Hullabaloo