Does Bill Cosby have emails boasting about his sexual conquests?
Probably not, but with all the attention being paid to Hillary's State Department emails on her personal server, it doesn't hurt to ask. Of course, I'm being sarcastic. But anything new on the Bill Cosby case keeps him in the news and extends the shelf life of the current Pennsylvania criminal case against him. There is always the chance of an additional criminal case elsewhere, if one can be found within the statute of limitations, and certainly more civil cases.
That's all Hillary needs, for the Cosby story to run through the primaries. This is on top of her email controversy, which still has no closure.
Hillary has never explained plausibly why she established an email account with a private server, a mode likely compromised by foreign intelligence; and how it is that she sent and received emails that may have impaired U.S. security and almost certainly violated laws used to prosecute others. From my own experience, I know what a security clearance means, what it is to be briefed in writing and orally about the protocols of a clearance, and to sign in writing an acknowledgement that you understand and accept these conditions.
While the major government investigation of what looks like Hillary's violations of the law continues, the question is how much longer it can continue. By all accounts it is a thorough investigation, which the FBI Director might not have authorized unless he were going to do it seriously. The FBI Director will have to defend the investigation, whether he recommends prosecution or not. And the attorney general will be on the hot seat if the FBI director concludes the law has been violated, and the AG passes on prosecution. Last Friday's State Department disclosure of new Hillary emails at a higher security level has caused apprehension within the campaign. Hillary is preempting by making the email issue another "Benghazi."
The Cosby case is far more subtle. The longer it continues, the more attention it focuses on a powerful man who is accused of being a sexual predator. As in the matter of former president Bill Clinton, the accusations against Cosby are multiple-that is, from different women who do not know each other-over a period of time. And, as with Clinton, some of the accusers date back years, even decades. And, as with Clinton, there was - for one case - a financial settlement in a civil suit. Thus, Cosby becomes a proxy for Clinton.
Yesterday in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on the second and final day of a two-day preliminary hearing, judge Steven O'Neill ruled that the full trial would go forward. While Cosby's lawyers will appeal, they likely will lose that appeal; and then the question will be when will the case go forward, and can the civil suit deposition be admitted in evidence.
Cosby's lawyers did not simply argue (and lose the argument) that the newly elected district attorney Kevin Steele should not stay on the case. O'Neill also did not accept the more fundamental argument, advanced by Cosby's attorneys, that the case should not go forward because the original prosecutor, then-District Attorney Bruce Castor, gave Cosby full immunity.
During the first day of the preliminary hearing, Castor told Cosby's lawyer that "I'm not on your team." Castor explained that his decision not to proceed did not mean he did not believe the accusations by Andrea Constand, but he was doubtful the charges could be proven in a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt.
There is some question about the competence of Cosby's original lawyers. It seems they proceeded with the civil deposition years back, in which Cosby discussed his modus operandi of using Quaaludes to seduce women; his accusers say it was not a matter of seduction but of rendering them unable to function, so as to offer resistance. Generally, a grant of immunity is formal and written and might well need to be approved by a judge, but Cosby's lawyers went ahead, simply because the prosecutor said he would not proceed on the criminal case. It would hardly seem that this decision and any oral assurance would be binding, and certainly not on a future prosecutor.
Castor explained he wanted the victim to recover money from Cosby in a civil case, and he declined to prosecute so that Cosby could not take the Fifth Amendment in that case. Castor testified that getting Constand money from Cosby via a civil suit settlement was "the best he could do."
Hillary is not doing well among young female voters, including females under, say, age 40. In the Law and Order SVU age, sexual assault is taken much more seriously. Trump briefly raised, then dropped, the issue of Hillary enabling her husband's behavior, which Bernie Sanders terms "disgraceful." But the real issue is whether Bill Clinton sexually assaulted several women and whether Hillary tried to discredit, intimidate and silence them.
If Trump continues in the race or were to win the nomination, and Hillary is the Democratic nominee, and the Cosby case continues, you can expect Trump to push Hillary hard on her role in suppressing "bimbo eruptions." If another Republican is the nominee, it's unclear whether that nominee might raise the issue.