Comey: It Was Appropriate To Comment On Clinton Probe And Not Russia Probe

FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 3, 2017, before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: "Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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The FBI handled its probes into Russia’s meddling to help Donald Trump win the U.S. election and into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in the same way, Director James Comey argued at a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“You said absolutely nothing regarding the investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections into Russia’s illegal efforts to help elect Donald Trump,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) told Comey during the hearing. “Was it appropriate for you to comment on one investigation repeatedly and not say anything about the other?”

“I think so,” Comey replied.

“I think I treated both investigations consistently under the same principles,” he continued.

Comey noted that the FBI did not confirm the existence of its probe into Clinton’s email server until three months after it began, and then said “not another word, not a peep about it until we were finished.”

Leahy pointed out that Comey announced the discovery of additional emails FBI agents believed could be related to that investigation less than two weeks before Election Day, while making no public comment about the existence of the probe into ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials until after the election.

Comey said he had no choice but to comment on the development in the Clinton probe “because I had testified under oath repeatedly that we were done and finished there.”

“With respect to the Russia investigation we treated it like we did with the Clinton investigation,” he repeated. “We didn’t say a word about it until months into it and the only thing we’ve confirmed so far about this is the same thing with the Clinton investigation: that we are investigating.”

“I don’t know what we’ll say when we’re done, but that’s how we handled the Clinton investigation, as well,” Comey said.

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Notable Replies

  1. He’s a liar. An unreliable narrator. A direct participant in a coup.

  2. Did the Bureau treat selective leaks with the same severity in both cases? B/c it sure seems like there was no shortage of info about the Clinton investigation floating out there, and total silence on the Russia probe. Perhaps the agents on one case knew they wouldn’t face serious penalties for talking. Or perhaps some in the FBI don’t always act with fidelity, bravery, and integrity when partisan politics are involved.

  3. Excuse me?,
    No it fucking wasn’t
    One thing had no victims, no crime, and had been investigated 7 times
    The other thing was treason and would have prevented the orange shitgibbon from becoming president

  4. “We didn’t say a word about it until months into it and the only thing we’ve confirmed so far
    about this is the same thing with the Clinton investigation: that we are
    investigating.”“I don’t know what we’ll say when we’re done, but that’s how we handled the Clinton investigation, as well,” Comey said.

    His use of the present tense , “we are investigating” is a very thin reed to cling to, but it’s something. But yeah, he’s a self righteous prig who knows what he did to Clinton.

  5. The FBI has always been a malicious and anti democratic outfit. A massive PR apparatus has sold a different story, mostly untrue. Their complicity in the Whitey Bulger affair is an accurate picture of how they actually operate.

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