FBI Director James Comey opened his Thursday testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee with a fierce defense of his decision not to recommend prosecuting Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information.
“I hope at the end of the day, people can disagree, can agree, but they will at least understand that the decision was made and the recommendation was made the way you would want it to be, by people who didn’t give a hoot about politics, but who cared about what are the facts, what is the law, and how have similar people, all people, been treated in the past,” Comey said.
Comey specifically hit back against an argument put forward by some conservatives, including Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, that Clinton committed “gross negligence.”
Comey said that since the statute making gross negligence a crime was passed in 1917, it has only been used by the Department of Justice once in a case of espionage. He said that at the time of the statute’s passage, there were concerns that the statute would “violate the American tradition of requiring that before you lock somebody up, you prove they knew they were doing something wrong.”
“So when I look at the facts, I see evidence of great carelessness, but I do not see evidence that is sufficient to establish that Secretary Clinton or those with whom she was corresponding, both talked about classified information on email and knew when they did it, they were doing something that was against the law,” he continued. “So given that assessment of the facts, my understanding of the law, my conclusion was and remains no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case.”
He added that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in 100 years focused on gross negligence.”
“So I know that’s been a source of some confusion for folks. That’s just the way it is. I know the Department of Justice. I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case,” Comey said. “A lot of former friends are saying they would. I wonder where they were the last 40 years, because I would like to see the cases they brought on gross negligence. Nobody would, nobody did.”
GOP Rep.: “Are you calling me a ‘nobody’?”
Alberto Gonzalez: I would.
Comey, a lifelong Republican with unimpeachable credentials, handed Trump and his allies a great gift by eviscerating Clinton’s explanation/defense of how she handled emails. Instead of accepting that largess, the Republicans want to put him on the hot seat for not recommending criminal charges. In doing so, they are throwing away the greatest piece of campaign material they could have imagined.
These people are just too dumb to run the country.
(When I say “gift,” I am not criticizing the FBI. Although I haven’t followed the bureau’s conclusions with extreme closeness, from what I can tell all of the criticisms were justified fully.)
And there is it…
He lays out the perfect talking point to them on a silver platter,at their feet. She committed gross negligence, but nobody has the cajones to actually take that to trial.
He doesn’t actually lay out a criminal case FOR gross negligence, he just makes his vague accusations that its there, even though its not. The root of his accusation is that Hillary should have used her prescient powers and known years in advance that emails were going to be retro actively declared classified, and not using her Super Powers is clearly gross negligence. This is the same bullshit he pulled at his presser.
Damn. The Repubs must be jumping out of their skin that their fellow Repub at the FBI actually did (GASP) his JOB! Rule of law before party and politics. Anathema!