Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Sunday that FBI Director James Comey’s letter announcing that nothing was found in emails tied to Hillary Clinton’s private email server was proof that he should never have raised the issue to Congress in the first place.
“Director Comey created a political firestorm eleven days before a presidential election merely to confirm what we already knew: that Secretary Clinton’s email practices were legal,” Reid wrote in a statement obtained by NBC.
Comey’s original letter to congressional leaders informing them of the discovery of new emails that may be “pertinent” to the FBI’s investigation prompted Reid to accuse him of possibly violating federal law. According to the Nevada senator, Comey’s “partisan” decision to disclose the email news just 11 days before Election Day could have violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal officials from using their positions to influence an election.
Reid held firm to this stance in his latest statement, suggesting that the FBI director’s all-clear did not undo the possible role he played in swinging the results of the presidential race.
“By confirming that the new emails were meaningless, today’s letter underscores the irresponsibility of Director Comey’s original letter,” he wrote.
Read the full statement below:
Harry Reid reacts to Comey; still maintains Comey may have violated the Hatch Act pic.twitter.com/ebK6OYpJxV
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) November 7, 2016
I’m going to miss Harry…
I’m sure that if the GOP keeps control of the House, they will have a full investigation of what FBI agents did during the close of this election.
This letter is as bad as the other letter. The issue had been litigated, and all this letter does is bring it up again and make people talk about it.
I agree that Comey damaged Democrats’ election chances with his stunt, but I’m wondering if there will be political payoff for Hillary after the election. I think almost any reasonable observer would now see her as the victim of targeted, unfair attacks----attacks from a government agency which had no business interfering before the election.
Maybe she ends up the bigger winner, politically, after all is said and done.
It’s possible Comey had no choice. Apparently the FBI’s New York office is more or less a rogue operation with regards to leaks–other offices are afraid to bring them in on cases, because previously secure information will hit the wires.
GM had a situation like this with the Detroit world headquarters. A new boss moved into the Warren Tech Center and brought in the people he needed, leaving the building on West Grand Blvd. full of drones. It was actually less trouble that way than firing them.
I doubt the FBI has the institutional will to set up a similar solution.