Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed on Tuesday that he did not receive leaked information from an active FBI agent that the bureau would reopen its Hillary Clinton email investigation in October 2016.
Giuliani said that he and former FBI agents knew “by instinct that the New York office was enraged by what Comey had done,” when he was asked on Fox Business Network about his advanced knowledge about the reopening of the Clinton probe.
“I never got a leaked information from any FBI agent,” he said. “I haven’t talked to an on-duty FBI agent, except for background checks, in a couple years. That information he’s talking about came from retired FBI agents who were speculating about what was going to go on.”
In an interview with Giuliani Tuesday morning, Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo showed him video of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) asking Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz Monday about Giuliani’s prior knowledge that former FBI Director James Comey would re-open the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Feinstein was referring to a comment Giuliani made before Comey announced that the probe was re-opened that “we’ve got a couple of surprises left.”
After asserting on Tuesday he was never leaked information from an FBI agent, Giuliani said “we knew it would blow up,” referring to himself and former FBI agents he’d spoken to.
“We knew it would blow up. We knew just by instinct that the New York office was enraged by what Comey had done,” he said. “Now you can see that we were right with the Horowitz report. What I was talking about in terms of ‘surprise,’ was a speech we were preparing for the President to give, on the Friday before the election, like Ronald Reagan did. We were going to probably buy it the day before, go on national television, and we were going to hit Hillary on all that stuff, I was as surprised as anyone.”
“The FBI investigated it, closed it, and I showed them documentary evidence of what I am saying,” he added. “Shame on them for not reading their report.”
Giuliani said in November 2016 that he heard about the newly discovered emails that prompted the FBI to re-open its Clinton probe from a “former FBI agent.” In his comments Tuesday, Giuliani reiterated that he spoke with former FBI agents about the matter and introduced the new claim that the former agents were merely speculating.
The comments made by Giuliani in October 2016 are under renewed scrutiny after the Justice Department inspector general’s report revealed that top FBI officials believed that “a fear of leaks influenced the thinking of those who were advising [Comey]” at the time he announced the re-opening of the investigation. Comey acknowledged to the IG that he “consoled” himself that “it would have come out anyway.”
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said Friday that “good FBI agents” brought to his attention that a laptop from disgraced former former Rep. Anthony Weiner contained emails belonging to Hillary Clinton. Though the emails ultimately proved irrelevant to the probe of Clinton’s private server, the laptop was the basis for the re-opening of the investigation just days before Election Day.
Nunes said the House Intelligence Committee “had that,” referring to information about the laptop, but the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), said Sunday that Nunes didn’t share the FBI agents’ tip with him.
Watch below:
Giuliani on Comey re-opening the Clinton email investigation: "We [Giuliani and retired FBI agents] knew it would blow up. We knew just by instinct that the New York office was enraged by what Comey had done." pic.twitter.com/IbFh0DGKxt
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) June 19, 2018
H/t the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake.
