WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director James Comey is set to make his first appearance before Congress since announcing the agency’s recommendation to not prosecute Hillary Clinton over her private email setup.
Comey will field questions Thursday from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about an FBI announcement that dispersed the threat of criminal charges but also revived public scrutiny of Clinton’s handling of classified information.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday that she accepted the recommendations and findings of Comey and of her career prosecutors and would not file charges against Clinton. Lynch is likely to face questions of her own next week at a separate oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
Comey’s decision, and the way he delivered it, infuriated Republicans who felt that the FBI director in his unusually detailed and critical televised statement Tuesday had laid out a sufficient basis for prosecution.
“There seems to be a double standard,” said the committee chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, on NBC’s “Today Show.”
“If the average Joe had gone through that, they’d probably have handcuffs on him and probably be in jail.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has said “there are a lot more questions that need to be answered” and, in a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, requested that Clinton be barred from receiving classified briefings for the rest of the campaign — a move that “certainly constitutes appropriate sanctions.” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump complained that the system was “rigged.”
In a stinging assessment of her email practices as secretary of state, Comey rebuked Clinton and her aides for being “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information and contradicted many of the defenses and explanations she’s put forward for months. But he also said there was no evidence anyone willfully or intentionally mishandled classified information and that “no reasonable prosecutor” would pursue such a case.
Comey, who served as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, was appointed in 2013 to a 10-year term as FBI director by President Barack Obama.
____
Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
This is going to be ugly but those yahoo dimwits will have their hands full with Comey. He’s a very serious dude with a very impressive resume. If you don’t know about his showdown with the Bush WH in the hospital room of then AG Ashcroft, you should read about it.
He knew this was coming when he called that presser. He will handle himself well, but he won’t be there to defend Hillary. Just their recommendation.
If I were him I’d be asking the damn questions, like for example whose lives has Hillary put in danger by emailing other people who are allowed to have this information? What information do you have that Hillary was hacked? Why in the minds of Republicans is Benghazi more important than 9-11? Exactly why and for what should Hillary Clinton be indicted? Why do Republicans live in a douche bubble?
" Mr. Director… are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the closet liberal party " ? ? —
Sorry, but I dont agree with your assessment of Comey’s personal bona fides. He took a totally concocted, legally fatuous and politically inspired allegation, and then delivered a Republican political attack on Hillary Clinton before he admitted there was no case. And now it looks like the FBI even botched the classification issue with regard to the two key emails-- which, it turns out were not Classified material after all. If the Democrats have been doing their homework, they should be able to totally deconstruct Comey’s political statement and his “facts.” If they can pull that off, I think they should call at the end of the hearing for his resignation for politicizing the FBI. That might turn the narrative around a bit.
He said Clinton did not break the law. Now the committee is trying to infer he did not do his job. He is steadfast in his position. GOP members are looking more like people trying to grasp a straw in a windstorm.