Former FBI Director James Comey said on Sunday that his belief that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election played a role in how he handled the FBI’s probe of her use of a private email server when she was working for the Obama administration.
Comey cleared Clinton of any criminal charges in July 2016, but told Congress just days before the 2016 election that the FBI was looking at additional Clinton emails. He said Sunday he didn’t consciously make the decision to protect Clinton from being an “illegitimate” president if she were elected, but told ABC News Sunday that that rationale must have played a role in his decision to announce the email review. In early November 2016, he told Congress that the email review did not require any further action.
“I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been,” he said, responding to questions about his motivation for the additional review. “I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been. I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump. I’m sure that it was a factor. I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been. That she’s going to be elected president, and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out.”
Clinton has said in the past that Comey’s letter to Congress in October 2016, announcing the reopening of the email investigation, was part of the reason she lost the election. Former Clinton campaign Manager Robby Mook told CNN on Monday that it was helpful to learn the truth.
Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager Robby Mook responds to James Comey saying that his belief that Clinton would win the 2016 election was a "factor" in how the former FBI director handled the email probe: "I'm glad he's out there talking about this" https://t.co/OMo2ljo61S pic.twitter.com/ICezhR3wxA
— New Day (@NewDay) April 16, 2018
Comey’s comments may have contributed to HRC losing, but she will never admit how damaging it was for her to never reveal what she told Goldman-Sachs in those infamous speeches. The fact that bankers were not prosecuted when Holder had the chance is a huge reason why Democrats got beaten. If Obama/Holder had done the right thing and prosecuted big banks’ massive mortgage fraud, that would have shown average Americans that Democrats were truly on their side.
While it was between a rock and a hard place in some views
That Train had left the station long before that point.
The Russian influence, Republican cooperation and Clinton refusing to go to the blue collar states had pretty much set the mold , despite numerous cable talking heads assuring us that there was no way Trump could win .
Something about a blue firewall Yada yada yada
Sometimes you wake up and it’s not a nightmare
It will come back to bite us all in the ass. The bankers have no fear and know they will always be able to pulll shit with no consequences. They are dismantling Todd Frank and have Mulvany in charge of the Consumer Protection agency as we speak. I’m selling a rental property real soon … the market is pretty strong right now but it’s coming again and I don’t have another 10 years to wait for the economy to recover
I won’t pretend to know what Comey should have done when presented with his (alleged) dilemma. What I think is important would be to know those he consulted before making the decision to proceed as he did. Were ethics lawyers involved? What other departments gave advice? Was the Attorney General consulted? I don’t see Comey mentioning the participation, input or advice of others as cover or justification for what he did. Which leads me to believe this was essentially a solo venture. As smart as he is, and as fraught with peril was the decision to make these public pronouncements, I find it odd he didn’t do more to stamp his actions with the buy-in and seal of approval from others.
Consider this. People in the Trump campaign were also under investigation by the FBI.
If Comey had sent a letter to Chaffetz saying they were looking into HRC emails found on Weiner’s laptop AND there was an active investigation into the Trump campaign as well, Chaffetz would have hidden that letter so NOBODY could ever find it.
But Comey instead sent the letter only talking about HRC. Which he knew Chaffetz would leak. And Chaffetz did, immediately.
This defense is as empty as every other he has offered up for the Clinton letter. He had plenty of options for handling that situation, including following the Department rules, guidelines and precedentn on the matter, which are setup to provide cover for decisions like that. Or he could have informed them of both investigations. He chose neither of those options, and instead went with writing a letter that would only be damaging to HRC, and thus influenced the election in Trump’s favor.
I have little doubt that he did think Hillary would win the election. But his actions had nothing to do with “protecting the legitimacy of her election”. He was trying to curry favor with republicans on the Hill, because he was drooling at the opportunity of spending the next 4 years investigating a Clinton, and he would need republican backing and cover for such a task.