The chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus said Monday that FBI Director James Comey was “probably” wrong to announce the discovery of new emails that may be related to his agency’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private server.
“I think this was probably not the right thing for Comey to do—the protocol here—to come out this close to an election, but this whole case has been mishandled and now it is what it is,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Fox News radio host Brian Kilmeade in an interview, as flagged by BuzzFeed.
“Quite frankly, because he had done the press conference and all the things he had before he probably did have to send a letter to Congress like he did last week,” Jordan continued, referring to Comey’s unusual press conference in July where he announced he would not recommend that the Justice Department prosecute Clinton.
“I would argue all of this has been wrong from the get go in the way it’s been handled,” Jordan said.
Jordan is an outspoken critic of Clinton, and had said following Comey’s July press conference that she should be investigated for perjury.
“We want to make sure what needs to be investigated is investigated,” Jordan told Yahoo News at the time. “She made false statements according to what she told us under oath last October in the Benghazi Select Committee hearing and what Mr. Comey determined in his investigation. I think that’s something that needs to be looked at, and then we’ll go from there.”
“The American people are seeing, frankly, two standards,” Jordan said later in the Yahoo interview. “The perception from a lot of Americans, a lot of the folks I get the privilege of representing in the Fourth District of Ohio, are saying, ‘Wait a minute. It sure looks like there is one standard for we the people, and an entirely different one if you’re politically connected, if you’re Secretary Clinton.’”
