Asked if the Clinton Foundation was tied into the email investigation, Comey simply said, “I’m not going to answer that”.
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The FBI director is not recommending that charges be filed against Hillary Clinton because it can not be proven she meant to circumvent laws regarding documents that are classified.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he would refer Clintons Oct. 22 testimony to the FBI to investigate whether she lied to Congress.
Based on the information Comey did make public, we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Clinton repeatedly lied to the American people about her emails.
Clinton also repeatedly made claims that FBI investigators refuted, Comey said.
On Friday, Clinton disputed the FBI’s findings that she was “extremely careless” with classified material.
“I do not believe that they did anything that they believed was in any way inappropriate”, she told Holt. Therefore, Comey said, “we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account”.
While Comey acknowledged today that Clinton’s statement on October 22 was “not true”, he seemed skeptical that it amounted to perjury because Clinton may not have known the relevant emails contained classified information. “I firmly believe this is necessary to reassure the public that our nation’s secrets are secure”.
We’ve not seen a political attack ad that stung so much as Comey’s words, which are utterly lacking in the hyperbole that most campaign ads depend on. They included eight email chains with top secret information, the highest classification, along with 36 containing secret information and eight with confidential information.
Clinton insisted that she was communicating with professionals who understood the system well, saying that while people may think certain of those emails should have been classified, “they were not at the time”. Her emails did include some that “bore markings indicating the presence of classified information”, Comey said.
“I received and accepted their unanimous recommendation that the thorough, year-long investigation be closed and that no charges be brought against any individuals within the scope of the investigation”, Ms Lynch said in a statement.
The Republican National Committee took aim at Clinton after her interviews.
In almost five hours of testimony, Comey sought to explain the Justice Department’s decision ending an investigation that has dogged Clinton’s presidential campaign and raised fresh questions among voters about her trustworthiness.
Comey said on Tuesday that 110 classified emails passed through Clinton’s servers, which were not kept on a secure government server.
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Indeed, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, has called on the director of national intelligence to block Clinton’s access to classified information while she is a presidential candidate. Former baseball pitcher Roger Clemens was indicted in 2010 on charges that he lied to Congress, though he was later acquitted, and the Justice Department investigated and later cleared former IRS official Lois Lerner following a referral from lawmakers.
