But Comey called a press conference Tuesday in which he presented details of, and his personal views on, the investigation into Clinton’s use of private email servers as secretary of state.
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“We don’t want to put people in jail unless we can prove they knew they were doing something they shouldn’t do”, Comey said.
The FBI director said that while he stood by his decision to not recommend criminal charges against Clinton, he suggested that she may face other consequences.
He said three of the emails in question bore classification markings in the body despite Clinton’s assertions that nothing she had sent or received was marked classified.
Comey said that prosecutions for classified material have historically been reserved for cases of intentional or willful wrongdoing, obstruction of justice or disloyalty to the U.S. He drew distinctions between the Clinton probe and last year’s prosecution of former Central Intelligence Agency director David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty to sharing classified information with his biographer. Comey said the FBI’s investigation found no “direct evidence” of such intrusion, but concluded that hostile actors did gain access to the private commercial email accounts of people Clinton contacted regularly via her personal account.
North Carolina Republican Representative Mark Walker asked Comey about the political nature of the FBI investigation.
Regarding Hillary Clinton, Stein (who believes Attorney General Loretta Lynch is a “great pal” of both President Obama and the Clintons) said “there was no chance that she was going to be indicted, there never was any chance that would happen”.
Republicans have argued that Petraeus’ malfeasance was petty, especially relative to Clinton’s use of a private email servers.
Republican lawmakers sought to tease out blunt statements from Comey including an acknowledgement that Clinton’s sworn testimony in front of Congress diverged from the facts uncovered in the FBI investigation. Clinton up, she made them all look like idiots. Comey repeated Thursday that he believes the Clinton case lacks “evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that somebody engaged in conduct that violated a criminal statute”. But in many instances Comey hedged or offered elaboration that worked to Clinton’s political advantage.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., asked Comey, who is a Republican, about an assertion by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that anyone in the Department of Justice, which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was offered “a bribe” by former President Bill Clinton when he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch last week.
During the course of the hearing, former Gen. David Petraeus’ name came up a few times.
Asked if she agreed that she was “extremely careless”, Clinton declined to respond directly, repeatedly saying Comey had “clarified” his remarks in interviews with MSNBC and CNN. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump complained that the system was “rigged”. They included eight email chains with top secret information, the highest classification, along with 36 containing secret information and eight with confidential information.
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Additionally, the TRUST Act expresses the sense of Congress that Clinton should not have access to classified information again until she earns the legal right to such access.
