FBI director James Comey is hitting back at critics of the bureau’s Hillary Clinton email investigation, as well as its decision to release a report on the probe on the Friday before Labor Day weekend.
“Because it is generating a lot of interest, I thought I should update you on where we are with our commitment to transparency in the wake of the Clinton email investigation,” begins Comey’s letter to colleagues, first reported by CNN.
Comey wrote in the two-page note that the case against Clinton and her aides for mishandling classified information was “not a cliff-hanger” because it was “really not prosecutable.”
He also said that he initially considered holding the FBI’s investigative report for release this week, but decided against it because staffers had finished reviewing the documents and redacting them for sensitive information by Friday morning.
“We don’t play games. So we released it Friday,” Comey wrote.
“I almost ordered the material held until Tuesday because I knew we would take all kinds of grief for releasing it before a holiday weekend, but my judgment was that we had promised transparency and it would be game-playing to withhold it from the public just to avoid folks saying stuff about us.”
Numerous pundits and former federal law enforcement officials criticized the timing of the release.
Comey also addressed rumblings that the investigation was political and that it let Clinton off the hook. On July 5, he announced in an unprecedented press briefing that he would not be recommending to the Justice Department that charges be filed against Clinton. He said that while no “reasonable” prosecutor would charge Clinton, her email practices were “extremely careless.”
Clinton said on Wednesday that she “respectfully disagree[s]” with that assertion.
Comey said that there are two aspects to the FBI’s handling of the probe: “(1) our judgment about the facts and prosecutive merit; and (2) how we decided to talk about that judgment.”
“At the end of the day, the case itself was not a cliff-hanger; despite all the chest-beating by people no longer in government, there really wasn’t a prosecutable case,” he wrote.
“The hard part was whether to offer unprecedented transparency about our thinking.”
The leaked letter ends with a parting shot for critics:
“Those suggesting that we are ‘political’ or part of some ‘fix’ either don’t know us, or they are full of baloney (and maybe some of both). I will try not to bother you with this any longer.”
Comey also stated that he will testify in front of the House Oversight Committee at the end of the month. He also wrote that investigation documents are still being processed and will be released when the review is finished.
