James Comey Has No Regrets About Reopening Hillary Probe Just Before 2016 Election — But Says He Might’ve Done One Thing Differently
Former FBI Director James Comey said he would not change a thing about his decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails less than two weeks before her defeat to President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
Comey was asked if he has any regrets about how he handled the reopened probe during an interview on Meet the Press on Sunday.
“Knowing what you know now, would you have made the same, exact decision again?” moderator Kristen Welker asked him.
“I think so,” Comey said, before talking about the one thing he has debated whether or not he should’ve done differently.
“The only thing I’ve wondered is whether I should’ve dumped that very difficult decision on the attorney general on October the 28th. She declined to speak to me, but I could’ve just sent her a memo saying, ‘Here’s what I think that we have to do,'” Comey said.
He said he opted not to push the investigation onto then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch because it would have been a “chicken-blank thing to do.”
“It was a decision that I had to make because I had testified all summer that the investigation was done and now it’s not done. Do I really conceal that from the American people, from the Congress? I can’t,” Comey continued. “And it would’ve been a chicken thing to do to dump it on the AG. But sometimes when people are unhappy with me on the street, I think, ‘Hmm, I should’ve left it for Loretta Lynch.'”
Welker then asked if Comey felt his decision played a role in electing Trump.
“I hope not,” Comey said.
He continued:
Having seen two elections after that, where as they said, the difference the FBI made was late-deciding voters broke for Trump in ’16, but then they did again in ’20, and then they did again in ’24, when I was home in my pajamas for both elections. So I don’t think so.
But again, we made the decision because it was the least-bad option. Both options sucked, honestly. But this was the one most consistent with the values of the department. So as painful as it is, I’d have to do the same thing again.
Comey was indicted last year on alleged false statements made to Congress. That case was dropped, but he is now facing a new indictment from a federal grand jury over an Instagram post in which he posted sea shells on a beach that read “86 47”; Comey captioned the photo “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” That post was read by many to be an endorsement of killing Trump, whom is the 47th president.
He told Welker he was “tempted” to talk about the case but that he can’t right now.
Watch above via NBC.
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