James B. Comey, the FBI director, faced a Senate committee Wednesday May 3, 2017 inquiring about FBI investigations of Russia and Hillary Clinton.
Comey spoke up about why he sent his Oct. 28 letter about new evidence in the Clinton probe: He said it was the lesser of two evils — speak or conceal. ‘Speak’ would be really bad. ‘Conceal’ would be catastrophic.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), suggested that FBI Director Comey cost Hillary Clinton the election with his Oct. 28 letter to Congress. “I join those who believe that the actions taken by the FBI did, in fact, have an impact on the election,” Feinstein stated in her opening remarks. “What’s worse is that while all of this was going on in the public spotlight, while the FBI was discussing its investigation into Senator Clinton’s email server in detail, I cannot help but note that it was noticeably silent about the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference into the election.”
Comey was asked why Russian wanted Trump instead of Clinton as president. “He wasn’t Hillary Clinton, who Putin hated and wanted to harm in any possible way,” Comey said. “Putin believed he would be more able to make deals, reach agreements with someone with a business background than someone who had grown up in more of a government environment.”
Comey confirmed Russia was involved in elections and will continue to attempt to be involved in future elections. “I think one of the lessons that the Russians may have drawn from this is that this works, and so as I said last month or so ago, I expect to see them back in 2018, especially in 2020,” Comey said. Russia, in his opinion, is “the greatest threat of any nation on earth given their intention and their capability.”
Comey said the impromptu meeting between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton was the “capper” for him. “A number of things had gone on … that made me worry that the department leadership could not credibly complete the investigation and decline prosecution without grievous damage to the American people’s confidence in the justice system,” Comey said. “I then said: ‘You know what, the department cannot by itself credibly end this. The best chance we have as a justice system is if I do something I never imagined before: step away from them and tell the American people’” what the FBI did and what the FBI found.
Get updates from The Cardinal ALL NEWS FEEDS on Facebook. Just ‘LIKE’ the ‘Arlington Cardinal Page (become a fan of our page). The updates cover all posts and sub-category posts from The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com. You can also limit feeds to specific categories. See all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages at Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …
Help fund The Cardinal Arlingtoncardinal.com/sponsor
On July 5, 2016, James B. Comey announced the FBI’s recommendation that the United States Department of Justice file no criminal charges relating to the Hillary Clinton email controversy. However, during a 15-minute press conference in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, Comey called Secretary Clinton’s actions and her top aides’ behavior “extremely careless”, but concluded that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case”. Comey’s public comments came after Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that she would “fully” accept the recommendation of the FBI regarding the probe. Comey has since been criticized for acting as a prosecutor, instead of limiting himself as his actual role as an investigator.
In the past James B. Comey donated to U.S. Senator John McCain’s campaign in the 2008 presidential election and to Governor Mitt Romney’s campaign in the 2012 presidential election. However, he is no longer registered as a Republican, as he once was.
James B. Comey assumed office of the Director of the FBI on September 4, 2013. He earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Chicago Law School in 1985.