Comey defends – Former FBI Director James Comey says he has no regrets about reopening the Hillary Clinton email investigation less than two weeks before the 2016 election, and he tells how he weighed whether to hand the decision to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Comey
Former FBI Director James Comey says he would not change his decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, made less than two weeks before her defeat to President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
Asked in an interview on Meet the Press on Sunday whether he had any regrets, Comey was pressed on whether he would make the same “exact decision again,” and he answered: “I think so.”
He then described the one part he has questioned since then: whether he should have moved the “very difficult decision” onto then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch on October the 28th.. Comey said Lynch declined to speak to him. but he said he could have instead sent her a memo laying out what he believed the agency had to do.
Comey said he did not hand the decision to Lynch because it would have been a “chicken-blank thing to do.” He also argued that he had spent the summer testifying that the investigation was done and that. with the reopened probe. it was not something he could conceal “from the American people. from the Congress.”
He acknowledged the emotional pull of the alternative, saying that sometimes, when people are unhappy with him “on the street,” he thinks, “Hmm, I should’ve left it for Loretta Lynch.”
The conversation turned to whether his choice played a role in electing Trump.. Comey said: “I hope not.” He pointed to what he called a pattern in later elections. saying he saw two elections after 2016 in which voters who broke late for Trump in ’16 “broke for Trump” again in ’20 and again in ’24. when he said he was home in his pajamas for both elections.
Comey argued that the decision came down to what he described as the “least-bad option. ” adding that “both options sucked. honestly. ” but that the choice he made was the one “most consistent with the values of the department.” He said that “as painful as it is. ” he would “have to do the same thing again.”
The dispute is occurring as Comey faces renewed legal pressure.. He was indicted last year on alleged false statements made to Congress, a case that was later dropped.. 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.” The post was read by many as an endorsement of killing Trump. who is the 47th president.
When asked whether he would discuss the new case, Comey told Welker he was “tempted” to talk about it but said he “can’t right now.”
The pattern Comey describes connects his reopened-email decision to what he frames as a narrow set of options under pressure: he says he did not push the choice onto Loretta Lynch because he would have considered that a “chicken-blank” move. and he portrays the alternative—maintaining what he called departmental values—letting him say he could not conceal the shift from “the American people” or “the Congress.”
James Comey FBI Hillary Clinton emails Loretta Lynch October 28 2016 election Donald Trump Meet the Press Instagram indictment