Reactions to Comey's letter on Clinton email investigation
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On October 28, 2016, FBI Director James Comey announced in a letter to several members of Congress that the FBI had found “emails that appear to be pertinent” to the agency's investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server use in an unrelated case. "I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation," Comey wrote. The number, authors, and content of the emails were not disclosed.[1]
The New York Times later reported that afternoon that the emails had been discovered on devices seized from Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (R-N.Y.), as part of a separate investigation regarding inappropriate communications sent by Weiner to a minor.[2]
Donald Trump released a statement applauding the announcement. “I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the DOJ are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made. This was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understand. It is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected," he said.[3]
Clinton held a press conference where she said that more information should be disclosed. "Voting is already under way in our country. So the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately. The director himself has said he doesn’t know whether the emails referenced in his letter are significant or not. I’m confident whatever they are will not change the conclusion reached in July. Therefore it’s imperative that the bureau explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay," Clinton said.[4]
Comey submitted another letter to members of Congress on November 6, 2016, notifying them that the review of the additional emails had been completed and the FBI maintained that Clinton should not be charged.[5]
Both Democrats and Republicans responded to Comey's initial letter by criticizing or praising him for making the disclosure so close to the presidential election and calling on the FBI to release more details about the newly discovered emails.
Comey's first letter to Congress
- See also: Hillary Clinton email investigation
Comey sent the following letter to 16 members of Congress serving on oversight and intelligence committees, including U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and U.S. Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.):
| “ | In previous congressional testimony, I referred to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton's personal email server. Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony.
In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation. Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.[6] |
” |
| —James Comey[7] | ||
Comey's message to FBI employees
On October 28, 2016, Comey also sent the following message to FBI employees explaining his decision to discuss an ongoing investigation in his letter to Congress:
| “ | This morning I sent a letter to Congress in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation. Yesterday, the investigative team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case. Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them.
Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.[6] |
” |
| —James Comey[8] | ||
Comey's second letter to Congress
On November 6, 2016, Comey sent the following letter to some members of Congress to update them on the status of the email review:
| “ | I write to supplement my October 28, 2016 letter that notified you the FBI would be taking additional investigative steps with respect to former Secretary of State Clinton's use of a personal email server. Since my letter, the FBI investigative team has been working around the clock to process and review a large volume of emails from a device obtained in connection with an unrelated criminal investigation. During that process, we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State.
Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton. I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.[6] |
” |
| —James Comey[5] | ||
Democrats respond
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)
- "I’m asking the director right now that he would not let this weekend go by without providing clarification into what this letter means because I think that would be fair to Mrs. Clinton and fair to the American people. ... Once he opened that door, I think basically what he’s doing is trying to make sure when they put a microscope on this process that he can say that I gave you a heads up, and it's not rigged. But still I’m hoping that he will provide this information before the weekend is out."[9]
Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine
- "When you do this 11 days before a presidential election and you don’t provide many details, but details are apparently being given by the FBI to the press, this is very, very troubling. We hope that the director, and we really think that he should, give a clearer accounting of what’s going on.”[10]
President Barack Obama
- "I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations, we don't operate on innuendo, and we don't operate on incomplete information, and we don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made. When this was investigated thoroughly last time, the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the Justice Department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations, was she had made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was prosecutable."[11]
Clinton campaign chair John Podesta
- “FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen. Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is ‘reopening’ an investigation but Comey’s words do not match that characterization. Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant. It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election. The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”[12]
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
- In an open letter to Comey on October 30, 2016, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) accused Comey of potentially violating the Hatch Act by publicizing that there were possibly additional communications found relevant to the Clinton email investigation. "The double standard established by your actions is clear. In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government – a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity. The public has a right to know this information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to be released to the public. There is no danger to American interests from releasing it. And yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information. By contrast, as soon as you came into possession of the slightest innuendo related to Secretary Clinton, you rushed to publicize it in the most negative light possible," Reid continued.[13]
Republicans respond
U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)
FBI Dir just informed me, "The FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation." Case reopened
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 28, 2016
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
We should not be forced to vote with ten thousand or more emails still hidden by the FBI. John Podesta and Hillary Clinton are right.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) October 29, 2016
U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.)
- "The FBI’s decision to reopen its investigation into Secretary Clinton reinforces what the House Judiciary Committee has been saying for months: the more we learn about Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server, the clearer it becomes that she and her associates committed wrongdoing and jeopardized national security. Now that the FBI has reopened the matter, it must conduct the investigation with impartiality and thoroughness. The American people deserve no less and no one should be above the law.”[14]
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
- Grassley wrote a letter to Comey, saying, "In the absence of additional, authoritative information from the FBI in the wake of your vague disclosure, Congress and the American people are left to sift through anonymous leaks from Justice Department officials to the press of varying levels of detail, reliability, and consistency ... Without additional context, your disclosure is not fair to Congress, the American people, or Secretary Clinton."[15]
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
- "I think this was probably not the right thing for Comey to do — the protocol here — to come out this close to an election, but this whole case has been mishandled, and now it is what it is."[16]
Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence
- Mike Pence praised Comey's disclosure and said that the FBI should "immediately release all the emails pertinent to the investigation." He added, "The American people have a right to know."[17]
Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus
- "The FBI’s decision to reopen their criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's secret email server just eleven days before the election shows how serious this discovery must be. This stunning development raises serious questions about what records may not have been turned over and why and whether they show intent to violate the law. What's indisputable is that Hillary Clinton jeopardized classified information on thousands of occasions in her reckless attempt to hide pay-to-play corruption at her State Department. This alone should be disqualifying for anyone seeking the presidency, a job that is supposed to begin each morning with a top secret intelligence briefing."[18]
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)
- "Yet again, Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame. She was entrusted with some of our nation’s most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information. This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators. I renew my call for the Director of National Intelligence to suspend all classified briefings for Secretary Clinton until this matter is fully resolved."[19]
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016
- Hillary Clinton email investigation
- Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
Footnotes
- ↑ NBC News, "Emails Related to Clinton Case Found in Anthony Weiner Investigation," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, "New Emails in Clinton Case Came From Devices Once Used by Anthony Weiner," October 28, 2016
- ↑ Donald J. Trump for President, "Donald J. Trump Statement," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The Atlantic, "The FBI Investigates More Emails Related to Clinton," October 28, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 USA Today, "Read the full text of James Comey’s letter on the new Clinton emails," October 6, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ CNBC, "FBI probing new emails related to Clinton case," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Read the letter Comey sent to FBI employees explaining his controversial decision on the Clinton email investigation," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The Hill, "Top House Dems call for FBI to give more info by end of weekend," October 28, 2016
- ↑ Vice News, "Watch the VICE News Tonight on HBO interview with Tim Kaine," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The Chicago Tribune, "Obama on FBI investigation of Clinton emails: 'We don’t operate on innuendo,'" November 2, 2016
- ↑ Hillary Clinton for President, "Statement from John Podesta in Response to FBI Letter to GOP Congressional Chairmen," October 28, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, "In Letter, Reid Says Comey 'May Have Broken the Law,'" October 30, 2016
- ↑ House Judiciary Committee, "Goodlatte Statement on the FBI’s Decision to Reopen the Clinton Investigation," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "GOP Sen. Grassley: Comey’s limited release of information unfair to Clinton, Congress and the public," October 31, 2016
- ↑ The Washington Post, "FBI Director James Comey’s Republican critics are growing by the hour," October 31, 2016
- ↑ Associated Press, "The Latest: Clinton calls on FBI to release info on emails," October 28, 2016
- ↑ The Huffington Post, "FBI Probe Into Anthony Weiner Turned Up Emails Possibly Connected To Hillary Clinton’s Case," October 28, 2016
- ↑ Speaker of the House, "Statement on FBI Investigation of Hillary Clinton," October 28, 2016
