{"id":55312,"date":"2016-11-06T19:19:27","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T23:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=55312"},"modified":"2016-11-06T19:19:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T23:19:27","slug":"comey-on-clinton-email-probe-dont-call-us-weasels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=55312","title":{"rendered":"Comey on Clinton email probe: &#8216;Don&#8217;t call us weasels&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\" story-intro format-s\">\n<div class=\"summary  \">\n<header class=\"\">\n<h3 class=\" \">The normally stoic FBI chief grew emotional as he rejected claims that the FBI was in the tank for Clinton.<!--more--><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<footer class=\"meta\">\n<p class=\"byline\">By <span class=\"vcard\"><a class=\"url fn\" href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/staff\/josh-gerstein\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"author\">JOSH GERSTEIN<br \/>\n<\/a>POLITICO<\/span><\/p>\n<\/footer>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"story-share conditional\"><\/div>\n<p>FBI Director James Comey is passionately defending the integrity of the investigation into Hillary Clinton\u2019s private email setup, arguing that critics are unfair to suggest that agents were biased or succumbed to political pressure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can call us wrong, but don\u2019t call us weasels. We are not weasels,\u201d Comey declared Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. \u201cWe are honest people and \u2026 whether or not you agree with the result, this was done the way you want it to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The normally stoic FBI chief grew emotional and emphatic as he rejected claims from Republican lawmakers that the FBI was essentially in the tank for Clinton when it recommended that neither she nor any of her aides be prosecuted in connection with the presence of classified information on Clinton\u2019s private email server. He acknowledged he has \u201cno patience\u201d for such allegations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew there were going to be all kinds of rocks thrown, but this organization and the people who did this are honest, independent people. We do not carry water for one side or the other. That\u2019s hard for people to see because so much of our country, we see things through sides,\u201d Comey said. \u201cWe are not on anybody\u2019s side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was at least Comey\u2019s third appearance on Capitol Hill since the Clinton email probe was closed, but the FBI director\u2019s assurances did not seem to satisfy House Republicans, who said the decision not to prosecute Clinton or her aides smacked of favoritism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would be in big trouble, and I should be in big trouble, if I did something like that,\u201d said Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). \u201cThere seems to be different strokes for different folks. I think there\u2019s a heavy hand coming from someplace else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Comey insisted there is no double standard, though he said there would be serious consequences \u2014 short of criminal prosecution \u2014 if FBI personnel handled classified information as Clinton and her aides did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMary or Joe, if they did this in the FBI, would not be prosecuted,\u201d the FBI director said. \u201cThey\u2019d be in big trouble, but they would not be prosecuted. That wouldn\u2019t be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans suggested there were numerous potential targets of prosecution in the case and repeatedly questioned prosecutors\u2019 decisions to grant forms of immunity to at least five people in connection with the probe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou cleaned the slate before you even knew. \u2026 You gave immunity to people that you were going to need to make a case if a case was to be made,\u201d said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).<\/p>\n<p>GOP lawmakers focused in particular on the Justice Department\u2019s decision to give a form of immunity to Clinton lawyers Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson to obtain computers containing emails related to the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLaptops don\u2019t go to the Bureau of Prisons,\u201d Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said. \u201cThe immunity was not for the laptop, it was for Cheryl Mills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FBI director repeated an explanation he gave for the first time at a Senate hearing Tuesday, that the deal to get the laptops was wise because subpoenaing computers from an attorney would be complex and time consuming.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnytime you know you\u2019re subpoenaing a laptop from a lawyer that involved a lawyer\u2019s practice of law, you know you\u2019re getting into a big megillah,\u201d Comey said.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans also questioned why Mills and Samuelson were allowed to attend Clinton\u2019s July 2 interview at FBI headquarters as her attorneys, given that they had been interviewed as witnesses in the email probe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any reasonable prosecutor out there who would have allowed two immunized witnesses central to the prosecution and proving the case against her to sit in the room with the FBI interview of the subject of that investigation,\u201d said Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), a former U.S. attorney. He said those circumstances signaled that the decision not to prosecute Clinton was already made when she sat down for the interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf colleagues of ours believe I am lying about when I made this decision, please urge them to contact me privately so we can have a conversation about this,\u201d Comey said. \u201cThe decision was made after that because I didn\u2019t know what was going to happen during the interview. She would maybe lie in the interview in a way we could prove.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Comey also said it wasn\u2019t the FBI\u2019s role to dictate who could or couldn\u2019t act as Clinton\u2019s lawyers. \u201cI would also urge you to tell me what tools we have as prosecutors and investigators to kick out of the interview someone that the subject says is their lawyer,\u201d the FBI chief said, while acknowledging he\u2019d never encountered such a situation before.<\/p>\n<p>Ratcliffe said Clinton and the others should have been called to a grand jury, where no one is allowed to accompany the witness.<\/p>\n<p>Comey did say there was no chance of charges against Mills or Samuelson by the time of the Clinton interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had already concluded we did not have a prosecutable case against Cheryl Mills or Heather Samuelson at that point. If we they were targets of our investigation, maybe we would have canceled the interview,\u201d the FBI director said. \u2018Frankly, our focus was on the subject. The subject at that point was Hillary Clinton.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the second-guessing from Republicans, Comey said he remained convinced that prosecution wasn\u2019t even remotely appropriate given the facts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs painful as this is for people, this was not a close call,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was done by pros in the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2016\/09\/james-comey-not-weasels-clinton-email-228835#ixzz4PH1fe1Dd\">http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2016\/09\/james-comey-not-weasels-clinton-email-228835#ixzz4PH1fe1Dd<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The normally stoic FBI chief grew emotional as he rejected claims that the FBI was in the tank for Clinton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}