Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) hammered FBI Director James Comey for talking about the Clinton email investigation during the campaign, but never publicly mentioning the Trump/Russia investigation. It was clear that Leahy was pointing out that Comey’s biased behavior influenced the election for Trump.
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Sen. Leahy asked Comey, “Americans across the country have been confused and disappointed by your judgment in handling the investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails. On a number of occasions, you chose to comment directly and extensively on that investigation. You even released internal FBI memos and interview notes. I may have missed this, but in my 42 years here, I’ve never seen anything like that, but you said absolutely nothing regarding the investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia’s illegal efforts to help elect Donald Trump. Was it appropriate for you to comment on one investigation repeatedly, and no say anything about the other.”
Comey answered, “I think I treated both investigations fairly under the same principles….In October in 2015, we confirmed it existed and then said not another word, not a peep about it until we were finished.”
Leahy set the record straight, “No. At the most critical time possible, A couple of weeks before the election, and I think there are other things involved in that election, I’ll grant that, but there is no question that that had a great effect.”
The FBI Director was trying to rewrite history to minimize the impact that his letter had on the outcome of the 2016 election.
Nate Silver has concluded that Comey’s letter cost Clinton three points in the polls. Donald Trump is only president because he carried Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania by 78,000 votes.
It is laughable that Comey would try to dismiss the impact of his letter. The FBI Director’s claim that he treated both investigations the same way is also not true. If Comey were giving the Trump/Russia investigation the same treatment that he was giving Clinton’s emails, he would have mentioned the Trump investigation a couple of weeks before voters went to the polls.
Sen. Leahy was asking the right questions, and Director Comey’s answers suggested that he is fully aware that he tipped the election to Donald Trump.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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