May 3, 2017
Comey says classified Clinton emails were forwarded to Anthony Weiner
By Devlin Barrett and Karoun Demirjian
The Washington Post
Hillary Clinton emails containing classified information were forwarded to former congressman Anthony Weiner, the director of the FBI testified Wednesday as he defended his handling of politically sensitive probes surrounding the last year’s presidential race.
Under questioning from the senior Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), James B. Comey revealed more details about how Clinton’ s emails ended up on the computer of former congressman Anthony Weiner.
Weiner , a New York Democrat, was married to a top aide to Clinton, Huma Abedin. Weiner was being investigated separately for possible inappropriate communications with a minor.
“Somehow, her emails were being forwarded to Anthony Weiner, including classified information,’’ Comey said. The director defended his decision to notify Congress that he had re-opened the Clinton email probe just days before the election, saying he was forced to choose between saying something or concealing what he knew, or as he put it, “between really bad and catastrophic.’’
He added: “It makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election.”
Comey has been under intense pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to explain his decision-making, and immediately faced more criticism in Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing was scheduled to conduct general congressional oversight of the FBI, but politically sensitive investigations quickly became the focus of lawmakers’ questions.
The chairman of the committee, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), opened the hearing by saying “a cloud of doubt hangs over the FBI,’’ and demanded the bureau reveal more about how it has handled the probes.
“We need to know whether there was anything improper going on between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or if these allegations are just a partisan smear campaign that manipulated our government into chasing conspiracy theories,’’ Grassley said.
Comey began his prepared testimony by praising the work of the FBI, citing the recent successful investigations of bomb threats against Jewish community centers, hacking networks, and doctors accused of female genital mutilation.
“I love this work, I love this job, and I love it because of the mission and the people I get to work with,’’ he said.
Grassley’s first question to Comey was about leaks, asking Comey if he’d ever been an anonymous source for stories about Clinton or Trump.
“Never,’’ Comey said. Asked if he’d authorized someone else to speak anonymously to reporters about those cases, the director said no.
The chairman again raised concerns about Comey’s top deputy, Andrew McCabe, who helped manage the Clinton email probe and the Russia probe. Grassley has argued that McCabe should have recused himself because McCabe’s wife received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from political entities controlled by a close Clinton ally, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).
Democrats immediately pressed Comey about his decision to notify Congress just days before the election that he was re-opening the probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server for her work as Secretary of State. Democrats are particularly upset about that decision because after the election Comey acknowledged the FBI had begun secretly investigating in July whether any Trump associates might be working with Russian officials to meddle with the presidential campaign.
“It’s still very unclear — and I hope, director, that you will clear this up — why the FBI’s treatment of these two investigations was so dramatically different,’’ said the top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
The FBI has already concluded that Russian intelligence hacked into Democratic computer systems and email accounts, stealing information that was published by WikiLeaks during the campaign.
On Tuesday, Clinton said the move by Comey on Oct. 28 to tell Congress his investigators were looking at a new batch of Clinton emails helped alter the outcome of the presidential election.
“If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,’’ she said at an event in New York. Clinton said as the candidate on the ballot, she took responsibility for the loss, but added she was “on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off.’’
Tuesday night, Trump tweeted a fresh broadside at Comey, saying the FBI director “was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds.’’ In a second tweet, he added that the “phony Trump/Russia story was an excuse used by the Democrats as justification for losing the election.’’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-director-james-comey-begins-testimony-to-congress/2017/05/03/9e3244bc-3006-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.52ca8935f4bb
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