James Comey is in the hot seat now.
The FBI Director faced questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday regarding Russian collusion with Donald Trump‘s campaign and Hillary Clinton‘s email probe right before the election.
As we reported, the Democratic nominee speculated that Comey’s October 28 letter to Congress, in combination with WikiLeaks, led to her stunning defeat in November.
Related: Hillary Clinton Is Still A Fucking Bad Ass
In response to these allegations, Comey says it makes him “mildly nauseous” to think his actions swayed the election, but in hindsight he would’ve made the same choice.
He pleaded:
“It was a hard choice, I still believe in retrospect the right choice. I can’t consider for a second whose political fortunes will be affected.”
FBI Director James Comey: “It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election.” https://t.co/9361xp3gCL
— CNN (@CNN) May 3, 2017
Thankfully at least one questioner — Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont — didn’t let go of the fact that Comey publicly spoke on the Clinton emails — but NOT on the Trump/Russia investigation that was open at the time.
Comey defended himself, saying:
“With respect to the Russia investigation, we treated it like we did with the Clinton investigation. We didn’t say a word about it until months into it, and then the only thing we’ve confirmed so far about this is ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ the same thing as with the Clinton investigation ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ that we are investigating.
And I would expect that we’re not going to say another peep about it until we’re done. And I don’t know what will be said when we’re done, but that’s how we handled the Clinton investigation as well.”
Except the public comment about one just happened to be 11 days before the election. Just bad timing? Hmmm… You can go ahead and feel full-on nauseous now.
As far as WikiLeaks goes, Comey believes the organization is just “intelligence porn” and not journalism:
FBI Director James Comey: WikiLeaks is just “intelligence porn” ├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥ not journalism: https://t.co/rd5JcsCyOK https://t.co/OFbjsLVAwN
— CNN (@CNN) May 3, 2017
When asked by Senator Lindsey Graham if “it’s fair to say the Russian government is still involved in American politics,” Comey responded, “Yes,” before confirming there is an “active” counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia:
Sen. Graham: “Is it fair to say the Russian government is still involved in American politics?”
Comey: “Yes.” https://t.co/159IgVoqDR
— CNN (@CNN) May 3, 2017
Comey confirms there is an “active” counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian ties https://t.co/47Bbz4e9n0
— CNN (@CNN) May 3, 2017
Grrreat.
[Image via CNN.]
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