FBI director defends decision on Clinton

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Under an onslaught of Republican criticism, FBI Director James Comey vigorously defended the government’s decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her private email setup, rejecting angry accusations that the Democratic presidential candidate was given special treatment.

To criminally charge Clinton based on the facts his agency’s yearlong probe had found would have been unwarranted and mere “celebrity hunting,” Comey told a congressional investigative committee Thursday.

Meanwhile, the State Department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Clinton and top aides.

Spokesman John Kirby said the emails probe is restarting now that the Justice Department isn’t pursuing a criminal prosecution. The State Department suspended its review in April to avoid interfering with the FBI’s inquiry.

Kirby set no deadline for the investigation’s completion.

In nearly five hours of testimony, Comey sought to explain the Justice Department’s decision ending an investigation that has dogged Clinton’s presidential campaign and raised fresh questions among voters about her trustworthiness.

Republicans on the panel, voices sometimes raised in apparent frustration and irritation, said they were mystified by the decision not to prosecute because they felt that Comey, in a remarkably detailed and critical public statement Tuesday, had laid out a sufficient basis for charges.

“I totally get people’s questions,” he said, but the FBI was obliged to follow the law.

He said investigators found no evidence that Clinton or her aides intended to break the law, even though they mishandled classified information. A misdemeanor statute requires the mishandling to be intentional, Comey said. A law that permits felony prosecution due to gross negligence has been used only once in the 99 years since it was enacted – and that was in a case involving espionage.

“We don’t want to put people in jail unless we prove that they knew they were doing something they shouldn’t do,” Comey said. “That is the characteristic of all the prosecutions involving mishandling of classified information.”

Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Comey that the FBI’s decision showed a “double standard” for powerful people. Had the “average Joe” done what she had done, he said, that person would go to prison.

“If your name isn’t Clinton, or you’re not part of the powerful elite, then Lady Justice will act differently,” Chaffetz said, adding that the FBI had set a “dangerous precedent” in letting her off the hook.