He was asked about it in a question so he answered.
CORNYN: Let me take you back to the Clinton e-mail investigation. I think you’ve been cast as a hero or a villain depending on the — whose political ox is being gored at many different times during the course of the Clinton e-mail investigation, and even — even now, perhaps.
But you clearly were troubled by the conduct of the sitting attorney general, Loretta Lynch, when it came to the Clinton e-mail investigation. You mentioned the characterization that you’d been asked to accept that this was a “matter” and not a criminal investigation, which you’ve said it — it was.
There was the matter of President Clinton’s meeting on the tarmac with the sitting attorney general, at a time when his wife was subject to a criminal investigation, and you’ve suggested that perhaps there are other matters that you may be able to share with us later on in a classified setting.
But it seems to me that you clearly believe that Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, had a — an appearance of a conflict of interest on the Clinton e-mail investigation. Is that correct?
COMEY: I think that’s fair. I didn’t believe she could credibly decline that investigation — at least, not without grievous damage to the Department of Justice and to the FBI.
CORNYN: And, under Department of Justice and FBI norms, wouldn’t it have been appropriate for the attorney general, or, if she had recused herself — which she did not do — for the deputy attorney general to appoint a special counsel?
That’s essentially what’s happened now with Director Mueller. Would that have been an appropriate step in the Clinton e-mail investigation, in your opinion?
COMEY: Yes, certainly a possible step. Yes, sir.
CORNYN: And were you aware that Ms. Lynch had been requested numerous times to appoint a special counsel, and had refused?COMEY: Yes, from — I think Congress had — members of Congress had repeatedly asked. Yes, sir.
CORNYN: Yours truly...
COMEY: OK.
CORNYN: ... did on multiple occasions. And that heightened your concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest with the Department of Justice, which caused you to make what you have described as an incredibly painful decision to basically take the matter up yourself, and — led to that July press conference.
COMEY: Yes, sir. I can — after the — President Clinton — former President Clinton met on the plane with the attorney general, I considered whether I should call for the appointment of a special counsel, and had decided that that would be an unfair thing to do, because I knew there was no case there.
We had investigated very, very thoroughly. I know this is a subject of passionate disagreement, but I knew there was no case there. And calling for the appointment of special counsel would be brutally unfair because it would send the message, aha (ph), there’s something here.
That was my judgment. Again, lots of people have different views of it. But that’s how I thought about it.
CORNYN: Well, if the special counsel had been appointed, they could’ve made that determination that there was nothing there and declined to pursue it, right?
COMEY: Sure, but it would’ve been many months later, or a year later.
CORNYN: Let me just ask you to — given the experience of the Clinton e-mail investigation and what happened there, do you think it’s unreasonable for anyone — any president who has been assured on multiple occasions that he’s not the subject of an FBI investigation — do you think it’s unreasonable for them to want the FBI director to publicly announce that, so that this cloud over his administration would be removed?
COMEY: I think that’s a reasonable point of view. The concern would be, obviously, because if that boomerang comes back, it’s going to be a very big deal, because there will be a duty to correct. CORNYN: Well, we — we saw that in the Clinton e-mail investigation, of course.
COMEY: Yes, I recall that.CORNYN: I know you do. So let me ask you, finally, in the minute that we have left — there was this conversation back and forth about loyalty, and I think we all appreciate the fact that an FBI director is a unique public official in the sense that he’s not — he’s a political appointee in one sense, but he has a duty of independence to pursue the law pursuant to the — the — the constitutional laws of the United States.
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