James Comey Has No Regrets About Reopening Hillary Probe Just Before 2016 Election But Says He Might've Done One Thing Differently

"Comey was asked if he has any regrets about how he handled the reopened probe during an interview on Meet the Press on Sunday. Knowing what you know now, would you have made the same, exact decision again? moderator Kristen Welker asked him. I think so, Comey said, before talking about the one thing he has debated whether or not he should've done differently."

"The only thing I've wondered is whether I should've dumped that very difficult decision on the attorney general on October the 28th. She declined to speak to me, but I could've just sent her a memo saying, Here's what I think that we have to do,' Comey said. He said he opted not to push the investigation onto then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch because it would have been a chicken-blank thing to do."

"It was a decision that I had to make because I had testified all summer that the investigation was done and now it's not done. Do I really conceal that from the American people, from the Congress? I can't, Comey continued. And it would've been a chicken thing to do to dump it on the AG. But sometimes when people are unhappy with me on the street, I think, Hmm, I should've left it for Loretta Lynch.'"

"I hope not, Comey said. He continued: Having seen two elections after that, where as they said, the difference the FBI made was late-deciding voters broke for Trump in '16, but then they did again in '20, and then they did again in '24, when I was home in my pajamas for both elections. So I don't think so. But again, we made the decision because it was the least-bad option. Both options sucked, honestly. But this was the one most consistent with the values of the department."

Comey said he would not change his decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails less than two weeks before the 2016 election. He said the only point he debated was whether he should have given the difficult decision to the attorney general on October 28, rather than handling it himself. He said he did not want to “dump” the decision on then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch because it would have been a “chicken thing” to do, especially after he had testified that the investigation was done. He said he could not conceal the change from the American people and Congress. He said he hoped the decision did not affect the election outcome, noting later elections where the FBI’s actions were said to matter.

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