A longtime aide to Hillary Clinton claims to know what former FBI Director James Comey is referencing in his upcoming book when he alludes to a damaging bombshell regarding former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
In his memoir, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” Comey says “unverified” information discovered by the U.S. government in 2016 from a classified source “would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation.”
According to ABC News, one of the news outlets that obtained early access to the book, he refers to this as a “development still unknown to the American public to this day,” but his book does not go into further detail.
Amid speculation about what Comey might be teasing, Philippe Reines, who assisted Clinton in the State Department and her 2016 campaign, shared a May 2017 article from the Washington Post in which he asserted lies the answer.
“IMPORTANT: Comey alludes to material he can’t include in his book to justify why he doubted Loretta Lynch’s objectivity. Makes it sound secret,” Reines tweeted. “TRUTH: it’s not. He omitted it bc it’s embarrassing & makes him look like a fool. He was duped by a fake email.”
IMPORTANT: Comey alludes to material he can’t include in his book to justify why he doubted Loretta Lynch’s objectivity. Makes it sound secret.
TRUTH: it’s not. He omitted it bc it’s embarrassing & makes him look like a fool. He was duped by a fake email. https://t.co/DjX6p8ttdI
— Philippe Reines (@PhilippeReines) April 12, 2018
The Washington Post report, which is largely sourced with unnamed current on former officials, focuses on a “secret document” that was key in Comey’s handling of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email server.
The sources in the report describe the document as being from Russia, dubious in its reliability, quite possibly fake. The report cites a “supposed” email detailing how Lynch privately assured a senior Clinton campaign staffer named Amanda Renteria that the email probe would not dive too deep.
Renteria told the Post for its report that Renteria said she had no contact with the former attorney general.
Officials said Comey relied on the document when, in July, he announced without Justice Department involvement, that the investigation was completed. While he recommended no charges be brought against Clinton, he called Clinton and her aides’ actions “extremely reckless.”
The optics of that press conference, in conjunction with Comey’s revelation less two week before the 2016 election that the FBI was reopening the case, fueled frustration among Clinton and her Democratic allies. Clinton has repeatedly heaped blame on Comey for contributing to her loss in the 2016 presidential election.
Sources did concede to the Post that Comey was in a tight spot to act when he did because the FBI’s credibility was on the line when just before the press conference word got out about Lynch’s tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton in 2016 amid the presidential campaign. She denied that the Clinton email probe was ever brought up, but the legitimacy of the emails case was still cast in doubt.
Comey was asked about the document by Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, during his final hearing before being fired by President Trump in May 2017, but he declined to comment.
“The subject is classified, and in an appropriate forum I’d be happy to brief you on it,” he said. “But I can’t do it in an open hearing.”
The Post report said the briefing never happened before he was fired.
Comey did testify again publicly before Senate Intelligence Committee one week after he was fired. During that testimony he further cast doubt on Lynch’s impartiality. He claimed the attorney general had requested he minimize the Clinton emails investigation, urging him to call it a “matter” instead of an “investigation,” a request which he said bothered him and some have speculated was to avoid associating Clinton with a negative issue as she ran for president.
Pre-empting Comey’s book release next week and accompanying media blitz, Lynch did an interview with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, which aired Monday, countering Comey’s testimony.
“This was a very sensitive investigation as everyone knew. And the issue when he and I sat down at that time, which I think was early in the fall of 2015, was whether or not we were ready as a department to confirm an investigation going on, when we typically do not confirm or deny investigations into anything with rare exceptions,” Lynch told Holt when asked about her pressing Comey on calling the emails investigation a “matter.”
“It was a meeting like any other that we — that we had had where we talked about the issues. And we had a full and open discussion about it,” Lynch said about her talk with Comey. “And concerns were not raised.”
This was yet another salvo in a back-and-forth between the two former federal law enforcement giants on the Clinton emails matter.
Comey, in his book that is set to hit bookshelves on April 17, writes Lynch possessed a “tortured half-out, half-in approach” to the emails inquiry.
