The FBI put haste ahead of ensuring prosecutions when it decided to grant immunity to Hillary Clinton’s top aide at the State Department, Director James Comey said Tuesday.
“The FBI’s judgment was we need to get to that laptop,” Comey said, explaining the immunity deal given to Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff at State, was limited only to information contained on her computer.
Comey told a panel of the Senate Homeland Security Committee that trying to obtain the laptop through a grand jury “would likely tangle us up” in arguments over legal privilege “for a very long time.”
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The bureau has faced criticism for doling immunity deals out to five Clinton aides at the department. Other recipients included Heather Samuelson, a senior adviser, John Bentel, who headed the department’s Office of Information Resources Management, and tech aides Bryan Pagliano and Paul Combetta.
Comey’s remarks came in response to a question from Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse. This month, Sasse submitted an inquiry to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asking why the intelligence community failed to conduct a routine damage assessment of information exposed by the private network Clinton used as secretary of state.
The comments came in the context of an unrelated hearing on threats to the homeland. Comey is expected to face more intense questioning on the issue during a Wednesday hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
