Attorney General William Barr said that he disagreed with how former FBI Director James Comey handled the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email server — despite the fact he published an op-ed arguing Comey “did the right thing” when he announced that the investigation was reopened days before the 2016 election.
On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., shared quotes from lawmakers including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., from Nov. 2, 2016, where he stated he did not have “confidence” in Comey any longer after the episode.
As a result, Graham pressed Barr on whether he had any issue with how Comey managed the investigation.
“Did you have a problem with the way Comey handled the Clinton email investigation?” Graham asked Barr during a congressional hearing Wednesday.
“Yes. I said so at the time,” said Barr, who supported President Trump’s decision to fire Comey in May 2017.
[Also read: James Comey: Trump eating the souls of Barr, Rosenstein]
Months before the 2016 election in July, the FBI recommended no criminal charges against Clinton, even though Comey accused Clinton at the time of being “extremely careless” and said she could have faced disciplinary action if she still was working for the State Department.
The investigation was reopened two weeks before the 2016 election. Comey revealed two days before the election that the FBI determined Clinton shouldn’t be prosecuted, just as the agency had determined in July 2016.
But Barr published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Oct. 31, 2016, with the title “James Comey did the right thing,” at least regarding Comey’s decision to reveal to the public that the investigation was reopened.
“The continuing refrain from Hillary Clinton supporters and other observers that FBI Director James B. Comey’s action was ‘contrary’ to Justice Department policy is flatly wrong,” Barr wrote. “Given the particular circumstances facing Comey, it is absurd. While I do not agree with everything done and said over the summer in connection with the email investigation, I think that last week, Comey had no choice but to issue the statement he did. Indeed, it would have violated policy had he not done so.”
Barr argued that if the FBI had not spoken up, it would have been “deliberately leaving uncorrected a misleading statement being used by the Clinton campaign to its political advantage.”
“At this point, the right choice was honesty — explaining that new emails had been found and would have to be reviewed,” Barr wrote. “To the extent this step might affect the election, its effect arises from correcting a previous erroneous statement — in other words, from truthfulness.”
Even so, Barr has been critical of Comey in the past though and backed Trump’s decision to oust Comey. For example, Barr wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in May 2017 after Trump fired Comey that the former FBI director “sandbagged” the Justice Department and said senior Justice Department officials viewed Comey’s “conduct in July to have been a grave usurpation of authority.”
