MSNBC host Rachel Maddow cut into former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday for caring too much about how “misinformed” people would think about Attorney General Loretta Lynch in terms of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email server.
The interview took place Thursday evening, as Comey’s memos recalling his conversations with President Trump were leaked to the press.
Maddow took issue with Comey’s comments about Lynch in his new book, A Higher Loyalty, explaining how the ex-attorney general asked him to call the investigation a “matter,” the controversial tarmac meeting Lynch had with Bill Clinton, and the mention of an unverified intelligence report suggesting that she had offered assurances to the Clinton campaign about the investigation.
Maddow complained that Comey, in both his memoir and accompanying book tour have cast “aspersions” on Lynch and whether she was doing anything wrong with the investigation, noting that although she didn’t recuse herself, Lynch did take herself out of the loop.
“It seems that with Loretta Lynch you worried very much what misinformed people were going to say about her,” Maddow told Comey. “That there was no true reason to have concerns about Loretta Lynch’s integrity with that investigation.”
A somewhat hesitant Comey admitted, “Maybe in a slight sense,” before explaining that if he made an announcement about the Clinton email investigation with Lynch front and center, it wouldn’t have credibility.
Maddow pressed the point, saying something that was unverified and “misperceived” was a “limiting factor” in Lynch’s ability to do her job.
Comey noted, “It’s a little tricky,” but ultimately said he never saw anything that made him believe she did anything improper.
