A spokesman for Hillary Clinton argued Tuesday that despite many of his harsh comments last week, FBI Director James Comey said some “very helpful things” that “boosted” Clinton and some of her claims throughout the campaign.
Appearing on CNN, campaign spokesman Brian Fallon pointed to comments Comey made to the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, particularly that there’s no evidence that she made “untruthful” statements to the FBI and that she did set up her private server as a “matter of convenience.”
“Look, I think that there’s no question that in reaction to the press conference that Director Comey held a week ago today that some questions were raised. There seem to be apparent contradictions between what Director Comey laid out on Tuesday and what Secretary Clinton has long said,” Fallon told host Chris Cuomo. “But then you have to account for what he said at his hearing on Thursday, where he expanded and contextualized a lot of his comments.”
“And so for instance, only if you listen to the director on Thursday did you learn that the three emails he initially said were marked classified were actually improperly marked and anybody that was looking at them could quite reasonably conclude that they were unclassified,” Fallon said. “It was only on Thursday that he said that the matter of her email setup was a matter of convenience for her. That’s why she set it up.”
“It was only on Thursday that he said that there was no evidence that she made any untruthful statements to the FBI. So on issue after issue, point after point, that the critics keep trying to harp on, Director Comey actually said some very helpful things that boosted Secretary Clinton on Thursday,” he said. “I think that the public is still absorbing that.”
Fallon also panned GOP efforts to further investigate Clinton, including their decision to seek a criminal referral over her claims that she did not send or receive any information that was deemed classified at the time. The spokesman called it “pure partisan overreach,” and said House Republicans are pushing this because they didn’t like Comey’s decision from last week.
“This is pure partisan overreach. Let me just begin by stressing once again that obviously Hillary Clinton recognizes that this was an error, this was a mistake to set up her email arrangement this way,” Fallon said.
“But the FBI conducted a several months long independent investigation to see whether that mistake at all rose to the level of criminality, and they said absolutely not,” he added. “Republicans didn’t like that outcome. So now they’re trying to keep this issue alive and continue attacking Hillary Clinton over this even though FBI Director Comey, a former Bush Justice Department official, testified last week that no reasonable prosecutor would have brought a case here.”
