<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cJames Comey had the nerve to testify under oath that he had to come forward last July to make his statement because the [tarmac meeting] cast doubt on the scope and nature of the investigation,\u201d he told Fox News\u2019 \u201cHannity.\u201d \u201cThe fact is, evidently, he already made up his mind three months before the investigation really got underway, so this whole thing was a fraud on the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transcripts in question were from interviews conducted by the Office of Special Counsel, which interviewed James Rybicki, Comey\u2019s chief of staff, and Trisha Anderson, the principal deputy general counsel of national security and cyberlaw, the GOP senators said.<\/p>\n
The notes reflect claims that Comey \u201cwrote a draft\u201d of his statement around early May 2016.<\/p>\n
Another passage suggests Comey sent around a draft in an attempt to be \u201cforward-leaning\u201d given the \u201cdirection the investigation\u201d was headed.<\/p>\n
It is possible that Comey drafted a statement meant for public release at a future date, but didn\u2019t decide to deliver an on-camera statement until the tarmac meeting.<\/p>\n
Comey, whom Trump fired in May amid tensions over the Russia probe, also testified in June there were \u201cother things\u201d that contributed to his decision to go public, including Lynch allegedly urging him to refer to the email probe as a \u201cmatter\u201d and not an \u201cinvestigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude I have to step away from the department\u201d in order to close the case \u201ccredibly,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Comey contact told Fox News on Friday that the former FBI director had no comment, when asked about the new allegations. It remains unclear whether Comey could have drafted a similar statement for a scenario in which charges would be filed against Clinton.<\/p>\n
The Grassley-Graham letter, however, reflects no such statement.<\/p>\n
In his July 2016 announcement, Comey famously called Clinton\u2019s email arrangement \u201cextremely careless\u201d though he decided against recommending criminal charges.<\/p>\n
The new claims have, at a minimum, revived interest among Clinton\u2019s critics in revisiting aspects of the case.<\/p>\n
Just last month, nearly two-dozen Republicans called on the Trump Justice Department to name a second special counsel \u2013 alongside the Robert Mueller team probing allegations of Russia-Trump team collusion \u2013 to probe 2016 controversies involving Clinton and the Obama administration. This covered some aspects of the FBI and DOJ\u2019s handling of the investigation.<\/p>\n
Asked about that request, a Justice Department official said Friday, \u201cWe have received the letter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the FBI declined to turn over files related to its Clinton email investigation by arguing there was a lack of public interest in the issue. The argument was made in a Freedom of Information Act records request.<\/p>\n
Fox News\u2019 Brooke Singman and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
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Article source: http:\/\/feeds.foxnews.com\/~r\/foxnews\/politics\/~3\/AIajUhJbr88\/comeys-alleged-clinton-exoneration-statement-calls-senate-testimony-into-question.html<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fresh allegations that former FBI director James Comey began drafting an \u201cexoneration statement\u201d for Hillary Clinton well before interviewing her and other key witnesses have called into question his Senate testimony about why he decided to go public with his findings in the email case last summer. In a June hearing before the Senate Intelligence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-89253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}