13 May, 2017
The hearing comes just one day after Comey beat back a series of questions about the Russian Federation investigation from senators on the Senate judiciary committee.
The focus of the judiciary committee's questioning Wednesday centered on the "political opposition research dossier" written by a British ex-spy alleging claims about Trump's private life and business dealings. "I think the witnesses were responsive to those questions".
The Oct. 28 letter Comey sent to Congress led to criticism from Democrats who felt his actions cost Clinton the election and from former Justice Department officials for his breaking with the department's long-standing practice of avoiding commenting on investigative actions close to an election that could influence the outcome.
During his testimony, Comey also disputed a claim from Trump on Tuesday night that the Federal Bureau of Investigation director "was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds". Agents were looking at Weiner's laptop because he was under investigation for possibly inappropriate communications with a minor. "I want my story told", he said.
Comey said he was faced with two options: either hide the investigation until after the vote, or inform Congress.
"If I were her, if I were advising her, I would say, 'Don't do this. I've got to tell Congress that we're restarting this, not in some frivolous way, in a hugely significant way".
"Activism is more important than ever, and it's working, form the women's marches across the country to helping bring down the Republicans' bad health care bill, "Clinton had said in Texas earlier this year".
The e-mails - once analyzed - did not change the FBI's opinion and the agency later announced that it still would not file criminal charges against Clinton.
The group says that there are no definitive answers and identifies other possible explanations for Clinton's surprise loss, including her campaign's failure to rally votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
"With respect to the Russian Federation investigation, we treated it like we did with the Clinton investigation". It was Hillary's people, as Comey noted in his original congressional testimony, that had "cleaned their devices in such a way as to preclude complete forensic recovery".
The FBI began that counterintelligence investigation in late July, but he did not disclose that until a hearing in March, after Trump had been elected and taken office.
Comey is set to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
USA intelligence agencies in December accused Russian-backed hackers of interfering in the election to tarnish Clinton and the Democratic Party in a bid boost Trump's chances of victory. "A "huge portion" of WikiLeaks' activities "has nothing to do with legitimate news activity", he said, "... but is simply about releasing classified information to damage the United States of America".
Comey appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a routine oversight hearing to update lawmakers on investigations.
"It's still very unclear - and I hope director that you will clear this up - why the FBI's treatment of these two investigations was so dramatically different", she asked.
