Justice Department cites Comey’s handling of Clinton case in firing

A Justice Department official recommended FBI Director James Comey be fired for damaging information he revealed about then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the height of the presidential campaign.

The assessment from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was circulated by the administration as a justification for Comey’s firing Tuesday evening.

In July 2016, Comey held a dramatic press conference in which he announced he FBI would not recommend charges be brought against Clinton for keeping sensitive information on a private computer server while she was secretary of State.

Then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch had said she would honor Comey’s recommendation on whether to pursue charges against Clinton. Lynch had become embroiled in controversy for meeting privately with former President Bill Clinton on a tarmac in Arizona.

{mosads}In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions arguing for the firing, Rosenstein argued that Comey had no right to “usurp” Lynch’s authority. 

“It is not the function of the Director to make such an announcement,” Rosenstein said. “At most the Director should have said the FBI had completed its investigation and presented its findings to federal prosecutors. The director now defends his decision by asserting that he believed Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a conflict. But the FBI director is never empowered to supplant federal prosecutors and assume command of the Justice Department.”

At the July press conference, Comey infuriated Democrats by laying out a detailed case about how Clinton had mishandled classified information. But Clinton could not be prosecuted, Comey said, because there was no precedent in doing so and because he could not prove she acted with intent to bypass the law.

Republicans were angry that Comey didn’t recommend an indictment, but used his testimony about Clinton’s carelessness to cudgel the Democratic candidate throughout the campaign.

“The Director ignored another longstanding principle; we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation,” Rosenstein wrote. “Derogatory information sometimes is disclosed in the course of a criminal investigation and prosecution but we never release it gratuitously. The Director laid out his version of the facts for the news media as if it were a closing argument but without a trial. It is a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do … the goal of a federal criminal investigation is not to announce our thoughts at a press conference.” 

Finally, Rosenstein said Comey should not have notified Congress just days before the election that the FBI had reopened its investigation into Clinton’s email arrangement.

Many in the Clinton campaign blame that episode, which didn’t result in any developments in the investigation itself, for their candidate’s loss. Comey argued that he had to do it because he had testified under oath that he would keep Congress updated on the status of the investigation. 

“The Director cast his decision as a choice between whether he would ‘speak’ about the FBI’s decision to investigate the newly discovered email messages or ‘conceal’ it,” Rosenstein wrote. “’Conceal’ is a loaded term that misstates the issue. When federal agents and prosecutors quietly open a criminal investigation, we are not concealing anything. We are simply following the longstanding policy that we refrain from publicizing non-public information. In that context, silence is not concealment.”

Critics of the administration’s decision to fire Comey lashed out at the Justice Department for hypocrisy.

They say the Trump administration has reveled in the problems Comey caused for Clinton during the campaign and is now using it as an excuse to fire the FBI director at a time when he is investigating alleged ties between Trump campaign officials and Moscow.

“Can we point out the emperor has no clothes?,” CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said. “This memo from Rod Rosenstein says that James Comey was fired for being to mean to Hillary Clinton. Does anyone believe that? Could anyone believe that? It’s too absurd.”

Former Clinton campaign officials, including spokesman Brian Fallon and campaign manager Robby Mook, lashed out at the Justice Department over Twitter.

This is appropriate sentiment but DOJ shd have awaited IG probe on Comey. Now it just smells like coverup on Russiahttps://t.co/Z0u8vgF9cr

— Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) May 9, 2017

Twilight zone. I was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the email investigation was handled. But this terrifies me.

— Robby Mook (@RobbyMook) May 9, 2017