Clinton: Comey firing is ‘an effort to derail and bury’ Russia probe

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton ripped President Trump for firing FBI Director James Comey, calling it “an effort to derail and bury” the federal investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“I am less surprised than I am worried,” Clinton said in an interview with New York magazine published Friday. “Not that he shouldn’t have been disciplined. And certainly the Trump campaign relished everything that was done to me in July and then particularly in October.”

“Having said that, I think what’s going on now is an effort to derail and bury the Russia inquiry, and I think that’s terrible for our country,” she said in the interview, which took place a day after Comey’s firing.

{mosads}Clinton has become more vocal in recent months following her loss in November and continues to claim she would have won if it were not for “attacks” from Comey and the Russians.

“What I was doing was working,” Clinton said. “I would have won had I not been subjected to the unprecedented attacks by Comey and the Russians, aided and abetted by the suppression of the vote, particularly in Wisconsin.”

Clinton lost in states that Democratic nominees traditionally carry, such as Michigan and Wisconsin.

Clinton’s comments come amid reports that Comey was spurred by false information to publicly declare last summer that the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server was over and that the former secretary of State was “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information.

The Justice Department last week appointed special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russia’s involvement in the U.S. election.