Graham threatens Comey subpoena: ‘He’s coming one way or the other’

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is threatening to subpoena former FBI Director James Comey after it was revealed that he drafted a statement recommending against prosecuting Hillary Clinton weeks before interviewing her as part of the FBI’s probe into her use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Asked on Fox News’s “Happening Now” about whether he would subpoena Comey, who was abruptly fired in May, Graham said: “I would, yes.”

“He’s coming one way or the other if I have anything to do about it,” said Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.

{mosads}Comey took the unusual step of recommending against criminal charges for Clinton in July 2016, after concluding his agency’s investigation into her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State. 

Clinton, he said, had been “extremely careless” in her private email use. But that behavior was not criminal and didn’t warrant prosecution, he added. 

But partial transcripts of interviews with FBI officials released late last month by Graham and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, suggest that Comey contemplated a statement clearing Clinton in April or May of 2016, before agents had interviewed the then-Democratic presidential candidate.

Comey has said that he decided to make the public statement closing the Clinton case in part because of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s meeting with former President Bill Clinton on a Phoenix, Ariz., tarmac last year.

That Comey may have drafted his statement months before recommending against charges for Clinton has prompted GOP lawmakers to call for the former FBI director to meet again with congressional investigators. 

“The real reason was not the tarmac meeting,” Graham said Thursday. “I can’t make sense of this. I’m very suspicious of the timing; I’m very suspicious of the reason.”