The Hill reports that the FBI believed Hillary Clinton and her aides broke laws despite the bureau director’s stated conclusion that investigators concluded she did not break laws.
Then-FBI director James Comey announced in July of 2016 that the investigation into the inclusion of classified documents on Hillary Clinton’s private server yielded no evidence of criminal wrongdoing involving the former secretary of state.
But the lengthy article written by John Solomon notes that the FBI drafted a statement exonerating Clinton long before the investigation ended, an FBI agent’s testimony contradicts former director James Comey’s insistence that he investigated Clinton on possible violations of the Federal Records Act, and a computer technician working for Clinton initially told the FBI he did not delete documents before experiencing an epiphany months later that he indeed did that.
On this last point, The Hill points out:
The computer employee originally told the FBI in a February 2016 interview that he did not recall making any deletions from Clinton’s server in March 2015, FBI records show.
But then on May 3, 2016, the same employee in a subsequent FBI interview told agents he had an “oh shit moment” and in late March 2015 deleted Clinton’s email archive from the server, according to FBI documents reviewed by The Hill.
Lying to the FBI is a federal felony, a crime that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn recently pleaded guilty to. But the FBI decided not to pursue criminal charges against the witness, and instead gave the technician an immunity deal so he could correct his story, congressional investigators said.
Solomon’s investigative report also confirms that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe admitted to congressmen in a December 21, closed-door meeting that a small group in the bureau’s D.C. headquarters, and not a field office as protocol dictates, handled the investigation.
The investigative piece explains that “the findings and revelations have left [some Republican lawmakers] more convinced than ever that FBI leadership rigged the outcome to clear Clinton.”
