Comey Steps In It Once Again And Again To Clinton's Detriment

Once again, James Comey has overstated the case against Hillary Clinton to the US public, this time broadly overstating the number of emails that were forwarded to Anthony Weiner’s computer by Huma Abedin and, more importantly, misrepresenting the content of those emails.

In his open testimony last week, Comey stated, “Somehow, her emails were being forwarded to Anthony Weiner, including classified information…His then-spouse Huma Abedin appears to have had a regular practice of forwarding emails to him for him I think to print out for her so she could then deliver them to the secretary of state.”

This is simply not true. Abedin did not have “a regular practice” of forwarding emails to Weiner. In fact, Abedin only handled emails this way on rare occasions. In addition, Comey misrepresented the fact that they contained “classified information”. In fact, none of the forwarded emails were marked as classified, although a handful did contain information that was subsequently determined to be classified.

Later in the hearing Comey again declared that Abedin “forwarded hundreds and thousands of e-mails, some of which contain classified information.” That again is untrue. Abedin did not forward hundreds and thousands of e-mails. The majority of emails that were found on Weiner’s computer were a result of a backup of Abedin’s emails, presumably from her Blackberry. And, again, only a handful of those emails were determined to contain classified information.

The FBI is trying to determine how Comey can correct the record going forward. Apparently another letter to Congress was being considered as a remedy but that idea has been rejected at least for the time being. At least some degree of haste might be appropriate, considering Ted Cruz specifically quoted these false Comey statements in his questioning of Clapper and Yates yesterday.

This again raises the issue of Comey’s judgement and actions when it comes to the Clinton email controversy. The decision to write the letter to Congress about Abedin’s emails was probably one of the most important decisions that Comey has made in his public life. The fact the he can so badly mischaracterize the evidence in that case at this point in time either points to an enormous ignorance about the facts or a severe case of bias. The former seems highly unlikely and the latter has become the only reasonable conclusion.

In addition, the fact that he can so badly mischaracterize the evidence well after the fact in this case brings into question his credibility when discussing the Russian investigation. Since that investigation is the only hope this country currently has to get to the bottom of the Trump campaign’s and transition’s contacts with the Russians, it is less than encouraging to have to rely on Comey to do that.