11 days before the 2016 presidential election—Comey sent a letter to Congress saying he was reopening the investigation. A few days later he publicly closed it again.
From The Atlantic, January 2017:
Just days before her defeat, an open letter circulated among former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials accusing Comey of unprecedented actions that had left them “astonished and perplexed”—as well as angry.
“In our network, we are sad,” says the former Southern District attorney. “He was an American hero. Now who knows how he will go down in history?”
“He left himself completely exposed to charges that he acted in a way that affected the outcome of a political election,” says someone who was close to the e-mail investigation. “It has affected the reputation of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. in ways that are profound and will take years to comprehend.” “It was a mistake of world-historic proportions,” argues another person who was close to events.
In mid-January, the inspector general for the Department of Justice announced that he was opening an investigation into Comey’s conduct..
And regarding Comey's infamous national press conference reluctantly finally admitting the investigation he conducted
through a presidential primary (!) found nothing, as he had once said it would not,
"Plenty of Comey’s longtime admirers were appalled that he had spoken at all, because by doing so he blew through several of the Justice Department’s long-standing policies. “It was an unprecedented public announcement by a non-prosecutor that there would be no prosecution,” says someone who once worked for Comey. The F.B.I. does not talk publicly about its investigations, and “it does not make prosecutorial decisions. Full stop.”
“[Comey] has said he did not consult with anyone at the D.O.J. beforehand so he could say it was the F.B.I.’s recommendation,” observes another former prosecutor. “But right there that is a massive act of insubordination.”
That he must have made a "mistake" is actually a theme of this article, and quotes are cherry-picked to promote it, but the article nevertheless documents part of a pattern of abuse of power that continued through the 2015-2016 campaigns. Other shocked colleagues speaking out at that time did not pretend to know what on earth caused him to kick long-established ethical practices over at any times, much less the last 11 days before the presidential election. But it was emphatically not because he was required to, as he claims.
I found no reporting on this investigation since early 2017 (big surprise), so it may still be active, unpursued but still open. Article extremely worth reading, btw, despite its biases but keeping them in mind.
"For original sin, you have to start with Hillary Clinton..."
Really? No. You really do not.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/02/james-comey-fbi-director-letter
= new reply since forum marked as read
