James Comey’s Original Memo Drafts Released

Boy, I can’t wait to see James Comey’s passive aggressive, holier-than-thou tweet on this story.

The drafts of Comey’s original memo on the Hillary Clinton email probe have been made public, and they confirm what we all suspected: James Comey thought she was guilty as heck. However, the statement was heavily edited. I say heavily, because they literally took out chunks that mentioned there was evidence of possible felony and misdemeanor violations.

Uh-huh.

Ex-FBI Director James Comey’s original statement closing out the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server was edited by subordinates to remove five separate references to terms like “grossly negligent” and to delete mention of evidence supporting felony and misdemeanor violations, according to copies of the full document.

Comey also originally concluded that it was “reasonably likely” that Clinton’s nonsecure private server was accessed or hacked by hostile actors though there was no evidence to prove it. But that passage was also changed to the much weaker “possible,” the memos show.

Comey originally used the term “grossly negligent.” That was edited down to “extremely careless.” In this case, phrasing matters. It matters deeply.

The full draft, with edits, leaves little doubt that Comey originally wrote on May 2, 2016 that there was evidence that Clinton and top aides may have violated both felony and misdemeanor statutes, though he did not believe he could prove intent before a jury.

“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statute proscribing gross negligence in the handling of classified information and of the statute proscribing misdemeanor mishandling, my judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey originally penned.

I still don’t buy that. No reasonable prosecutor would bring a case that involved transferring 110 emails containing classified information through a nonsecure private email server?

That passage, however, was edited to remove the references to “gross negligence” and “misdemeanor mishandling,” leaving a much more generic reference to “potential violations of the statutes.”

The FBI has told Congress the edits were made by subordinates to Comey and then accepted by the then-director before he made his final announcement July 5, 2016 that he would not pursue criminal charges against Clinton.

Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson isn’t happy about these edits and is demanding answers.

“The edits to Director Comey’s public statement, made months prior to the conclusion of the FBI’s investigation of Secretary Clinton’s conduct, had a significant impact on the FBI’s public evaluation of the implications of her actions,” he wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“This effort, seen in light of the personal animus toward then-candidate Trump by senior agents leading the Clinton investigation and their apparent desire to create an ‘insurance policy’ against Mr. Trump’s election, raise profound questions about the FBI’s role and possible interference in the 2016 presidential election,” he added.

One edit that concerned Johnson was a decision to delete from Comey’s original draft a reference to the FBI working on a joint assessment with the intelligence community about possible national security damage from the classified information that passed through Clinton’s nonsecure email servers.

“We have done extensive work with the assistance of our colleagues elsewhere in the Intelligence Community to understand what indications there might be of compromise by hostile actors in connection with the private email operation,” Comey originally wrote.

Where are the voices of all the leaders who know an independent Department of Justice and FBI are essential to our liberty? “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.” — Martin Luther

— James Comey (@Comey) January 3, 2018

Yeah. That tweet hasn’t aged well.

h/t The Hill