WASHINGTON — Summoned before Congress and questioned by Republicans, FBI Director James Comey on Thursday defended the government's decision to not prosecute Hillary Clinton over her private email setup. He said there was no evidence that she knew that anything she was doing was against the law or had lied to federal investigators.
Comey's appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee marked his first public statements since an FBI announcement that removed the threat of criminal charges against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee but also revived public scrutiny of her handling of classified information.
A number of Republicans suggested there was a double standard for charging everyday people accused of crimes as opposed to high-level people like Clinton. Lawmakers asked Comey if he had been hearing that, too.
"I've heard it a lot," he said. "It's not true, but I've heard it a lot."
"I totally get people's questions," he said, but the FBI was obliged to follow the law.
Comey gave his most detailed explanation to date about why the Justice Department concluded without charges a yearlong investigation that had dogged Clinton's presidential campaign and raised questions for voters about her trustworthiness.
Republicans said they were infuriated with the FBI's decision and confused by the way it was presented. Comey on Tuesday gave a scathing assessment of Clinton's email practices, followed by his conclusion that "no reasonable prosecutor" would charge her with a crime.
On Thursday, Comey said the legal decision came down to a simple lack of a criminal intent.
When agents investigate allegations of criminal wrongdoing, they look for evidence not only that a statute was violated but also that a person knew that what he was doing was wrong. That evidence did not exist in this case, Comey said. Although there is a law that allows for felony prosecution for mishandling classified information due to gross negligence, that law has been used only once in the 99 years since it was enacted — and that was in a case involving espionage, Comey said.
"We don't want to put people in jail unless we prove that they knew they were doing something they shouldn't do," Comey said. "That is the characteristic of all the prosecutions involving mishandling of classified information."
Comey, a registered Republican for years though he said he now is not registered in a political party, served as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. He was appointed in 2013 to a 10-year term as FBI director by President Barack Obama.
Committee chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Comey that the FBI's decision on Clinton showed a "double standard" for powerful people. Had the "average Joe" done what she had done, he said, he would go to prison.
"If your name isn't Clinton, or you're not part of the powerful elite, then Lady Justice will act differently," Chaffetz said, adding that the FBI had set a "dangerous precedent" in letting her off the hook.
Read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.