WASHINGTON (AP) — Under an onslaught of Republican criticism, FBI Director James Comey vigorously defended the government's decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her private email setup, rejecting angry accusations that the Democratic presidential candidate was given special treatment.
To criminally charge Clinton based on the facts his agency's yearlong probe had found would have been unwarranted and mere "celebrity hunting," Comey told a congressional investigative committee Thursday.
In nearly five hours of testimony, he sought to explain the Justice Department's decision ending an investigation that has dogged Clinton's presidential campaign and raised fresh questions among voters about her trustworthiness.
Republicans' hard, skeptical questioning made it clear that settling the legal issue will not end the matter as a political issue as Clinton campaigns against Republican Donald Trump, who scornfully refers to her as "Crooked Hillary."
Republicans on the panel, voices sometimes raised in apparent frustration and irritation, said they were mystified by the decision not to prosecute because they felt that Comey, in a remarkably detailed and critical public statement on Tuesday, had laid out a sufficient basis for charges.
"I totally get people's questions," he said, but the FBI was obliged to follow the law.
Comey said investigators found no evidence that Clinton or her aides intended to break the law, even though they mishandled classified information. A misdemeanor statute requires the mishandling to be intentional, Comey said. A law that permits felony prosecution due to gross negligence has been used only once in the 99 years since it was enacted — and that was in a case involving espionage.
"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."
Later Thursday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the department was reopening its internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Clinton and top aides. The internal review was suspended in April to avoid interfering with the FBI inquiry, Kirby said. Earlier this week he said former officials could face loss of security clearances or other administrative sanctions.
Comey's appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee marked his first public statements since his announcement that removed the threat of criminal charges against Clinton but also revived public scrutiny of her email behavior as secretary of state in President Barack Obama's first term.
Committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Comey that the FBI's decision showed a "double standard" for powerful people. Had the "average Joe" done what she had done, he said, that person 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.
Chaffetz said lawmakers would now ask the FBI to investigate whether Clinton lied to the committee.
One by one, Comey rebutted a litany of GOP charges including that the FBI had been biased, ignored the law, applied it unjustly or coordinated the decision with Clinton's campaign. "We try very hard to apply the same standard whether you are rich or poor, white or black, old or young, famous or not known at all," he said.
The committee's top Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, accused Republicans of politicizing the investigation. But he suggested Comey had contributed to that by leaving "a perceived gap" between his public criticism of Clinton and his conclusion not to prosecute.
"I beg you to fill the gap. Because when the gap is not filled by you, it will be filled by others," Cummings said.
As he had on Tuesday, Comey left no doubt about the FBI's contention that Clinton's email practices were careless and left government secrets exposed to hostile nations. He said three of the emails in question bore classification markings in the body despite Clinton's assertions that nothing she had sent or received was marked classified. And he said government workers who negligently handled classified information, including FBI agents, could be subject to firing and administrative sanctions.
But he also said it was possible Clinton didn't even understand what the classification markings were, saying the investigation suggested she was not "particularly sophisticated with respect to classified information."
And he repeated his earlier contention that "no reasonable prosecutor" would have pursued criminal charges, saying at one point, "We went at this very hard to see if we could make a case."
Comey, for years a registered Republican who said he's no longer registered with a political party, was deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and was appointed in 2013 to a 10-year term as FBI director by President Obama. He would still be on the job if Clinton were elected president.
He drew distinctions between the Clinton probe and last year's prosecution of former CIA Director David Petraeus, who pleaded guilty to sharing classified information with his biographer. Petraeus, Comey said, retained a "vast quantity" of classified information and lied to the FBI about it.
"He admitted he knew that was the wrong thing to do," Comey said. "That is a perfect illustration of the kind of cases that get prosecuted. In my mind, it illustrates importantly the distinction to this case."
Despite the no-prosecution decision, Comey had rebuked Clinton and her aides on Tuesday as being "extremely careless" in their handling of classified information and contradicted many of the explanations she's put forward.
The investigation formally ended Wednesday when Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that no charges would be filed.
____
Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP , Matthew Daly at http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC
? 记得当年，老布什的竞选方略就是这个。嘲笑后被认为也是个办法。 -流沙河上- ♂ 给 流沙河上 发送悄悄话 流沙河上 的博客首页 流沙河上 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (1 reads) 07/06/2016 postreply 15:26:19
? 花了7百万美元，就为证明希拉里犯了法，但无罪！可以放心地选总统了！哈哈！ -JustAsked- ♀ 给 JustAsked 发送悄悄话 JustAsked 的博客首页 JustAsked 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (0 reads) 07/06/2016 postreply 19:38:14
helluva election, lesser of two evils?
来源: TJKCB 于 2016-07-06 09:22:57 [档案] [博客] [转至博客] [旧帖] [给我悄悄话] 本文已被阅读：2038 次 (97285 bytes)
你去听今天的hearing 好了。要讨论就事论事，没有必要judge 他人。否则请绕道。
来源: 笑薇. 于 2016-07-07 21:36:4
希拉里思维不够精细，犯下低级错误所以可以原谅；但她同时又精细的让人逮不到。真是大智若愚，游戏于是与非，正与反。
来源: 流沙河上 于 2016-07-07 18:38:34
Politics
The real shame of Hillary's email shenanigans
The Week 14 hours ago .
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The ugly reality of America in 2016 is that laws are for the little people. The facts of Hillary Clinton's email scandal are clear. She routed most of her email as secretary of state through a personal server. This disregarded State Department security procedures. It was almost certainly done for political purposes, to get around government record-keeping laws. Because her private email server was woefully unsecure (for several months, her emails weren't even encrypted), the emails of the secretary of state of the United States almost certainly ended up in the hands of foreign powers like Russia and China. What's more, her response to this unfolding scandal has been the familiar Clinton pattern ...
敬重Comey，FBI Director
(2016-07-07 14:35:25) 下一个
60年出生。55岁。芝加哥大学法学院毕业。2013年9月出任FBI Director。
他亲自指导FBI调查Hillary邮件案件调查。这次调查结果可以对美国2016年大选有深远影响。他根据事实，做出决定，不对Hillary起诉。在和大法官，总统，任何人讨论之前，他自己决定到媒体公开FBI和他自己的最终决定，为的是要给公众这次调查的透明度。
今天四个多小时，全国媒体直播，在国会听证里，镇静有条理地说明FBI的决定基础。同时，他也很坦诚说明Hillary随意对待国家机密，若在他的管辖之下，应该受到应有处分（仍然不到起诉的程度）。
他的个人政党倾向是共和党。他在2008年和2012年大选中都支持共和党的候选人。他知道共和党对这次调查的期望。但是，他不被任何政党，个人喜好，和外界的影响，根据事实和美国的宪法和法律，坚持不起诉Hillary。
虽然我也很吃惊没有起诉Hillary，我还是敬重Comey。一个有骨气，有领袖品质的人，应该能够客观处理事务，不被自己的感情感觉所左右。
http://blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog/64516/201607/1106001.html
PS: "Two things are important to me: 1) my family and friends; and 2) my integrity. " I heard his statement driving hearing MSNBC Sirius X radio.
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helluva election, lesser of two evils?
来源: TJKCB 于 2016-07-06 09:22:57 [档案] [博客] [转至博客] [旧帖] [给我悄悄话] 本文已被阅读：1647 次 (97285 bytes)
? 对，都是政客。 如今政治家已经不存在了。 -SleepyLagoon- ♀ 给 SleepyLagoon 发送悄悄话 SleepyLagoon 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (2 reads) 07/06/2016 postreply 05:41:39
? 就那么几年任期，只能客一下了。。不能家了 -zhuangqiushui- ♀ 给 zhuangqiushui 发送悄悄话 zhuangqiushui 的博客首页 zhuangqiushui 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (3 reads) 07/06/2016 postreply 05:44:03
? CNN: FBI 揭示希拉里邮件门中的谎言。希拉里撒谎，撒谎，再撒谎。 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (211 bytes) (1253 reads) 07/05/2016 20:53:21
? 你能够相信从她嘴里透出的任何话吗？ - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (9 reads) 07/05/2016 20:55:24
? 虽然FBI没有建议criminal charge， 但她犯下如此错误，她还有资格竞选总统？ - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (4 reads) 07/05/2016 21:01:03
? 真是大盗窃国。 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (2 reads) 07/05/2016 21:02:05
? 如果这事发生在Trump身上，媒体又做如何反应？ - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (3 reads) 07/05/2016 21:04:25
? 看看左派媒体将不断为希拉里洗白，报道希拉里FBI没有 criminal charge。洗白！！！ - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (3 reads) 07/05/2016 21:06:58
? This is a bribe! - F18P - ♂ 给 F18P 发送悄悄话 F18P 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (0 reads) 07/05/2016 21:42:16
? Bill偶遇AG Lynch, Lynch 声明尊重FBI， 希拉里客串FBI， Lynch Ob和希拉里同程空军一号， - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (149 bytes) (36 reads) 07/05/2016 21:14:15
? 110封含有classifed邮件，8封含top secrete的邮件在希拉里私人服务器上，只要你我有其中一封，你我将被戴上手铐 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (6 reads) 07/05/2016 21:19:04
? 希拉里是个特别例外，凌驾法律之上，too big to fail - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (3 reads) 07/05/2016 21:25:02
? 这个结果不错了。如果判希拉里被起诉，丧失被选权，让桑德斯上阵，川普就没有赢的希望了。 - azcactus - ♀ 给 azcactus 发送悄悄话 azcactus 的博客首页 azcactus 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (2 reads) 07/05/2016 23:06:44
? 难道你认为他现在有赢的希望？ - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (5 reads) 07/05/2016 23:30:12
? 虽然Trump有素质上的问题，但让他和支持者们赢一次给这个腐败透顶的政治体系一次冲击也未尚不可。 - 窗外细雨 - ♀ 给 窗外细雨 发送悄悄话 窗外细雨 的博客首页 窗外细雨 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (2 reads) 07/06/2016 00:27:00
? 给Trump四年很短，坏事也做不了太多。也可以接受。 - 窗外细雨 - ♀ 给 窗外细雨 发送悄悄话 窗外细雨 的博客首页 窗外细雨 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (1 reads) 07/06/2016 00:28:46
? 个人素质是小case，他单枪匹马和一个强大的系统斗争，怎么可能赢？ - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (1 reads) 07/06/2016 01:17:08
? 他有个团队。 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (1 reads) 07/06/2016 05:39:17
? 他的团队是他的子女和妻子，再加上几百个热情的工作人员，与一个自里跟时代开始 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (275 bytes) (15 reads) 07/06/2016 06:45:15
? 犹如个体户对国家。赢得了吗？ - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (0 reads) 07/06/2016 07:01:31
? 三的字是个软骨头, 别指望他会赢。 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (0 reads) 07/06/2016 07:25:35
? 结论不太合逻辑。她违法了，撒谎了，用私人email讨论最高机密，但是，决定不起诉她。有评论说，FBI有史以来 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (68 bytes) (137 reads) 07/05/2016 23:34:16
? 所调查的事实对希拉里不利，可是结论有利。 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (3 reads) 07/05/2016 23:42:22
? 要是民主党的superdelegates在DNC上投票Sanders成为Nominee, 那才能说明美利坚的政治文明和成熟。 - 窗外细雨 - ♀ 给 窗外细雨 发送悄悄话 窗外细雨 的博客首页 窗外细雨 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (8 reads) 07/06/2016 00:12:53
? 虽然FBI不建议起讼H, 但此人的素质一目了然。本人素来对Obama持有肯定的态度，但因此事大打折扣。 - 窗外细雨 - ♀ 给 窗外细雨 发送悄悄话 窗外细雨 的博客首页 窗外细雨 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (4 reads) 07/06/2016 00:17:47
? Obama应该明白Sanders的能力和人品和Vision. 好像Obama 和Clintons之间八年前已有Agreement - 窗外细雨 - ♀ 给 窗外细雨 发送悄悄话 窗外细雨 的博客首页 窗外细雨 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (5 reads) 07/06/2016 00:21:40
? 竞选的不是人品，也不是政见。美国的选举就是个reality show。百姓的票不count。地道的假民主。 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (4 reads) 07/06/2016 01:20:19
? 此次大选尤甚，当然小布什和戈尔那届也算。 - 等等看看 - ♀ 给 等等看看 发送悄悄话 等等看看 的博客首页 等等看看 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (1 reads) 07/06/2016 08:53:01
? super delegates 怎么可能翻盘？ sanders 不代表他们的利益。美式民主世界上独一无二，还大言不惭 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (53 bytes) (12 reads) 07/06/2016 01:23:40
? 一個騙子一個流氓，旗鼓相當。 - NJM - ♂ 给 NJM 发送悄悄话 NJM 的个人群组 (23 bytes) (3 reads) 07/06/2016 06:19:42
? 一个证实了的骗子。 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (2 reads) 07/06/2016 07:29:09
? 和一个证伪的流氓。 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (1 reads) 07/06/2016 07:32:01
? Law is for the little people - pingjiang06 - ♂ 给 pingjiang06 发送悄悄话 pingjiang06 的博客首页 pingjiang06 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (3 reads) 07/06/2016 06:54:13
? 大人物制定法律为的是维护无权无势的平民？如此的话，就不会百姓投票自娱自乐，精英投票选总统。 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (1 reads) 07/06/2016 07:04:51
? 另一个角度，law是规定小民行为的。大人物above the law。这么解释在理。 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (0 reads) 07/06/2016 08:31:00
? 此话也透着几分真相。 - ThisMyWords - ♂ 给 ThisMyWords 发送悄悄话 ThisMyWords 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (0 reads) 07/06/2016 07:27:19
? 她撒谎了又怎样？这么大的事件，花了纳税人这么多钱，还不是以希娘继续笑傲江湖为结束吗？ - 等等看看 - ♀ 给 等等看看 发送悄悄话 等等看看 的博客首页 等等看看 的个人群组 (251 bytes) (2 reads) 07/06/2016 09:00:06
? Donald Trump SLAMS Loretta Lynch Bill Clinton Meeting - JustAsked - ♀ 给 JustAsked 发送悄悄话 JustAsked 的博客首页 JustAsked 的个人群组 (146 bytes) (921 reads) 07/05/2016 20:01:56
? 体制外的人就是有理也没有力。再加上他自己的不慎，势头已过。 - 笑薇. - ♀ 给 笑薇. 发送悄悄话 笑薇. 的博客首页 笑薇. 的个人群组 (0 bytes) (2