Information security

FBI Director Has No Regrets About His Fateful 2016 Decision

FBI Director James Comey has no regrets about the agency’s handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server just days before the presidential election.

“It was a hard choice, I still believe in retrospect the right choice, as painful as it’s been,” Comey told the Senate Judiciary committee, adding that the thought that he had affected the 2016 election made him “mildly nauseous.”

Comey was back on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning to testify in what was billed as a routine congressional oversight hearing, but minutes into the hearing, the director was questioned about his letter on October 28 notifying lawmakers that more emails had been uncovered that were pertinent to the investigation into Clinton’s private email server that she maintained while secretary of state. Political analysts and Clinton herself have blamed Comey’s letter and subsequent news coverage of the event for her defeat in the 2016 presidential election. In March, Comey revealed for the first time that the Trump campaign had been under investigation related to its ties to the Russian government, since the summer of 2016.