Halperin: Comey Released Clinton Report Before Holiday ‘As If He’s An Arm of the Clinton Campaign’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Bloomberg Politics Managing Editor Mike Halperin argued that the FBI didn’t follow up on “a lot of questions” during its investigation into Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails and that FBI Director James Comey released the FBI’s report of its investigation into Clinton email on the Friday before Labor Day “as if he’s an arm of the Clinton campaign,” and “has called his own impartiality into question by what he’s done.”

Halperin said of Comey, “I’ve become increasingly critical of him. I know he’s got a sterling reputation. But to release this on a Friday as if he’s an arm of the Clinton campaign, I’m just stunned, because there’s a lot of information in here that’s of great public interest. And if you really cared about transparency, you would say to yourself, is the best time to release this, to get a full public hearing, on Friday before Labor Day? No. It’s not.”

Halperin continued, “I really believe that he has called his own impartiality into question by what he’s done. And the number of legitimate questions…raised by this material, is — it’s too many. We could fill three hours talking about it. It doesn’t mean she should be indicted necessarily, but it does mean — necessarily, but it does mean there are a lot of questions that the FBI didn’t follow up on.”

He later added that he doesn’t think the most recent FBI report on Clinton’s emails should have been released, and Comey shouldn’t have held a press conference after deciding not to indict Clinton.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett