Dem Rep Schiff: Comey Letter ‘Terrible Lapse in Judgment’

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” while discussing the FBI reopening the investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private unsecured email server during her tenure as secretary of state, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Director James Comey’s decision to announce was “a terrible error in judgment.”

“I think this was a terrible error in judgement by the director, to release this kind of ambiguous letter. These may be pertinent, they may be significant, they may not be significant. They may not be pertinent. That kind of bomb this close to an election was a terrible lapse in judgment. The policies against making a statement about a pending or closed case is there for a reason.”

“It’s designed to ensure fairness and to ensure the FBI is not put in a position appearing to put its hand on the political scales,” he added. “This may or may not have been in the director’s interest but clearly wasn’t in the public’s interest. What is the public to make of this letter and how is the secretary to defend against this? It was a terrible mistake. The director ought to do his best to clean it up.”

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