Former FBI Director James Comey revealed that former President Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch tried to influence his statements on Hillary Clinton’s email investigation during the election.
“At one point the attorney general had directed me not to call it investigation, but instead to call it a matter, which concerned and confused me,” Comey said.
Comey made his remarks during a Senate hearing, offering testimony about the ongoing investigation into Russia’s attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election and the decision by former President Donald Trump to fire him.
He acknowledged during the hearing that there were other reasons why he felt he had to make the statement about Clinton’s investigation, including “one significant” reason, which had to remain classified.
He said that Lynch’s meeting on the tarmac with former president Bill Clinton during the campaign was the ultimate reason why he decided to make a public statement when the department decided not to prosecute Hillary Clinton.
“In a ultimately conclusive way, that was the thing that capped it for me, that I had to do something separately to protect the credibility of the investigation, which meant both the FBI and the Justice Department,” he said.
Comey confessed that he followed Lynch’s advice, admitting that he could have resisted more.
“I just said this isn’t a hill worth dying on and so I just said, ‘O.K.,” Comey said, but added that he was “concerned” that the Clinton campaign was referring to the investigation with the same language.