James Comey said “one of the mistakes I made” in connection to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server was his choice of words.
“I should’ve worked harder to find a way to convey that it’s more than just the ordinary mistake, but it’s not criminal behavior, and find different words to describe that,” Comey said.
The former FBI director rehashed the syntax situation during his exclusive interview with ABC News’ chief anchor George Stephanopoulos ahead of the April 17 release of his book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
Comey said people may occasionally “mishandle” a classified document, but he described the former secretary of state’s use of emails as “really sloppy.”
“This was over the course of four years, dozens of conversations on email about secret topics,” Comey said of Clinton’s handling of emails. “And I think eight about top secret topics…. So if I’m gonna be honest, I have to say somehow it’s more than ordinary sloppiness.”
In the statement he delivered on July 5, 2016, he described her email practices as “extremely careless.” He initially considered using “gross negligence,” but told Stephanopoulos that was a “lawyer term.”
“My staff convinced me that that’s just gonna confuse all kinds of people, if you start talking about statutes and what the words mean,” he said. “What’s a colloquial way to explain it? And elsewhere in my statement I had said ‘extremely careless.’ And so they said, ‘Just use that.’ And so that’s what I went with.”
He said that he would not use the words “extreme carelessness” if he were to do it again.
“I don’t know what it would be, sitting here. [I’d] find some other way to convey, ’cause I wanted to be honest and transparent. This wasn’t your ordinary bureaucrat who just mishandles one document. This was something more than that. But not something that anybody would prosecute,” Comey said.
He said that while he regrets some of the language, he stands by his view of the level of seriousness involved.
“Hillary Clinton’s conduct on that personal email server was extremely careless. It just was. And if I wasn’t honest about that, how am I achieving the goal of showing the American people this is your justice system working in the right way?” he told Stephanopoulos.
Taking a page from American Idol, to his detriment
In addition to taking criticism from varying sides of the political aisle, he also received flak from his family after the July 5 news conference.
He told Stephanopoulos that his children told him, “You Seacrest-ed it, dad.”
“They explained to me was a reference to Ryan Seacrest, the TV host, who I guess will frequently say — he’s about to announce a result and then say, ‘But first, this commercial,’” Comey said. “And what they meant was I made people wait till the very end to say what the conclusion was we were reaching, when folks wanted to hear that at the beginning. And I actually think that’s fair feedback.”
“I think that’s an example of my ego sneaking through. That I thought I knew the best way to present this was not to give them the headline up front ’cause I thought then they won’t listen to the rest of it,” Comey said.
In retrospect, Comey apologized for how he handled some of the communication in relation to the investigation.
“I’m sorry that [I] ‘Seacrest-ed’ the announcement. I’m sorry that I caused all kinds of confusion and pain with the way I described her conduct that led people into all kinds of side roads,” he said of Clinton. “I’m deeply sorry that I was involved at all, but that’s something I can’t avoid,” he said.
“And I’m sorry there wasn’t an opportunity, especially with the second one, to explain more,” he continued,…
