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FBI Chief 'Mildly Nauseous' to Think Agency had Impact on Election

by Ken Bredemeier

   FBI chief James Comey said Wednesday it makes him "mildly nauseous" to
   think that his agency might have had an impact in Donald Trump winning
   the U.S. presidency last year.

   Days days before the election, the FBI had reopened an investigation
   into Democrat Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information on
   her private email server while she was secretary of state.

   WATCH: Comey on how his actions affected election result

   Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country's
   top law enforcement agency, told a Senate panel he agonized over
   disclosing the new investigation after months before investigators
   cleared her of wrongdoing. But Comey said he decided it would have been
   "catastrophic" to withhold the information after having assured
   Congress the investigation had been completed.

   "It was a hard choice," he said, "but I still believe it was right."

   Comey has been facing questions about what his investigators have
   discovered about Moscow's hacking of computers of Democratic operatives
   working for Trump's challenger, Clinton, and the subsequent release of
   emails through WikiLeaks that proved embarrassing to the Clinton
   campaign, and also possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and
   Russian interests.

   WATCH: Comey on how decision on Clinton emails affected Trump

   The election was six month ago, but Comey's role is still a matter of
   deep dispute between Clinton and Trump.

   In her first extensive public remarks about the outcome of the
   election, Clinton on Tuesday partly blamed her loss on Comey. Clinton
   said she was on the way to winning the presidency when 11 days before
   the election, Comey said his agency was reopening its investigation
   into whether she had mishandled classified material on her private
   email server while she was the country's top diplomat.

   Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes part in the Women
   for Women International Luncheon in New York City, May 2, 2017.

   Months before, Comey said no criminal charges were warranted against
   Clinton, even though she had been "extremely careless" with the emailed
   messages. Then, even closer to the election, Comey said nothing new had
   been uncovered.

   "A combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian
   WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to
   vote for me but got scared off," she said. "And the evidence for that
   intervening event is, I think, compelling and persuasive."

   Trump, in Twitter comments Wednesday, offered a distinctly different
   view of Comey's actions, saying the FBI director "was the best thing
   that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass
   for many bad deeds!" when he cleared her of any wrongdoing in July last
   year.

   Trump has largely dismissed FBI and congressional investigations into
   the U.S. intelligence community's finding that Moscow interfered to
   help him win.

   "The phony Trump/Russia story was an excuse used by the Democrats as
   justification for losing the election," he said in a tweet. "Perhaps
   Trump just ran a great campaign?"

   'The FBI and congressional investigators have focused some of their
   attention on links between Trump's first national security adviser,
   retired Army General Michael Flynn, and Russia.
   Flynn accepted more than $30,000 to attend a 2015 dinner in Moscow
   celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Kremlin-controlled RT
   television network, sitting next to Russian president Vladimir Putin,
   and more than $500,000 to represent Turkey.

   But Flynn lasted just 24 days on the job as Trump's national security
   adviser at the start of his presidency, with the president ousting
   Flynn after it was learned that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence
   and others about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to Washington
   in the weeks before Trump assumed power.

   FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) sits next to retired U.S.
   Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (L) as they attend an exhibition
   marking the 10th anniversary of RT (Russia Today) television news
   channel in Moscow, Russia, Dec.10, 2015.

   The Defense Department inspector general's office has opened an
   investigation into whether Flynn sought any permission, as he was
   specifically told to do when he retired from the military, to accept
   the payments from foreign governments.
   The White House has said that in naming Flynn to the top White House
   security post, it relied on a security clearance he was given in 2016
   by the Barack Obama administration.