UPDATE: FBI WILL NOT PURSUE CHARGES
FBI Director James Comey will make a statement Tuesday at 11 am eastern from headquarters in Washington D.C. He will also take questions from reporters. The statement will be on live on camera. Questions from reporters will be off-camera.
JUST IN: FBI Director Comey will make statement and take off-camera q's from reporters at 11am today. FBI/DOJ wont confirm topic.
— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) July 5, 2016
Over the weekend the FBI interviewed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, one of the final steps in the ongoing criminal investigation into alleged mishandling of classified information. Clinton was interviewed for more than three hours. Top aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills were interviewed earlier this year. Former Clinton staffer Brian Pagliano, who was hired to set up the private server in Clinton's home, was given immunity by the FBI and has been cooperating. During a separate deposition conducted by Judicial Watch, Pagliano plead the Fifth more than 125 times. More than 2000 pieces of classified information, including top secret information, have been found on Clinton's server.
After the interview, Clinton said she was happy to "voluntarily" cooperate the FBI and continued to call the criminal investigation a security "review," a classification Comey rejected two months ago.
After months of staying silent surrounding the investigation, FBI Director James Comey told Fox News Wednesday that he doesn't understand what "security inquiry" Clinton is referring to. The FBI does criminal investigations and the investigation surrounding Clinton's personal server, on which she kept and transmitted top-secret, classified and human source information, is no exception.
"I don't even know what that means, a 'security inquiry.' We do investigations here at the FBI," Comey told Fox News' Catherine Herridge, reiterating Clinton will not be receiving any kind of special treatment.
Herridge further noted "security inquiry" is an unknown term to the Director.
Comey has repeatedly attempted to reassure Americans politics will have no bearing on the FBI's final decision about whether or not to indict the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Comey's announcement today comes just days after controversy erupted when former President Bill Clinton was caught having a secret meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix tarmac. Lynch, who says the meeting was by chance and not planned, maintains the two only discussed grandchildren, golf and other social topics. In an effort to squash the controversy, Lynch officially stated at a conference in Aspen Friday she "expects to accept" to the recommendations from the FBI and career attorneys about how to handle the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server. Keep in the mind the FBI is also investigating the Clinton Foundation, of which Bill Clinton serves as president, for public corruption.
On another note, President Obama will campaign with Clinton this afternoon.
This post has been updated with additional information.
Related Posts