Benjamin Wittes, a friend of former FBI Director James Comey who’s also the editor in chief of the Lawfare blog, slammed President Trump Friday for saying the whole investigation into Hillary Clinton appeared to be rigged.
“Wow, looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over...and so much more. A rigged system!” he tweeted Friday morning.
The president’s comments come after new transcripts released by the Senate Judiciary Committee showed that Comey decided not to pursue charges against the former secretary of state before the investigation into her emails had concluded.
Wittes said this is not unusual and characterized it as something smart people do, which Trump would never understand.
“There is nothing surprising about this news that Comey began drafting what became the declination statement early,” he wrote on Twitter.
Comey’s announcement about Clinton’s fate was revealed July 5, 2016, the transcripts show he was drafting his conclusions in April or May.
“By May, after 9 months of investigation, unless HRC lied to the FBI or it found something new, this was headed for a declination,” he continued.
"This may come as a shock to Grassley and Graham and Trump, but judges sometimes do a memo/draft about an opinion before oral argument," he added.
"Smart people think ahead and prepare. That appears to be an alien notion to our current President, but that's likely what happened here."
Like Trump, Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham also slammed the new findings.
“Conclusion first, fact-gathering second—that’s no way to run an investigation," they wrote in a letter. "The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy."