Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe admitted Wednesday that he and fired FBI Director James Comey had been "overconfident" in Comey's ability to communicate the details behind the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
However, he denied to MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the eventual decisions on the announcements had been made because of the belief Clinton would win the 2016 presidential election.
"I spent a long time thinking about the decisions Jim and I and the team went through, going all the way back to the Clinton email case, all the way to the investigation of Russia," McCabe said, while discussing his new book about the decisions that were made concerning the investigations into President Donald Trump.
Comey held a press briefing in July 2016 to announce the Department of Justice would not recommend charges against Clinton.
Eleven days before the 2016 election, Comey sent a letter to Capitol Hill saying the FBI would be reviewing more of her emails, and McCabe said Wednesday he did not agree with that decision.
"There were momentous decisions we made and some may have had an impact on electoral politics far beyond anything we ever intended," McCabe continued. "I supported Jim's decision to make that announcement at the time."
However, he said he does not think Comey was "grandstanding," but instead, "we had too much stock in our hope and belief Jim could communicate to people...we were in a position we felt it was essential to explain to people what we had done, what we had concluded and thought about the case."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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