President Donald Trump said that former FBI Director James Comey "should have never exonerated" Hillary Clinton on her private email use.
"No, what happened, he had a lot of pressure put on — and he exonerated her," Trump told Lester Holt in an NBC News interview that aired on Friday. "Should have never exonerated her."
Trump also acknowledged that the FBI's investigation of the former secretary of state helped him during last year's election.
"What Comey did, [he] had good moments for me as a candidate," Trump said.
"I happen to have some lawyers that were unrelated lawyers — and they were saying, 'Wow, she's guilty here, guilty, guilty, guilty.'
"Then he gets to the end and he said she's free as a bird," the president told Holt.
The former FBI director said last July that while Clinton and her aides were "extremely careless" with classified data on the server, he would not recommend criminal charges.
However, Comey announced in October — less than two weeks before the election — that he was reopening the case.
Clinton has said that Comey's October decision cost her the election.
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