James Comey Tells CNN He Doesn’t Regret Clinton Probe Letter Ahead of 2016 Election

Former FBI Director James Comey told CNN Thursday that he didn’t regret his investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal emails even though his actions have been blamed by critics for contributing to Donald Trump’s presidential win in 2016.

Trump’s Department of Justice is set to prosecute Comey in July for allegedly threatening the president by posting an Instagram photo of seashells spelling out “86 47.”

The Arena host Kasie Hunt told Comey, “I was the first to report on the network I worked for, the letter that you put out in 2016, late in the election cycle, that said you were reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has made abundantly clear that she thinks you played a role in her 2016 loss.”

“You sort of said at the time that you didn’t think that you had a choice, that she was on track to win the election,” Hunt continued. “I think the question I’ve always had for you since since I covered that is, you know, why did you assume she was going to win?”

“That wasn’t why I made the decision I made,” Comey said. “But I’ve said in hindsight, I was living in an environment, as were you, where everyone, maybe even Donald Trump, assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win. And so I asked myself, could that have had an impact on me? And the answer was, I don’t know. But that was the world in which I lived. I made the decision I made because between two really bad options, it was the least bad.”

Hunt asked, “Did you take away from that that you should think about politics in a different way?”

“No, I already knew politics was tribal,” Comey answered. “I mean, we’re so tribal that the Trump crowd doesn’t realize that the Clinton crowd hates me, and the Clinton crowd doesn’t realize the Trump crowd hates me. I’ve had situations where someone curses me on the street, and I have to stop and say, ‘So is that a Clintonian F-you or a Trumpian F-you? That’s how divided we are.”

“I knew we were polarized. As my deputy said to me when that investigation opened, ‘You know, you’re totally screwed, right?’ And of course I did. No matter what happened, they were going to blame the umpire for the result of the game. And that’s just the way it is,” Comey said. “You can’t let that get in the way of making ethical decisions. And even in hindsight, I wish to God we hadn’t been involved, but we made the right decision.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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