Hillary Clinton and her allies sprang onto a war footing Saturday, opening a ferocious attack on the FBI’s director, James Comey, a day after he disclosed that his agency was looking into a potential new batch of messages from her private email server.
Hillary Clinton and her allies sprang onto a war footing Saturday, opening a ferocious attack on the FBI’s director, James Comey, a day after he disclosed that his agency was looking into a potential new batch of messages from her private email server.
Treating Comey as a threat to her candidacy, Clinton took aim at the law enforcement officer who had recommended no criminal charges less than four months earlier for her handling of classified information as secretary of state.
“It’s pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election,” Clinton said at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida. “In fact, it’s not just strange; it’s unprecedented and it is deeply troubling.”
For Democrats, it was also deeply worrying. Clinton’s advisers expressed concern that the FBI’s renewed attention to emails relating to the nominee would turn some voters against her, hurt party candidates in competitive House and Senate races, and complicate efforts to win over undecided Americans in the final days of the election.
So after stepping gingerly around the issue Friday, calling on Comey to release more specific information but not overtly criticizing him, her campaign made it personal Saturday, accusing the director of smearing Clinton with innuendo late in the race and of violating Justice Department rules.
The decision to target Comey for his unusual decision to publicly disclose the inquiry came during an 8 a.m. internal conference call, after aides saw reports that Justice Department officials were furious, believing he had violated long-standing guidelines advising against such actions so close to an election.
Even before Clinton spoke in Florida, her campaign chairman, John Podesta, and campaign manager, Robby Mook, criticized Comey for putting out incomplete information and breaking with Justice Department protocol.
“By providing selective information, he has allowed partisans to distort and exaggerate to inflict maximum political damage,” Podesta said during a conference call with reporters. “Comey has not been forthcoming with the facts,” he added, describing the director’s letter to Congress on Friday as “long on innuendo.”
Whatever shortcomings Clinton may have as a candidate, Saturday’s coordinated effort showed that the political organization that she, her husband and her allies had built over decades remained potent and would not let what seemed like victory erode easily. By midday, Comey, a Republican appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed nearly unanimously by the Senate, found himself in its cross hairs.
Encouraged by Clinton’s senior aides to reframe the story and make it about Comey’s actions, liberal groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus demanded that he release more information. Other surrogates were emailed talking points prodding them to deem it “extraordinary that 11 days before the election a letter like this — with so few details — would be sent to 8 Republican committee chairmen.” (Ranking Democrats on the committees also received copies.)
Comey has not publicly commented on the investigation, other than with the letter saying that more emails were being examined. He also wrote an email to FBI employees explaining that he felt he had to inform Congress even though the agency did not yet know “the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails.”
With Clinton leading Donald Trump in nearly every battleground state, Clinton advisers were emphatic that they would not be thrown off stride. They said they would not change any political strategy, television advertising or campaign travel plans.