On Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee during what should have been a routine congressional oversight hearing, had it not been for the topics discussed over the course of the day. Committee members from both sides of the aisle questioned Comey on the FBI's handling of Hillary Clinton's private email server, the Russian hacking investigation, confidential leaks to the media and the potential use of wiretapping.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, immediately called into question Comey's decision to prematurely make public an FBI investigation into new details related to Hillary Clinton's use of private servers. She pointed out that Comey sent a letter to Congress on October 28, just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, announcing the new investigation, despite the fact that the FBI did not yet know what the newly discovered messages said.
"We need straightforward answers to our questions and we want to hear how you're going to lead the FBI going forward," Feinstein said. "We never, ever want anything like this to happen again."
Feinstein asked Comey why he handled the Clinton investigation and the Russian hacking investigation so "dramatically different." This is not the first time Comey has been accused of improperly handling these two high-profile FBI cases. During a House Intelligence Committee hearing in March, the director admitted for the first time that an investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election existed. This clandestine approach to the Russia investigation is a sharp contrast from Comey's prematurely public handling of the Clinton investigation.
Comey said he had no choice but to publicly reveal the FBI's renewed investigation into Clinton's emails. He believed that the emails found by the FBI in the weeks leading up to the October announcement could have changed the investigation's results. Not revealing the newfound emails to Congress would have been an "act of concealment." But the FBI director said he never intended to reshape the outcome of the presidential election. Such a thought made Comey "mildly nauseous."
Wednesday's hearing comes just one day after Hillary Clinton said Comey is directly responsible for her losing the election. During an interview with CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee stated, "If the election had been on October 27, I'd be your president."
Comey also faced criticism from Republicans during the hearing. Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Republican chairman of the committee, called on the FBI director to be more transparent about its handling of these contentious investigations because "we need the FBI to be accountable."
"We need to know whether there was anything improper going on between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or if these allegations are just a partisan smear campaign that manipulated our government into chasing conspiracy theories," Grassley said.
Throughout the hearing, Comey vehemently denied leaking details about the Clinton and Russia investigations to the press. He also said he did not authorize anyone else in the FBI to talk to the media. Comey did not, however, deny the very real threat Russia poses to American politics.
"In my view [Russia poses] the greatest threat of any nation on earth given their intention and their capability," Comey said. He went on to say that the FBI has no proof the foreign power was involved with voter fraud during the most recent U.S. election, but we should be prepared for Russia to tamper with votes in the future.