Clinton ‘Grossly Negligent’ in Comey’s Draft Statement on Email Probe
WASHINGTON
– Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is seeking more details on
the formulation of former FBI director James Comey’s July 2016 remarks
announcing that the FBI would not seek criminal charges following its
investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and
mishandling of classified information while serving as Secretary of State.
Early drafts of the remarks include phrases indicating a violation of federal
statute. Those terms were later eliminated in revised drafts of the same
statement.
“Although Director Comey’s original version of his statement acknowledged that Secretary Clinton had violated the statute prohibiting gross negligence in the handling of classified information, he nonetheless exonerated her in that early, May 2nd draft statement anyway, arguing that this part of the statute should not be enforced,” Grassley said in a letter today to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The statute
governing the mishandling of classified material establishes criminal penalties
for “gross negligence.” Comey’s May 2, 2016, draft stated that Clinton had been
grossly negligent in handling classified information. However, a later version
of those remarks, dated June 10, 2016, deleted that legal language, and instead
refers to Clinton and her associates as “extremely careless.”
Grassley is
seeking the original format of the draft remarks, including metadata to
determine who is responsible for the edits. Grassley is also seeking records of
any discussions about why the edits were made.
Full text
of Grassley’s
letter follows:
November 6, 2017
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable Christopher Wray
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20535
Dear Director Wray:
On November 3, 2017, the FBI provided documents in response to the
Committee’s August 30, 2017, letter requesting records relating to
then-Director Comey’s statement exonerating Secretary Clinton from criminal
wrongdoing. Among those documents, the FBI provided what appears to be a May 2,
2016, draft of the exoneration statement, two months before Director Comey’s
July 5, 2016 press conference. In that draft, the original language is shown to
have included the following sentence:
There
is evidence to support a conclusion that Secretary Clinton, and others, used
the private email server in a manner that was grossly negligent with
respect to the handling of classified material.[1]
That same draft also included the following sentence:
Similarly,
the sheer volume of information that was properly classified as Secret at the
time it was discussed on email (that is, excluding the “up classified” emails)
supports an inference that the participants were grossly negligent in
their handling of that information.[2]
As you are aware, 18 U.S.C. § 793(f) makes the mishandling of
classified material through gross negligence a criminal act. Although Director
Comey’s original version of his statement acknowledged that Secretary Clinton
had violated the statute prohibiting gross negligence in the handling of
classified information, he nonetheless exonerated her in that early, May 2nd
draft statement anyway, arguing that this part of the statute should not be
enforced.
Apparently, as of May 2016, then-Director Comey and other FBI officials
believed the facts fit that gross negligence standard until later edits were
made on or about June 10, 2016, removing those two sentences and including the
following sentence instead:
Although
we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues
intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information,
there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very
sensitive, highly classified information.[3]
While the
edits are shown, the documents were not provided in their original format.
Accordingly, in order for the Committee to better understand the documents,
please answer the following no later than November 20, 2017:
1.
Please provide copies of the files in their
original format, including all metadata indicating who created the original
drafts, who made the edits to the draft statement, and when those edits were
made.
2.
Please provide all records relating to
discussions about why the edits were made.
I anticipate that your written response and the
responsive documents will be unclassified. Please send all unclassified
material directly to the Committee. In keeping with the requirements of
Executive Order 13526, if any of the responsive documents do contain classified
information, please segregate all unclassified material within the classified
documents, provide all unclassified information directly to the Committee, and
provide a classified addendum to the Office of Senate Security. The Committee
complies with all laws and regulations governing the handling of classified
information. The Committee is not bound, absent its prior agreement, by any
handling restrictions or instructions on unclassified information unilaterally
asserted by the Executive Branch.
Should you have further questions, please contact Josh
Flynn-Brown of my Judiciary Committee staff at (202) 224-5225.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Committee
on the Judiciary
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