‘We’re mystified and confused by your decision’

FBI Director James Comey announces July 5, 2016, his agency will not refer charges regarding Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information.

WASHINGTON – At the very start of FBI Director James Comey’s grilling on Capitol Hill, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said, “We’re mystified and confused by the facts you laid out and the conclusions you reached.”

The committee summoned Comey to face Congress and explain his decision on Tuesday not to recommend the Justice Department press charges against Hillary Clinton in her email scandal.

Chaffetz said, “It seems there are like two standards for dealing with classified info,” and that it “seem like the average Joe would be in handcuffs” for doing what Clinton did.

“I think there is a legitimate concern there is a double standard,” he emphasized. “If your name isn’t Clinton or you are not part of the powerful elite, Lady Justice will act differently.”

Many were shocked when Comey announced on Tuesday he would not recommend pressing charges against the Democratic presidential candidate because he also described so many ways in which she broke the law.

In a “fact check”  the Associated Press spelled out the many ways in which Comey contradicted every claim Clinton had made in her defense:

Clinton said she did not email any classified material to anyone on her email.

The FBI found at least 113 emails that went through her server that contained materials that were classified at the time they were sent, including some that were top secret.

“Any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about the matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation,” Comey said. Clinton and her aides, he added, “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

Clinton said she never received or sent any material that was marked classified.

Her server did handle emails with markings indicating they contained classified information. “Even if information is not marked classified in an email, participants who know, or should know, that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it,” said Comey.

Clinton said she “responded right away and provided all my emails that could possibly be work related” to the State Department.

The FBI discovered that was not true. Comey said the FBI found on her server “several thousand work-related emails that were not in the group of 30,000” that had been returned by Clinton to the State Department.

Clinton said, “I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for personal emails instead of two.”

Comey said Clinton “used numerous mobile devices to view and send email” and that she used more than one private server.

Clinton said, “It was on property guarded by the Secret Service, and there were no security breaches. … The use of that server, which started with my husband, certainly proved to be effective and secure.” Her campaign website claimed, “There is no evidence there was ever a breach.”

Comey said, “We assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account.” He added, her server was “not even supported by full-time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial email service like Gmail,” the director said.

Additionally, the State Department inspector general discovered there was no evidence Clinton ever even tried to get approval to use her private server.

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