Former FBI Director James Comey stands by the way he handled himself during the 2016 presidential election.
In a wide-ranging interview with NPR, Comey said that he was put in a "no-win situation," but that he believes he made the right decision when it came to publicly disclosing an FBI investigation into then-candidate Hillary Clinton.
Comey headed up the bureau when it opened an investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server. He made two unprecedented public announcements about the probe: In July 2016, Comey announced that the FBI recommended no criminal charges against Clinton; in October 2016, he disclosed that the FBI had discovered a new set of emails and would reopen the case.
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Comey told NPR that he believed he should announce the discovery in order to protect the public's trust in the FBI, but his decision was widely criticized as it defied standard procedure for the FBI. Still, Comey said that he hasn't lost any sleep over his choice to "show transparency to the American people." His regrets include making "thoughtless" statements about the Holocaust in a speech that angered Poland, as well as sounding off on an Apple advertisement that "bugged" him, he said — but not his conduct as FBI chief.
"Once I make a decision — and I always tried to [do so] in a thoughtful way — I'm okay," Comey said. "I'm sleeping well."
The one time he truly felt uneasy? "I woke up in the middle of the night after Donald Trump tweeted at me about tapes," said Comey. Read the full interview at NPR.
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