Bill Clinton breaks with Hillary on impact of Comey letter

Former President Bill Clinton on Saturday said he disagrees with his wife on the impact of former FBI Director James Comey’s decision to reopen his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server just days before the 2016 election. 

Bill Clinton said the decision to reopen the investigation wouldn’t have been as damaging had the controversy surrounding her emails not been overblown in the first place.

“We have a slight disagreement about this,” the former president said, speaking alongside the former secretary of State at an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of his 1992 presidential victory.

“If the voters hadn’t really been told that the email … was the most important issue since the end of World War II, I doubt if the FBI director could have flung the election at the end.”

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Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of State has been the subject of controversy, as well as an FBI investigation. 

That FBI probe ended last year, when Comey announced that the bureau did not believe Clinton’s actions warranted charges. But months later, less than two weeks before the November presidential election, Comey revealed that the bureau had reopened the probe after it uncovered additional emails on the computer of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). 

On the Sunday before the election, Comey said that the agency had closed the probe again. But Hillary Clinton has cited the controversy surrounding Comey’s Oct. 28 letter announcing that he was reopening the investigation as politically damaging and detrimental to her presidential bid. She eventually lost to then-candidate Donald Trump.  

Hillary Clinton has said on multiple occasions that she believes the letter was among a number of factors that cost her the election.