Barbara McQuade

Yeah.

And I think most of us at the time who worked at the Department of Justice realized just how awful that was, what a deep violation of the norms it was.

It was an arrogant act, I think, by James Comey.

I think it was a bit of a selfish act.

And in my opinion—

I think he was trying to preserve his own reputation among Republicans by castigating Hillary Clinton.

What you may recall is the investigation itself was sort of publicly known because of the use of the email server.

It was a referral by Congress.

And so it was pretty well known that it was happening.

Yes.

And so the fact that it was acknowledged didn't bother me too much because I think that was already in the public domain.

I think a straight by the book response, however, would have been we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

I think that would have been more appropriate.

However, there is an exception when necessary to assure the public that the FBI is on the job.

Maybe I give him a pass there to acknowledge the investigation.

But where I really part ways with the way he handled that was two things that he did.

One, he announced that they were closing the investigation.

That announcement really should have come from the attorney general.

But she had recused herself by then or the deputy attorney general, Sally Yates.

And, you know, an inspector general report has indicated that Comey just called her and said, I'm making an announcement today.