FBI director blasted by Democrats after probe revelation
FBI Director James Comey's testimony that the bureau has been quietly investigating possible links between associates of President Donald Trump and Russian officials since the summer enraged Democrats who already blamed him for rattling the 2016 campaign's closing days.
For the first time, Comey confirmed that the FBI had opened a probe into the Trump campaign in July, the same month he called an unusual news conference to announce the agency had finished its investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information—and three months before he scrambled the White House race a second time by announcing that the Clinton probe was continuing, just days before the election.
The revelation drew the ire of Clinton supporters who called out what they said looked like a double-standard and a breach of bureau norms that caused their nominee's surprising defeat.
Clinton's former press secretary, Brian Fallon, bitterly noted that "Comey at least waited until after the election to confirm there was an investigation related to Trump's campaign."
"In Hillary Clinton's case, the FBI confirmed the fact of an investigation into her emails during the heart of the campaign, creating a damaging cloud even though the probe never produced charges of any kind," Fallon said in an email Monday. "It is fair to ask why Jim Comey confirmed one investigation prior to the election, but not the other."
