WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump started Wednesday by twisting the findings of two senior Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans, tweeting that Hillary Clinton was among "people not interviewed" by the FBI in an investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of State.
The FBI released documents Monday that show then-FBI Director James Comey began writing a statement exonerating Clinton before he concluded his investigation. Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of Judiciary's Crime and Terrorism subcommittee, first revealed Comey's actions Aug. 31.
Grassley and Graham cited transcripts they reviewed of interviews federal investigators conducted last fall with two FBI officials who were close to Comey: James Rybicki, Comey's chief of staff, and Trisha Anderson, the principal deputy general counsel of National Security and Cyberlaw.
"Conclusion first, fact-gathering second _ that's no way to run an investigation. The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy," Grassley and Graham wrote in a letter sent that day to senior FBI officials.
The two senators' findings got the president's attention. Trump turned their letter into fodder for a Sept. 1 tweet alleging Comey's actions reveal a "rigged system" against him.
The morning after the FBI made the documents public, Trump was back at it a trio of tweets that slammed his own Justice Department _ again _ and twisted both what the documents show and what was concluded by the Senate Judiciary GOP leaders.
This was Trump's contention, spread over two tweets, Wednesday morning: "Many ... ..people not interviewed, including Clinton herself."
But the FBI did interview Clinton, albeit after Comey began drafting his July 2016 statement that criticized her but made clear he would not bring criminal charges. That session spanned three hours on Saturday in early July 2016.
The president on Wednesday also alleged Comey testified under oath that he "didn't do this," meaning did not have his investigators interview Clinton before he began drafting the statement.
A review of Comey's June 8 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee found no question nor any answers by the former FBI boss about when he began drafting the July 2016 statement. That is likely explained by something Trump tweet ignores: Grassley and Graham did not go public about their findings until Aug. 31, nearly three months after Comey testified under oath.
