FBI Director Kash Patel said last week that “the FBI concealed investigations for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton,” as he pushes for more transparency within the bureau in an effort to rebuild trust among Americans.
Patel made his remarks alongside Deputy Director Dan Bongino in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, noting further that former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017, decided on his own not to pursue any charges against the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential contender.
“(The previous) FBI usurped the constitutional responsibilities held by the Department of Justice and the Attorney General,” Patel said, adding, “Comey decided for himself what cases to prosecute and what not to.”
Patel specifically referenced Clinton’s email scandal ahead of the 2016 election — before she helped concoct the ‘Trump-Russia collusion’ hoax in an effort to refocus attention away from herself.
“If you don’t believe me, look at the video record,” Patel said, adding that Comey “intentionally omitted investigation information or distorted prosecution decisions during his tenure as FBI Director.”
During the height of the campaign season in the summer of 2016, Comey did a press conference to announce that, while the FBI had discovered what many felt were prosecutorial crimes involving Clinton’s efforts to conceal emails from investigators, “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges.
Then, under pressure and just ten days before the election, he reopened the investigation into the email scandal, alleging that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had compromised national security by using a personal email server during her time as Secretary of State. Clinton later pointed to the timing of this renewed probe as a key factor in her election loss.
Patel also discussed the subsequent investigation into Trump’s alleged Russia ties, which turned out to be a fabrication.
“New details have been uncovered” regarding that probe, Patel said, adding that “Comeny maliciously and brutally distorted the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and lied to the American people.”
“He concealed relevant documents and hid them in places that cannot be found,” Patel added.
Bongino elaborated on that during a “Fox & Friends” interview on Thursday.
The deputy director said that his office uncovered evidence from Comey’s tenure in a room that had been “hidden from us,” as the bureau has been forced to reallocate resources amid ongoing internal investigations.
“I wouldn’t call it hidden, but hidden from us at least and not mentioned to us, and then we found stuff in there and a lot of it’s from the Comey-era, and we are working our damndest right now to declassify,” Bongino told Fox News.
He added: “I totally understand people saying, ‘Well, do it now.’ The process is [that] not all information is ours to declassify; some is other intelligence agencies, it’s not—we literally can’t do it.”
“Once that gets done and that gets out there, and you read some of the stuff, we found that … was not processed through the normal procedure, digitizing it, putting it in FBI records. We found it in bags hiding under Jim Comey’s FBI, and you’re going to be stunned,” Bongino said.
Bongino did not disclose specifics about what was found but took the opportunity to criticize Comey, who was dismissed during Trump’s first term. His remarks came in response to a Fox News anchor’s question referencing earlier comments from Patel about a social media post made by Comey.
The fired FBI director drew attention earlier this month after posting an image to Instagram showing seashells arranged to spell “8647,” accompanied by the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” Some administration officials believe the message was aimed at President Donald Trump.
The term “86,” originally from restaurant and hospitality jargon, generally means to remove, reject, or eliminate someone or something, according to Merriam-Webster, while ’47’ refers to Trump.