GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Y– you also write that you– you knew from the start that the Clinton case was unlikely to be prosecuted. Some of your critics, including President Trump, think that– that you brought a prejudgment to the case?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah. There's wrong– what– what the F.B.I. brought to the case– folks forget I didn't actually do this investigation. I supervised an organization that did it, is a knowledge about how these cases are handled in the counterespionage world. That's the world where mishandling of classified information is investigated. And so we have a 50 year history of knowing what will the Department of Justice prosecute?

They'll prosecute cases like David Petraeus'. But they're very unlikely to prosecute a case unless you can show the person, like Petraeus, clearly knew they were doing something they shouldn't do. There's evidence of obstruction of justice or disloyalty to the United States, spy– indications.

But without those, sloppiness, even extreme sloppiness, is handled through administrative discipline. Somebody is not prosecuted. And I've gone through 50 years of cases. I don't know of a case where anyone has ever been prosecuted for just being careless, even extremely careless. And so when the case was open, we know that history.

And so the investigators knew that, unless they found something that was a smoking gun, where someone told Secretary Clinton, "You know, you shouldn't be doing this," or where she acknowledged it or where somehow there's an indication of her obstructing justice, the case was unlikely to be prosecuted.

http:// abcnews.go.com/Site/transcript-james-comeys-interview-abc-news-chief-anchor/story?id=54488723

>>1070707

BRING BACK THE GALLOW HUMOR!

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the things that President Trump and his allies bring up is that at some point, her staff smashed Blackberries, also whitewashed the server?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah. There was evidence that old Blackberries, after she was finished with them, they destroyed them, which I think a fair number of people do to make sure that if it's resold, someone doesn't end up with your information. And that after they produced information back to the d– to the Department of State, they used– a software program to clean the server to make sure there was nothing on it, or clean laptops to make sure there's nothing on them.

They did that. But as investigators, our question is, when they did that, are they trying to obstruct justice in some ways? And we could never establish, develop the evidence– evidence is a different thing from what people say. Evidence that anybody who did that did it with a corrupt intent. And most importantly, any indication that Secretary Clinton knew that was happening and knew that it was an effort to obstruct justice.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You did know from the start that this case was going to be trouble for you. You tell of a scene with your deputy director?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah. I knew this was a no-win situation, this case. America is in an unusually polarized state. We've just opened a criminal investigation of one of the people who will likely be candidate for president of the United States in the middle of that viciously partisan atmosphere. One half of the partisan divide is going to be angry at us no matter what we do.

Of course, at the time, I had no idea that I could make both halves angry at us, but we'll come to that later. But the deputy director who was a great deputy director and a longtime special agent, looked at me and said, "You know you're totally screwed, right?" And I smiled. And I said, "Yup. Nobody gets out alive." And, of course, it was gallows humor. And it was funny because it was an actual gallows.

>>1070707

STARTED WITH REFERRAL FROM IG

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, it was not a break with precedent, but y– you're right. In the late summer after the investigation had been opened for three months and the whole world was talking about it, 'cause you remember, it began with a public referral from the inspector general.

>>1070707

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So that's one reason that the Justice Department is compromised. What's reason number two?

JAMES COMEY: Reason number two. And I have to talk about it very carefully. Classified information came into the possession of the U.S. intelligence community in the early part of 2016 that indicated there was material out there that raised the question of whether Loretta Lynch was controlling me and the F.B.I. and keeping the Clinton campaign informed about our investigation.

Now, I don't believe that. And I don't believe that's true. But there was material that I knew someday, when it's declassified, and I thought that would be decades in the future, would cause historians to wonder, "Hmm, was there some strange business going on there? Was Loretta Lynch somehow in – carrying water for the campaign and controlling what the F.B.I. did?"

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So that's one reason that the Justice Department is compromised. What's reason number two?

JAMES COMEY: Reason number two. And I have to talk about it very carefully. Classified information came into the possession of the U.S. intelligence community in the early part of 2016 that indicated there was material out there that raised the question of whether Loretta Lynch was controlling me and the F.B.I. and keeping the Clinton campaign informed about our investigation.

Now, I don't believe that. And I don't believe that's true. But there was material that I knew someday, when it's declassified, and I thought that would be decades in the future, would cause historians to wonder, "Hmm, was there some strange business going on there? Was Loretta Lynch somehow in – carrying water for the campaign and controlling what the F.B.I. did?"

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Y– you laid out a series of reasons that led you to do– do the July press conference– even going back to Loretta Lynch calling this a matter not an investigation. President Obama weighing in. The classified information about Loretta Lynch, the tarmac meeting. Can you assure people today– can you assure them that the Obama Justice Department was not protecting Hillary Clinton?

JAMES COMEY: Yes. And if there were people who were secretly trying to protect Hillary Clinton, we didn't know about it. The FBI drove this investigation and we did it in a competent and independent way. I would bet my life on that.

http:// abcnews.go.com/Site/transcript-james-comeys-interview-abc-news-chief-anchor/story?id=54488723

>>1070927

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: A– and at the time, did you know it had been financed at the beginning from President Trump's– by President Trump's political opponents?

JAMES COMEY: Yes, I– I was told at some point that it was– the effort had originally been financed by a Republican source to develop– material– opposition research on Donald Trump. Then after the Republican nominating process ended, the effort was taken up and funded by a Democratic aligned group trying to get opposition research on Trump. I never knew which– who the groups were, but I knew it started with Republicans paying for it and then Democrats were paying for it.

>>1070949

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: At the same time, the Hillary Clinton email investigation comes back. When did you first know you were going to have to deal with this again?

JAMES COMEY: Really, October 27th. Somebody earlier in October, the b– in the beginning of October sometime, mentioned to me that there may be a connection between emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop and the Clinton email investigation. I don't remember.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Was this Andrew McCabe?

JAMES COMEY: I think it was Andy McCabe, but I'm not certain. I didn't store that in any prominent place in my brain 'cause how could that possibly be true?

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But how could that not be something you remember?

JAMES COMEY: That's a great question. I think the answer is because how could that possibly be true? How could there be a connection between Anthony Weiner's laptop and Hillary Clinton's emails? And so I think it was sort of a passing comment to me, and I'm sure I stored it away thinking, "Okay, well, that doesn't make any sense, but I'm sure they'll tell me if it does." And they did. They c–

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It's l– it's led your critics to say that the FBI, for several weeks, sat on the knowledge that they had several thousand Hillary Clinton emails.

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, more than several thousand, hundreds–

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of thousands.

JAMES COMEY: –of thousands on Anthony Weiner's laptop. And I don't know the answer to that criticism. I don't know whether the Bureau team could have moved faster to– to bring it to me for a decision. All I know is that they did bring it to me on the morning of October 27th. And so, there's an inspector general investigation going on– about our work on that investigation. I'm sure they'll say, which I think is great. But I don't know the answer to that now–

>>1070991

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And during that time, you actually talked about this encounter with Loretta Lynch.

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, the Monday I sent the letter– I learn about the emails, get briefed on the need for a search warrant on the 27th of October. We debated and debated and debated and decide on the 28th to send the letter. We had a regular meeting with Loretta on Monday, so that woulda been the 31st.

And she emailed me the Sunday night before and said, "Hey, can I meet with you after our regular terrorism threat briefing on Monday morning?" Said, "Sure." And at the end of the meeting, she asked could she meet with me? Which of course we'd al– I'd already agreed to meet.

But our staffs were all there, and so they then knew the two of us were going to meet. And they all waited outside. And Loretta took me into an office in the FBI that's reserved for the attorney general, and I walked in first, and she walked in and closed the door and then turned and just walked towards me with her head down and her arms out.

And I'm not a big hugger, but especially– there was an awkward dis– difference in our height, I guess as there is with me and most people. But she pressed her face against my chest and wrapped her arms around me and then I reached down, as I explain in the book, and kinda awkwardly hugged.

And then we– parted and she said, "I– I thought you needed a hug." And she was right. I'm sure it showed on my face how beaten I felt. And then we sat down and she said, "How are you doing?" Loretta Lynch is a really good person and has known me a long time.

She said, "How are you doing?" And I told her that I felt terrible, that I felt beaten, and– but that I didn't see that I had a choice. And then she said something that floored me. She said, "Would they feel better if it leaked on November the 4th?" And my reaction was– and I said to her, "Exactly, Loretta."

>>1071060

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You had your– your former boss, Rudy Giuliani, out there on television saying something big was coming.

JAMES COMEY: Yes, I saw that. And I don't know whether that was– it's part of what I ordered investigated. I don't know whether that was part of a leak outta the– FBI office in New York that knew about the search warrant. But that was my concern, that once you start seeking a search warrant, especially in a criminal case– counterintelligence is different.

They're so used to operating in a classified environment. They're much tighter. But once you start involving people whose tradition is criminal, and in New York which has a different culture, there is a reasonable likelihood it was going to get out anyway.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So were you gamed here by people who had political motives?

JAMES COMEY: I don't think so. I mean, I– I don't think anybody with political motives put hundreds of thousands of Hillary Clinton's emails on Anthony Weiner's laptop, for heaven sakes. And so I– I don't think so.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is one of the lessons here that, as hard as you tried to stay outta politics, it actually is unavoidable? That because you have to make political assumptions as ya– as– as you're closing in on an election, you're thrown into politics no matter which decision you make?

>>1071075

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And– just take us inside your house at that point. You– you've written about this. Your wife, Patrice, Hillary Clinton supporter.

JAMES COMEY: Oh yeah. And– and the– the– I didn't take a poll among all the kids, but I'm pretty sure that at least my four daughters, probably all five of my kids, wanted Hillary Clinton to be the first woman president. I know my amazing spouse did. My)– my wife and girls marched in the women's march the day after President Trump's inauguration.

There was a lotta passion in this house for Hillary Clinton. And I– I get that. But again, I hope it illustrates to people that I really wasn't making decisions based on political fortunes.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: S– so what did she say to you? What did you say to her?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I don't– I– she knew enough, Patrice, the pain that I was in that– and how hard these decisions were that I don't think she spent a lotta time– I think she got actually where I was. I d– she didn't spend– she expressed frustration.

She hated the fact that I had to make these decisions, and 'cause she loves me dearly, she hated the fact that I personally was stepping in front of the institutions to get shot repeatedly. She would say, "Look, I get what you're doing. I get that you're trying to protect the institutions.

>>1071144

Newt is calling Comey a shrinking man

6'4" to 5'2" because of his lies.

meme shrinking comey with Pinocchio growing nose.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You met with President Obama after the election?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, he held me back after one of the very last meetings I had with him, after the election, and said he didn't want to talk to me about any particular case, 'cause he was very scrupulous about that. And he said, "But I want to just tell you something generally.

I appointed you to be FBI director because of your integrity and your ability." And then he looked me in the eye and he said, "Nothing has happened, nothing, in the last year that has changed my view of that." And, look, he wasn't telling me, "I agree with what you did."

He wasn't telling me, "You made the right decision." He was telling me, "I know where it came from. I know you're not a partisan hack. I know you're trying to do the right thing." And it meant a lot to me. I mean, I had not been a political supporter of President Obama's.

I came to deeply respect him, and his higher loyalty to the values I care a lot about. And I g– I almost got emotional in that moment 'cause, again, I'd been walking around like Bruce Willis in “The Sixth Sense.” And have the president of the United States say, "I still respect you for the reasons I did originally," meant a lot to me.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: That was a real, in some ways a very raw conversation, in your telling. What else did you tell him?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I said to him– "Mr. President," first of all, I said, "Thank you, Mr. President. It has been a nightmare. I'm just– I've just tried to do the right thing." And he said, "I know. I know." And then I said, "I think my wife would kill me if I didn't take this chance to thank you, and to tell you how much I'm going to miss you.

And– and also to t–" I told him that, "I dread the next four years. But in many ways, I feel great pressure to stay to try and protect the institution I lead."

>>1071252

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So– so it's– January 2017. The intelligence community and the F.B.I. have reached their conclusions about what– what Russia did during the election and so you have to go tell the president-elect. But first, I guess, the day before–

JAMES COMEY: Yeah.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: –you brief President Obama. Take us inside that room.

JAMES COMEY: Sure. It was right– January 5th in the oval office. Director Clapper, the head of the– the director of national intelligence, the head of the C.I.A., the head of the N.S.A., and myself met with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and their senior national security team in the oval office, sitting in the sitting area by the fireplace.

The president and the vice president in arm chairs with their back to the fireplace and I was sitting slightly off to the right so the president would have to look slightly left to see me. Director Clapper was sitting in the center and he briefed them on the findings of the joint intelligence community assessment and the conclusions about what Russia had done.

And there were a variety of questions, especially focused on, "So how do we stop it from happening in the future," questions about sources and whatnot and how certain we were. And he conveyed that it was a joint high-confidence assessment, which is very unusual. From analysts from the– different agencies that the Russians had did this, their goals were to dirty up the American democracy, to hurt Hillary Clinton and to help elect Donald Trump.

And we were going to brief it– he explained that the next morning, to the gang of eight, the leaders of the House and Senate– intelligence committees and the speaker and majority leader and minority leader on both sides. And then we were going to New York and brief the president-elect and his team.

>>1071294

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You say high confidence. That means you're sure?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, that's the closest the intelligence community– you never say you're sure in the intelligence business. The top level is high confidence. There's low confidence, medium confidence, high. This was the top of the chart. So you never say you're sure in the intelligence business because you– you never want to be over-confident. But this was– their sense that given the variety of sources and methods we had, we had this nailed.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And in that meeting, that's what Russia did. You also discussed with the president this information you had about the president-elect contained in the Steele dossier?

JAMES COMEY: Right. Director Clapper explained to the president and vice president that there was additional material that had– came from a reliable source and that we had included as an annex in the report, that it was sufficiently separate, that we didn't integrate it into the report, but it was sufficiently reliable that we thought it oughta be part of the entire report.

And there was a portion of it that was particularly salacious that related to allegations around sexual conduct of– before– President Trump was a candidate. And the president asked– President Obama asked, "What's the plan for briefing that material?"

And he explained that we had decided that Director Comey would meet with the president-elect privately after we briefed the president-elect and his team on the general findings so that he could review it– in a more private, more sensitive setting with the president-elect.

>>1071331

Comey wanted to meet Trump alone.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So you all go up to New York the next day, January 6th, for the meeting in Trump Tower. You had– one more warning– from the secretary of Homeland Security.

JAMES COMEY: Right, as I explained in the book, Jeh Johnson, who's been a friend of mine since we were federal prosecutors in Manhattan in the late '80s, called me after the meeting in the oval office with President Obama. Jay had been in the meeting– and just to tell me that he was worried about this plan for me to brief the president-elect alone about this material.

And I said, "Me too." And he said, "Have you ever met Donald Trump?" And I said, "No." And he said, "Be careful, Jim, be very careful." And it's one of those things that you appreciate a friend saying, it's not really helping me, except to make me feel even more nervous, the lump in my stomach bigger. But, yeah, Jay called me– and I don't know whether he was calling at President Obama's request, but he seemed to be giving voice to the eyebrow raise.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So what does "be careful" mean in that context?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I don't know. That's why we– thanks, bud. It's not really helping me. I– I took it as, "Just choose your words carefully. Don't say more than you need to, less than you need to, try to get it just right, accomplish your goal, and then get outta there," is how I took it.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So as you headed into Trump Tower that day, were you nervous?

JAMES COMEY: Yes.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: What were you afraid of?

JAMES COMEY: Well, I'm about to meet with a person who doesn't know me, who's just been elected president of the United States. By all accounts, and from my watching him during the– the campaign, could be volatile. And I'm about to talk to him about allegations that he was involved with prostitutes in Moscow and that the Russians taped it and have leverage over him.

And I was worried that I'm about to have a situation emerge where the president-elect thinks the F.B.I.'s out to get him somehow. People, in my experience, tend to project onto you their worldview. And even though I did not intend to jam Donald Trump with this, my thinking was, given his approach to the world, he may think I'm pulling a J. Edgar Hoover and assume that I'm trying to dangle this over him to get leverage on him. And so I worried– I'm going to not only ruin any relationship I might have with the president, but more importantly, create a situation where the president and the– and the F.B.I. are at war even before he becomes president.

>>1071366

I bet Trump does have tapes.