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Baker told the OIG that he thought that the conduct of former Secretary

Clinton and her senior aides was “appalling with respect to how they handled the

classified information…[and] arrogant in terms of their knowledge and

understanding of these matters.” He stated that he was concerned about former

Secretary Clinton’s level of knowledge and intent, and thought that she should have

recognized the sensitivity of information in the emails sent to her. Baker said that

he “debated and argued” with Comey and the Midyear team about former Secretary

Clinton’s criminal liability, but ultimately came to the conclusion that declining

prosecution was the correct decision after reviewing a binder of her emails. Baker

said that he recognized there was a lack of evidence establishing knowledge or

criminal intent, and that based on “the volume of…communications coming at

[Clinton] at all times, day and night, given the heavy responsibilities that a

Secretary of State has, isn’t she entitled to rely on [the classification determinations

by] her folks?” Baker stated that he “did not like it…. I eventually agreed with it,

but I did not like it.”

>>1746984

Comey told the OIG that they did not discuss or consider specific options, but

that he simply said to Yates, “[Y]ou need to get smart people working on what are

the range of possibilities…what is possible under the law, I remember mentioning

the Privacy Act, what is possible and what are the vehicles for transparency, what

are the outer boundaries…. I think I just teed up the issue and said, hope you will

get smart people thinking about this.” Asked whether he was ever involved in

discussions about a joint appearance with Attorney General Lynch, Comey said that

he did not recall any discussions about that option.

Yates recalled this discussion with Comey differently. Yates said that she had

a regular monthly meeting with Comey, and that the day before one of these

meetings, Axelrod received a call from Rybicki suggesting that they meet to discuss

how to conclude the case. She did not recall precisely when this meeting took

place or what had happened in the investigation leading up to it, but she described

the investigation at that time as “wrapping up.”