james comey was deputy attorney general during the george w. bush and ministration. he also said he viewed loretta lynch, they then attorney general, and her meeting with resident clinton on the tarmac last year in the run-up to the election, and the decision to close the hillary clinton email investigation, that something that called into doubt the independence of the investigation. he thought he had more authority and more neutrality to make a call about hillary clinton and the end of that investigation, then perhaps attorney general loretta lynch did. but if you talk to current and former prosecutors they are still a little uncomfortable with that decision. pedro: let's try jill come into some. >> my comment on this jeff sessions is, he is stonewalling. he has had plenty of opportunity to get this executive privilege lifted if he really wanted to do that. so he is stonewalling with president trump, and he's a racist. very racist. he's got a lot of things he's been doing behind the curtains. howi want to bring up senator franklin was so correct. meetid at first he

does it make you hate james comey more or less? >> well, i'm certainly the last person in the world that will defend the way that james comey handled the investigation of hillary clinton. first of all, this is not new information. we knew several months ago that he had written some sort of memo, statement, in regards to what he ultimately said in july when he said, you know, case closed, i'm -- the f.b.i. is finished with this investigation and hillary clinton did no wrongdoing. we also know that he's a very copious note-taker. >> steve: you can say that again. >> yeah, yeah. he's -- he is a self-declared copious note-taker. so none of this is surprising, but i know that republicans are trying to use this to reopen the door here. was james comey biased in any way, shape or form? donald trump made it clear when he fired james comey -- he said he fired him because of the way he handled the hillary clinton email investigation, which we all know is wrong, and now republicans are trying to say, oh, he -- james comey was biased in some w

now republicans are trying to say james comey was bias in some weights towards hillary clinton. it's the last thing in the world that i think most of us who watched the investigation and tone aggressive james comey was towards hillary clinton -- >> steve: maybe there's an agreement between democrats and republicans. not so much about how he handled that but you can't believe a word this guy says. he is totally untrustworthy. i think all sides can agree about that. >> look, i will say this, james comey, i think you mishandled the investigation with hillary clinton server but he's a top investigator. he was very aggressive with the fact, he's been known as a very -- he was a very tough fbi director. and reopening the investigation 12 days before the actual election day, which i think largely cost us the election, i mean the mishandling of the investigation is far different from the way he went in and dealt with the facts. >> steve: the things he said just don't stack up. the reason she even was getting into all this was because of the tarmac meeting, she couldn't take care of it s

director james comey. president trump initially said he fired director comey based on your recommendation and that of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. within days the president admitted to lester holt on nbc news that he actually fired comey because of quote, the russia thing, end quote. it has also been report -- reported the day before he fired comey president trump summoned his top advisors and said he had prepared a termination letter. it is important, i believe, to understand what role you had in this process, including conversations with the president and others in the white house. last week the democratic members of this committee sent a letter making it clear we would be asking about director comey's firing at this hearing and that we expected answers or the assertion of a valid claim of executive privilege by the president. in conclusion, attorney general, your department, as you know, is incredibly important and you are as well. our country depends on a department that is independent, comm

from russia to immigration, from civil rights to james comey the former fbi director. even on sessions' private conversations with the president. let's go "outnumbered overtime." that hearing is in a break for the next 30 minutes. you'd have to go as far back as january for the last time jeff sessions appeared before the judiciary committee. that was for his confirmation hearing. democrats, ready to pounce on a host of issues, including the private conversations the attorney general had with president trump. here it is. >> did the president ever mention to you his concern about ft

instead, we have talked about a man named james comey. so it is donald trump who is on trial here today in this proposition. secondly, if we want to have a long debate over problems in the american, economy about the problems of inequality, we could have a very long debate about that and i would welcome it. but i do not think it is the left side of american politics that is dividing us in the way donald trump did on the day of charlottesville, when he tried to create a moral equivalence between clansmen and not seize -- clansmen and nazis and those who oppose them, because many of those who were in the streets opposing them were peaceful protesters trying to oppose the rise of this far right. and look at the rise of the far right itself. i believe this movement has empowered new forms of political action on the right, the far right end of politics, that i know kim and newt have to oppose in their hearts and their consciousness -- consciences. we see these movements empowered in our country and given airing. it is not just that for liberal

>> i hope james comey doesn't run for anything, he's had his business in the public eye. i hope the next chapter of his life. >> harris: he is still part of an important investigation at this point. that we will be watching, that will make news and we will cover it as it happens. >> thank you for having us. >> harris: thank you very much, we will be right back with more "outnumbered overtime" as we await the latest developments in president trump's luncheon with republican senators on capitol hill. they are talking tax reform, they have to get it done. stay s close. en their windshield got chipped. so they scheduled at safelite.com. they didn't have to change their plans or worry about a thing. i'll see you all in a little bit. and i fixed it right away with a strong repair they can trust. plus, with most insurance a safelite repair is no cost to you. >> customer: really?! >> tech: being there whenever you need us that's another safelite advantage. >> singers: safelite repair, safelite replace. (avo) but you also have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke. non-insulin v

you mentioned james comey. what was his passion to totally support the previous administration hillary, when he originally -- what made him move totally to sabotage? >> percival, let me question your fundamental assumption. it is hillary's assumption that she was sabotage. the truth is that james comey looked at the emails and said that they show that she was fast and loose with national security to the point of criminality. but we can show that you are motivated to anything other than loyalty to the country or yourself and that you did not have criminal intent so we will not prosecute. and that is where it stood in early july. then in the middle of august, prosecutors for the fbi would nothing to do with the email scandal were investigating congressman anthony weiner. for sexting and they went to his computer and they saw all of the porn. underneath that they saw hillary's emails. 13,000 of them. she never turned over. which she turned over to huma abedin put them on her husband's computer.so she could tell th

fbi director james comey mislead the american people during the clinton email scandal? retired detective who worked for the fbi said he should be prosecuted. a racing history for a century, this memorial has honored the american heroes who fought and died in world war i so wise the statue being torn down? starbucks served up a controversy with the snowflake holiday cup last year, that is your's design is revealed and wait until you see it. ♪ wake me up up up up up >> welcome back to "fox and friends" first, goodbye jefferson davis, enter barack obama. the historic elementary school is ditching its name once honoring the president of the confederacy. baccalaureate elementary in jackson, mississippi will now be called barack obama magnet international baccalaureate next year. the change was instituted by students who are 98% african-american, they are elementary school students but they initiated the change, war memorial that has been in place 92 years is ruled unconstitutional and ordered to be removed come it is known as the piece cross, it stands xl feet tall in blad

a former fbi assistant director under james comey, ron is here. former house oversight committee chairman jason, to react. also a big day today in a huge nfl controversy. the players and the owners draft up over three hours of talks today to try to decide how to move forward on the national anthem protest. commissioner roger goodell just told the media next. >> will players continue to take any? >> that will come down to the individual. it's going to be an individual's choice, but i think the ownership, the team and the league, i think we're going in the right direction. ♪ when you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, the unpredictability of a flare may weigh on your mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go, and how to work around your uc. that's how i thought it had to be. but then i talked to my doctor about humira, and learned humira can help get and keep uc under control... when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal inf

we know that the president fired james comey, why did he fire james comey. did he do it to try to stop the investigation? reince priebus was talking to the president all the time, the white house chief of staff is physically there, especially this chief of staff. so any conversations we had with the president about why james comey was fired and how that will be explained to the public was a false statement put on. all of that is going to be central to what mueller's going to be asking. >> the former chief of the staff president has been interviewed by the former chief of investigation, the president of the united states its still have some affect on that working in the west wing. >> one immediate affect they're all lawyered up from top to bottom. we have information about other people that we know mueller wants to interview in the warehouse in his first group of interviews. including sean spicer. the spiring spokesperson. the communication director hill picks. and don mcbegan who is the white house counsel. that's the first group of people close to the presi

as it has turned out, james comey lied and leaked and totally protected hillary clinton. he was the best thing that ever happened to her. joining us tonight from washington, michael crowley national security editor at politico and ken vogel, "the new york times" political reporter. two of the very best minds on this story. michael, back to that second bit of sound from ag sessions. that excuse for firing comey has long been super seeded when the boss told lester holt it was because of russia. >> yeah, overtaken by events i guess as people say. and even the original excuse, brian, didn't make a lot of sense. i think there were people, you know, who were willing to believe, okay, if trump came in on day one and said, comey, i hated the way you landled that thing a lot of people said and even some democrats said the way you handled the investigations was wrong and you're out of here. but it does it when he realizes how much jeopardy he's in. and that was incredibly strange and now for trump really foolish thing to have done. but you put your finger right on, which is compoun

obviously reince priebus was around when they fired james comey. the crucial interactions that we've been focusing on for some time between the president, jeff sessions, james comey, the fbi director, all of that has inflamed the concerns that we were talking about a moment ago. why did he fire james comey? what was his motivation? what was he trying to stop? reince priebus may have some insight in that. >> right. and the fact that he certainly argued against firing james comey, and he was the subject of a lot of attacks from donald trump in the press. you have to wonder that whole flip concept you're talking about. that's being reported in politico, as you know, josh. i also want to talk about what you say, twitter, under scrutiny for deleting data that could help investigators in the russia probe. what's that all about? >> yeah, what i was saying before, we've focused so much on what the trump people did, what manafort did what, mike flynn did, but i think that the investigation really needs to look at what the russians did. even if there were co

then we have to ask, james comey. what did he know and why didn't he act? there's also questions about the phony dossier. how is it possible these same people didn't think it was necessary to tell you, the american people, tell congress that the clinton camp and dnc paid for it? we are working hard day and night. you deserve answers to every one of these questions. one other important thing we have to tell you about the night before we bring in our guest, we now have proof that intelligence wasn't the only powerful government entity that was weaponized by the obama administration. you may remember -- i talk about five forces against the president. one is the deep state. they weaponize the power of the intelligence to use against this president. the department of justice announced they reached a settlement with multiple tea party groups that were targeted specifically by the obama irs because of their political ideology. the settlement includes payouts to several key party groups and an official apology from the irs which now means their actions during the o

we know that the president fired james comey. why did he fire james comey? dy do it to try to stop the investigation? reince priebus was talking to the president all the time. the white house chief of staff is there, physically there, especially this chief of staff. so any conversations he had with the president about why james comey was fired and how that would be explained to the public was a false statement put out, all of that is going to be central to what muscle is going to be asking him. >> and jim, i mean, a former chief of staff to the president has been interviewed by the special counsel investigating the president of the united states. it's got to have some kind of effect on those still working in the west wing seking the president. >> one very immediate effect is they're all lawyered up, from top to bottom, they know they need that kind of representation. and we have some information about other people that we know that mueller wants to interview in the white house in his first group of interviews. they include sean spicer. of course, the fierld

i have to say, clearly mueller is investigating the firing of james comey. unless austin of these reports on many different days are all wrong. assuming mueller is investigating that, i think the tack that sessions took today was a mistake. if i was advising sessions, i could see him saying that he refuses to go into matters like that or try to evade the question. to try to suggest that this is really, that the firing of comey was really about the hillary e-mails is silly at this point. the president has xriktd multiple times. >> we have videotape of the president sitting there saying, this was about the russia investigation. how can he possibly -- i don't understand why sessions went back to the hillary e-mails. the trouble is it makes you think, if sessions isn't being straight with us on why jim comey was fired, what else is he not being straight with us on? >> one comment that jumped out, he said it is not fully understood, the significance of james comey's conduct toward hillary clinton. it is the most peculiar aspect of that to a lot of people. thank y

i also want to ask you about the firing of former fbi director james comey. it was an important moment for the department of justice and for this country. the american people have a right to know why he was fired, especially in the middle of so many high-profile issues going on, including the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. thank you, general sessions, for being here, and for your continuous service to the country. senator feinstein? senator feinstein: i do, mr. chairman. good morning, mr. attorney general. this is the first time you have appeared before this committee, and i want to say welcome. as a former member, you know well the oversight authority that we hold. as i mentioned that your confirmation hearing, i have a deep belief in the independence of the attorney general. although we have had attorney general to view their job as serving the president and as an extension of the white house, i do not believe that is the job of the attorney general. for the attorney general, his master is the people and the law. importantly,

he is james comey on twitter. now that he is writing to let everyone know, he will go by@james comey. just a suggestion. a real person, a theologian who died in 1970. >> the and in desperate to lose its fake news reputation. >> you might start to believe this is a banana. this is an apple. >> this is jimmy carter admits the media is tougher on donald trump than any other commander in chief. a fair and balanced debate coming your way next. ♪ non-insulin victoza® lowers a1c, and now reduces cardiovascular risk. victoza® lowers my a1c and blood sugar better than the leading branded pill. (avo) and for people with type 2 diabetes treating cardiovascular disease, victoza® is now approved to lower the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. and while it isn't for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. (avo) victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid c

i mean, clearly he was the one who made the decision to fire james comey. you notice, you were talking about all of the cast of characters that fox news is trying to throw into this years old story and one of them was james comey. he's sort of out of place. all these other people were prominent democrats. james comey is a career law enforcement guy but he's thrown in there because they also have to smear his name because he is the person who was fired by the president and that conduct is at the center of what probably is going to be the most serious charge against the president of the united states. >> and matt, they also through in eric holder. it's not clear really what his connection to their conspiracy theory might be and of course hillary clinton. so they do seem to be sort of naming an all-star list of people that -- base that watches fox news dislikes. >> that's right. i think eric holder like hillary clinton, republicans can't quit either of them. hillary clinton they've been going after for 25 years. there's this crazy thing on the right now where

it wasn't just russia or james comey, it was a combination of factors. i'm not saying for everyone here who thanks russia and james, he was definitive factor, i'm not saying it wasn't, but there were other factors including the fact she didn't have a message from the beginning of her campaign. we detail, during her lunch speech she had more than a dozen advisors working with her to write this thing. none of them really understood the center of gravity of this message, they didn't understand where was going. she brought in advisors from president obama my speechwriter, his chief speechwriter to actually write it. he actually threw his hands up and said i can't do this because the speech is going nowhere. there was infighting on the top level of the campaign. her two top advisers didn't really care for each other so much. there's one area where they're basically telling each other how they feel about each other and their using words like passive-aggressive hillary clinton stopped talking to some of her top advisers. these are all problems that were swept u

democrats don't like james comey either. to find a receptive audience of james comey, the investigation seems to be leading there. >> two facts. one is the timeline. we know from our reporting of what was posted publicly, james comey, when he was fbi chief he started to draft the reasoning as to why hillary clinton may be exonerated, and then july 2nd, they interviewed clinton and then on july 5th, they recommended charges. the president is right that the draft happened before but he's wrong that comey testified as such and comey was lying that he decided before. here's that testimony with comey. listen to this. >> director, did you make the decision not to recommend criminal charges relating to classified information before or after hillary clinton was interviewed by the fbi on july 2nd? >> after. >> the president says comey stated under oath he didn't do this. alice, what questions should sessions face on all of this today? >> i think the difficulty that sessions is in with regard to the russia investigation, the probe is

as it has turned out, james comey lied and leaked and totally protected hillary clinton. he was the best thing that ever

james comey led hillary clinton off the hook despite the

james comey, who admitted leaking federal documents written on federal hardware admitted to doing so to trigger the creation of the special counsel, who was bob mueller who is his buddy. and what was the mission of the special counsel? to investigate russian undermining of our presidential election in relation to the trump campaign. and what do we find out this morning? paul map for the is charged with not disclosing his foreign bank account. >> sean: 2006 to '14. >> right. 11 years ago. that's how far they have to dig. and not registering adequately as a representative of foreign

to count that work tortured and twisted by james comey. and removing classified materials.

lou: you have to know that james comey, the fired former director, is effectively a dirty cop. he's associated with the dossier. we are learning that the agency built cases for fisa warrants based on that dossier. but this is a town, washington, d.c., from which i just returned -- and i have to tell you, it's a terrible thing when you are delighted, thrilled and relieved to escape the nation's capital. ed: i spent 25 years of my life living in that town. i visit it rarely today and feel the same way you do. comey took this report, an went into the president and he said, i have this information. now, if you are the fbi director and you have this information and you go to the president. you better darn well know it's factual information. and it wasn't factual information. lou: that seems like the least of the affronts here. the reason i say that is that the "freebie con" paying for this. paul singer. it wants that he wasn't for trump. he was a never trumper. his ultimate candidate, i believe is marco rubio. rubio is denying any knowledge of this. and he may not have known. but sh

. >> what really stinks here is mueller, rosenstein, andrew wiesman and james comey appear to have covered it all up, the uranium one deal. >> we have to have mueller fired. >> yes, robert mueller, i hope you're watching. oh robert mueller, are you awake tonight? robert mueller is now investigating anything involved with russia, how is that possible? to be fair and impartial, it's impossible because of his past role in this. he should resign immediately tonight. >> fox news has been relentlessly hiping a claim that hillary clinton sold out our national security by supposedly personally approving a

james comey led hillary clinton off the hook despite the overwhelming amount of evidence of wrongdoing. with all this new information, the big question tonight is who knew what and when? with a uranium one the fbi had mountains of evidence of russian bribery. did president obama know about this? was it in president obama's daily presidential briefings? that might have been told to the lawyer of the fbi informant. what it hillary clinton know and when did she know? did she know her husband, bill clinton, was being paid double his speaking fees for a speech in moscow? did she know bill asked for permission while in moscow to meet with russian nuclear officials? did she know eventually bill met with putin during the trip and advocated? he advocated that the uranium one deal be done and also was paid by a bank that had a financial interest in uranium one. how could both of them, obama and clinton, everything -- ever -- it's a good idea to give

now, there is new evidence former fbi director james comey began drafting a statement clear ing hillary clinton months before the investigation was actually over and before he actually questioned her. some investigators say there's nothing unusual about this but emily you say we need to look into us. >> emily: yes, there may be nothing unusual about it but we need to know the content of the draft that was being circulated around may. hillary clinton herself was not actually interviewed until early july, yet we know from what the fbi has released in transcripts and in a document itself that james comey began circulating a draft of a statement that would clear the case that would conclude the case as early as april. that is highly highly worth looking into. he needs to come to congress to testify and explain the content of that draft and why it was being drafted before hillary clinton and other key witnesses were even interviewed over the course of the investigation. >> dagen: john, don't americans deserve to know the truth behind this and want congress to get to the bottom of it? >> john

firing of the fbi director james comey. the president's power to pardon all of that, much more came up during almost five hours of sometimes rather tense questions and answers between the senate judiciary committee and the attorney general jeff sessions. he denied being part of what one lawmaker called a russian facade, and he was pressed on his initial denial of meetings with russian officials over the summer. it was revealed he discussed the trump campaign with the russian ambassador to the united states. listen to this one very heated exchange. >> first it was, i did not have communications with russians. which was not true. then it was, i never met with any russians to discuss any political campaign. which may or may not be true. now it's, i did not discuss interference in the campaign, which further narrows your initial blanket denial about meeting with the russians. since you have qualified your denial to say that you did not, quote, discuss issues of the campaign with russians, what in your view constitutes issues of

he answered to shed light on even the firele of james comey. howard, big news, you are someone who brings a lot of experience on friday nights like this, and they seem to be busy. >> right. >> my question to you, tell us what we need to know about this development. >> okay. central to the theory of bob mueller's case, is that there was a coverup. there was a deliberate attempt to hide the true story about what happened in the election. and i think central to that is the question of the firing of jim comey and the explanations given for it. what were the real reasons for the firing and who said what afterwards? and those are the two parts of mueller's case i think reince priebus can shed the most light on. reince priebus came out in february of 2017 and said flatly as chief of staff in the trump white house, there have been no collusion whatsoever with russia during the campaign, who told him to say that and based on what, why did he say that? then, of course, the whole firing of james comey, which i think mueller believes is in itself an act of

you have all of this on the table and then you have james comey who was in the thick of it when an fbi informant was saying, hey, this company ten x has bribery and shenanigans with russia. so to me there is a lot that could be investigated by this special prosecutors office and i hope they are looking at some of this stuff. >> well, jack, you just cued me for this conversation because what you are saying in line and echoes from the white house and the president all this week, they've been actually saying don't look over here at russia, i want to you look at hillary clinton. take a listen to sara sanders in the press briefing room this week. >> the president wants to see this completed. we think that we are continuing to see day in and day out as this investigation moves to completion that as the same as it started, there is still no evidence of collusion between the president and anyone. if any collusion took place, it would be between the dnc and the clintons and think we are starting to now see that all of the things that the democrats had accused this president of doing, they were

i also want to ask you about the fairing of former director james comey. it was an important moment for the department of justice and for this country. the american paem hameramericant to know why he was fired, especially in the middle of so many high-profile issues going on, including the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. so thank you, general sessions, for being here. and for your continued service to the country. senator feinstein? >> thanks very much, mr. chairman. good morning, mr. attorney general. this is the first time you've appeared before this committee and i want to say welcome, but as a former member, you know well the oversight authority that we hold. as i mentioned, at your confirmation hearing, i've got a deep belief of the independence of the attorney general. although we've had attorney generals who view their job as serving the president and as an extension of the white house, i do not believe that's the job of the attorney general. for the attorney general's master is the people and the law, importantly, his

he did not answer many of the questions, especially about the firing of fbi director james comey, citing confidentiality. we'll get more on that in a moment. in his conversations with the president, but he did offer this answer. >> specifically what was your designated role in the decision to fire director comey? >> it is -- it's a matter that i can share some information about because the president himself has talked about it and reveal that letter. he asked that deputy rosenstein and i make our recommendations in writing. we prepared those recommendations and submitted it to the president. senator feinstein, i don't think it's been fully understood the significance of the error that mr. comey made on the clinton matter. >> critical answer there. more on that in just a moment. now, as for the president, he wrote about comey on twitter today for the first time in 47 days, an eternity. here is the quote. as it has turned out, jails comey lied and leaked and totally protected hillary clinton. he was the best thing that ever happened to her. joining us tonight from washington, michael crowl

all right, he's been blamed for hillary clinton's election loss, but his former fbi director james comey preparing a white house run for himself? can you imagine? carley shimkus with the rumors online. that's all coming up next. so they can protect their teammates and the surrounding wetlands, too. because safety is never being satisfied. and always working to be better. -oh! -very nice. now i'm turning into my dad. i text in full sentences. i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers defense wins championships. -well, it does. -right? why is the door open? are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood? at least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. i mean, why would i replace this? it's not broken. feven being the backng half of a unicorn. i mean, why would i replace this? fortunately, the front half washed his shirt with gain. ah... the irresistible sce

director james comey. he have is pushing back on the accusation from democrats that he misled them about his contacts with the russians. and two key figures who were part of the group that commissioned the dossier, the dossier is one of the foundational pieces of the russia investigation by the f.b.i. have taken the fifth before the house intelligence committee in a private session. >> great information. his explanation was did i talk to anyone from russia about the election and he is like i said no because, of course i've had incidental contact but i didn't talk to anyone about the election. that was his explanation. if people except it or not they were able to clear it. on the fusion gps side, it is behind closed doors. one of the biggest questions you mentioned, who funded that dossier? who paid people with connections to the russians to go in and do this oppositional research? it's a big deal and that's what they are trying to get to the bottom of and they aren't doing it today with people refusing to

and enter the cave of the fbi and probably james comey. they all knew about this. >> exactly what we are looking at. these are people who actually knew about this. now it's up to congress to ask those questions and find out why did you decide to allow this deal to go through with uranium one? what was the fbi actually looking at? >> sean: and influencing all of our uranium in this country? we will have more on this tonight. did the doj, did they deliberately jeopardize america's national security knowing all of this was going on, in other words the kickbacks, bribery, extortion, money laundering? allowing the steel to go through without presenting the evidence. how did hillary sign off on it and get all the money to the foundation? did they risk national security? >> there are things we don't know yet. they still voted to approve the deal after being told. >> sean: they told him about bribery, extortion and they still allowed the deal to go through by the russians in our own country? >> we don't know the answer to that and i can confirm to

the administration's matter was removing james comey. why would you react to that if you were recused? >> first, an attorney general does not recuse himself from supervision of the fbi, a $7 billion agency that he's responsible for, because he may have recused himself about one or more matters that the fbi was working on, number one. number two, the clinton case had been closed. it was not an ongoing matter at that time. number three, the discussion about whether or not mr. comey conducted himself properly did not deal with whether or not there was sufficient evidence to go forward or not with regard to a charge against secretary clinton. it dealt with whether or not he acted properly when he just closed the case without -- instead of the attorney general's office or the prosecutors in the attorney general's office. i think it's quite different, senator coombs. i'm actually glad to have the opportunity to discuss that. but i'm confident that i did not -- i was not required to recuse myself on the decision of whether or not to keep secret