WASHINGTON--FBI Director James Comey said on Wednesday it made him "mildly nauseous" to think reopening an investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails affected the 2016 presidential election, but he had no regrets and would make the same decision again.
In four hours of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey delivered his most impassioned defense yet of a decision that many Democrats believe cost them the White House: telling Congress 11 days before the Nov. 8 election that the FBI had uncovered a new trove of Clinton-related emails.
Comey said he felt he had to speak out at that time because he had repeatedly told lawmakers the Clinton email probe was over. "To not speak about it would require an act of concealment in my view," Comey said. "Concealing, in my view, would be catastrophic."
He told the panel one reason for the FBI's renewed interest in Clinton's case was that investigators had found emails, some of them classified, forwarded by Clinton's assistant Huma Abedin to her husband, who was not authorized to see such information. "It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election, but honestly, it wouldn't change the decision," Comey said.
The FBI, which is supposed to remain politically neutral, said a few days later that the new emails did not change its decision not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton, but many Democrats believe the political damage was done.
Clinton said on Tuesday her election bid was derailed in part by Comey's announcement about the renewed probe of her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. She said her effort also was damaged by the WikiLeaks release of her campaign chairman John Podesta's emails, allegedly stolen by Russian hackers.
