FBI Director James Comey is in the spotlight again this week as he appears before several congressional committees, and Congressional Republicans try to once again ignite the cooling embers of the Hillary Clinton email investigation that Comey ended a few months ago. One bit of underreported news to emerge from these hearings is the fact that when Director Comey was asked if he believes that Hillary Clinton committed a crime with regard to the handling of classified information, he went a good deal further than he had in his July press conference, at which he tried to strike a balance between scolding Hillary Clinton and exonerating her.

At that July press conference, Comey said that “no reasonable prosecutor” would proceed with a case, but hen he was asked at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee if Hillary had committed a crime, he flatly told Sen. Ben Sasse that there was “no evidence” of that:

Sen. Sasse: Do you think that Secretary Clinton break any laws related to classified data? Director Comey: We have no evidence sufficient to justify the conclusion that she violated any of the statutes related to classified information.

Comey also explained the semantic difference between believing that Hillary Clinton’s answers were truthful, and having no reason to believe they were untruthful. Clinton opponents have tried to paint Comey’s closure of the investigation as excusing criminality that simply couldn’t be proven byeond a reasonable doubt, but what Comey says now is that there is no evidence. That should definitely be the end of that.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.