Former Attorney General Eric Holder was one of nearly 100 officials to sign an open letter criticizing FBI Director James Comey. | AP Photo Holder on Comey: 'Good men make mistakes'

Nearly 100 former federal prosecutors and high-ranking officials of the U.S. Department of Justice, including former Attorney General Eric Holder and former deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, wrote an open letter criticizing FBI Director James Comey.

And in a blistering op-ed for the Washington Post published Sunday night, Holder took Comey to task for writing the letter to Congress.


"I served with Jim Comey and I know him well. This is a very difficult piece for me to write. He is a man of integrity and honor. I respect him. But good men make mistakes," Holder wrote in the Washington Post. "In this instance, he has committed a serious error with potentially severe implications. It is incumbent upon him — or the leadership of the department — to dispel the uncertainty he has created before Election Day. It is up to the director to correct his mistake — not for the sake of a political candidate or campaign but in order to protect our system of justice and best serve the American people."

The letter, which was first reported Sunday by the Associated Press and then released by the Clinton campaign, argues that Comey broke Justice Department protocol when he wrote a letter to Congress about reviewing newly located emails in connection with Hillary Clinton's private email server.

Comey's announcement came 11 days before the general election.

"Perhaps most troubling to us is the precedent set by this departure from the Department’s widely-respected, non-partisan traditions," the letter says.

FBI officials have obtained a warrant for the newly located emails, which were found on former Congressman Anthony Weiner's laptop, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

The officials wrote Justice Department officials are instructed to refrain from commenting publicly on the existence of pending investigative matters, except in "exceptional circumstances and with explicit approval from the Department of Justice officials."

"Many of us have worked with Director Comey; all of us respect him," the officials wrote in the letter. "But his unprecedented decision to publicly comment on evidence in what may be an ongoing inquiry just 11 days before a presidential election leaves us both astonished and perplexed."

In the letter, the officials write that Comey's letter to congress is "inconsistent with prevailing Department policy" and "breaks with longstanding practices followed by officials of both parties during past elections."

In addition, the former federal prosecutors urged Comey to release more information about the emails, saying the vagueness of his announcement only served to confuse the public.

"For this reason, we believe the American people deserve all the facts, and fairness dictates releasing information that provides a full and complete picture regarding the material at issue," according to the letter.

