Story highlights It's not clear what led Comey to offer such an exaggerated number during his testimony

In truth, it doesn't really matter why he screwed up

Washington (CNN) FBI Director James Comey told a Senate committee last week that "hundreds and thousands" of emails containing classified information had been forwarded from top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin to the home computer she shared with her husband -- and one-time New York congressman -- Anthony Weiner.

Turns out that's not true, according to CNN's Evan Perez , who reported Tuesday that Comey had drastically overstated the number of emails Abedin had forwarded to Weiner and that the FBI was in the midst of trying to find a way to correct the record.

It's not clear what led Comey to offer such an exaggerated number during his testimony in front of the Senate judiciary committee. It could have been a simple error, the result of hours of questioning that was largely adversarial from senators in both parties.

In truth, it doesn't really matter why Comey screwed up -- even if the honest answer is that he had a brief mental lapse or got two figures confused in his head.

For Clinton and her allies, Comey's mistake is further evidence of his botched handling of the investigation into her private email server and the role he played -- wittingly or unwittingly -- in shaping the 2016 election.

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