Clinton camp unloads on Comey

Former top officials for Hillary Clinton’s campaign vented their frustration with both FBI Director James Comey and congressional Republicans on Monday as he testified on Capitol Hill.

Five months after Comey stepped into the 2016 election fray in the campaign’s closing days to talk about investigations into Clinton’s email use — which Clinton herself has said was a cause for her loss to Donald Trump — many Democrats are still seething about his role.


Noting that Comey acknowledged receiving Department of Justice approval to publicly reveal his agency’s investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, Clinton’s former press secretary Brian Fallon tweeted, “An approval he did not care to obtain in Clinton’s case."

Fallon — who was a former senior official in the Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder — joined other former Clinton aides in also grumbling about the revelation that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign as of late July, but that Comey didn’t disclose it until now.

“Russia probe that Comey confirmed was, as best we can tell, in effect before Nov. 8,” he wrote, referring to Election Day. “Fair to ask why he didn’t think voters deserved to know."

“Doing some jobs right requires being in the news everyday, becoming a household name, enraging everyone,” wrote longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines, who played Trump during her debate prep, tapping into Democrats’ pool of anger with Comey. “FBI Director isn’t one of them."

But the operatives’ frustration also extended to the talk of Russia’s meddling in the election more generally — and Comey’s acknowledgment of the country’s intent, now that Trump is president.

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Noting that Comey said it is “correct” to say that Russia preferred Trump to Clinton in the election, former Clinton communications staffer Tyrone Gayle, now the press secretary for California Sen. Kamala Harris, wrote, “That sound you just heard was every ex-Clinton staffer banging their heads on the wall from California to DC."

Nearly a year-and-a-half after Clinton herself testified before Congress over the 2012 attack in Benghazi, they also had little patience for House Republicans.

“Focus on leaks meant to serve same purpose as Trump allegation about wiretapping: distract from possible collusion,” Fallon wrote in response to GOP lawmakers’ lines of questioning about leaks to the media.

“To Members of House Intel deflecting real questions on Russia hack for partisan purposes: this threat isn’t partisan,” added former campaign manager Robby Mook, who has raised the alarm about Russia’s election meddling across the world since November. “Anyone could be next."