Former Bush attorney general: Comey made 'error in judgment'

Former Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he worries that his former colleague and current FBI Director James Comey may have made an “error in judgment” by sending a letter to Congress on Friday that upended the presidential race.

“You're the FBI director, attorney general, you're going to have to make some hard decisions where you're going to make mistakes or at least be criticized,” Gonzales said on CNN, after also casting doubt on Comey’s decision earlier this morning on MSNBC. “And you have to do what you believe is right, and I worry that in this particular instance, he has made an error in judgment in releasing this letter which really says nothing.”


Comey wrote to several congressional committee chairs on Friday to tell them that an “unrelated case” had led to emails that might be “pertinent” to the bureau's investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

In July, the FBI director explained his decision not to recommend charges by saying that while Clinton and her aides were "extremely careless" with classified information, no reasonable prosecutor would issue indictments. Gonzales said this unusually candid approach put Comey in a difficult spot when new information was discovered.

“You typically do not comment on investigations, ongoing investigations, and of course that protocol was breached this past summer when Director Comey gave that press conference talking about the investigation,” Gonzales said. “But again, you don't comment on investigations because commenting on the investigation may jeopardize the investigation. And that's the box he's put himself in."

Asked to describe working with Comey, Gonzales said he was a man of honor and integrity whose tunnel vision can sometimes lead him astray.

“Well, I think he is a person that, you know, he does what he thinks is right, and then he doesn't deviate from that position, despite the pressure,” Gonzales said. “And he may be wrong. You may be firmly convinced of something, but you could be firmly wrong. And from my experience is, is that, you know, once he takes a position, he digs in, and he's not going to move from it. Whether or not he's wrong or not or whatever political pressure may be brought to bear on him.”