Former FBI Director James Comey may have felt he had to go public with his decision not to charge Hillary Clinton in the investigation into her private email server because of a Russian intelligence document that appeared to show the Justice Department telling the Clinton camp that they would not push too hard in that case.

The Russian document may be a fake, but at the time, it may have convinced Comey to go public with his decision not to pursue charges, in order to make it clear that he, and not the Justice Department, was making the call.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday the FBI received a Russian document that mentioned a supposed email between then-Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Leonard Benardo, an official at the Open Society Foundations, which was founded by George Soros.

In the email, Wasserman Schultz told Benardo that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a top Clinton campaign aide that she wouldn't allow the investigation to go too deep.

According to the Washington Post report, Comey used the email as justification to go public with his decision not to charge Clinton. In that July press conference, Comey criticized Clinton's practices and commented about evidence, and Democrats believe that press conference played a role in swinging the election to President Trump.

However, the FBI found the document was bad intelligence and the Post reported some sources believe it's a Russian fake planted to confuse the FBI.

Wasserman Schultz and Bernardo independently told the Post they do not know each other and have never corresponded. The Clinton campaign aide, Amanda Renteria, said she doesn't know Lynch and people close to Lynch said she doesn't know Renteria.

The FBI never interviewed Wasserman Schultz, Bernardo and Renteria about the alleged email.

The alleged email between Lynch and Renteria has never been obtained.