Former FBI Director James Comey again said there was some mysterious 'classified information' that compelled him to hold a solo press conference in July 2016 and announce the FBI wouldn't recommend charges against Hillary Clinton.

'Classified information came into the possession of the U.S. intelligence community in the early part of 2016 that indicated there was material out there that raised the question of whether Loretta Lynch was controlling me and the FBI and keeping the Clinton campaign informed about our investigation,' Comey said during Sunday night's sit-down with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

Comey was trying to explain why he held a separate FBI press conference on July 5, 2016, instead of having then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch make the announcement.

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Former FBI Director James Comey (left) said classified information picked up by the nation's intelligence services led to his decision to hold a press conference announcing the end of the Hillary Clinton email investigation separate from then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch (right)

Former FBI Director James Comey (left) told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos (right) that his second biggest reason for holding a separate presser from Attorney General Loretta Lynch was classified information that could make the FBI look like they were taking orders from Obama and Lynch

The former FBI head said there was a 'bunch of reasons' Lynch could not credibly announce the results of the investigation, including the fact that President Obama has twice said, in Comey's words, 'there was no there, there.'

Comey said Obama's meddling surprised him.

'He's a very smart man and a lawyer ... He shouldn't have done it. It was inappropriate,' Comey said.

The ex-FBI said that Obama also didn't have any insight into the case because the FBI's team wasn't leaking.

'I think he felt a pressure in the political environment because he wanted Hillary Clinton to be elected, to give her a shot in the arm,' Comey continued. '

Obama speaking about the investigation 'created this drumbeat that the Obama Justice Department, the fix is in because the president has told them what result they should reach,' Comey said.

'So that's one reason that the Justice Department is compromised. What's reason No. 2?' Stephanopoulos asked.

To that Comey pointed toward the mysterious 'classified information.'

'Here was material that I knew someday, when it's declassified, and I thought that would be decades in the future, would cause historians to wonder, "Hmm, was there some strange business going on there? Was Loretta Lynch somehow ... carrying water for the campaign and controlling what the FBI did?"' Comey said.

The ex-FBI head didn't give any more details about what the classified information said, though he knocked down its validity.

'What I can say is the material is legitimate,' he said. 'It is real. The content is real. Now, whether the content is true is a different question. And again, to my mind, I believed it was not true.'

In late May 2017, after Comey's abrupt firing from the FBI at the hands of President Trump, the Washington Post revealed the existence of a Russian intelligence document that cited an email exchange between Lynch and a member of the Clinton campaign, with Lynch assuring the Clinton aide that federal investigators wouldn't push too deeply into the email matter.

Current and former officials, the Post reported, told the paper that Comey relied on this document in making his July decision to announce that the Clinton probe was over.

While this story would seemed to plug a hole in the 'classified information' puzzle, when Comey testified before Congress the next month, he seemingly knocked the report down.

During that hearing, Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, asked the freshly fired FBI director is his decision to hold his own press conference was due to Lynch's meeting with former President Bill Clinton on an Arizona tarmac.

'Yes,' Comey answered, though added that other things had contributed to that decision.

'One significant item I can't, but know the committee's been briefed on, there's been some public accounts of it which are nonsense, but I understand the committee has been briefed on the classified facts,' Comey answered.

At another point in the hearing, Comey referred to what he had said to Burr, the chairman of the committee, and called the news reports 'nonsense' again.

'I mentioned to the chairman the nonsense around what influenced me to make the July 5th statement. Nonsense. But I can't go explaining how it is nonsense,' he said, alluding to the information's classified nature.

In his own questions to Comey, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn noted how the ex-FBI head had 'suggested that perhaps there are other matters that you may be able to share with us later on in a classified setting.'

'But it seems to me that you clearly believe that Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, had an appearance of a conflict of interest on the Clinton e-mail investigation. Is that correct?' Cornyn asked.

Comey called Cornyn's characterization 'fair.'

'I didn't believe she could credibly decline that investigation,' Comey answered. 'At least not without grievous damage to the Department of Justice and the FBI.'

In her own statement released Sunday, before the airing of his interview with Stephanopoulous, Lynch pointed out how she had known Comey for almost 30 years.

'Throughout his time as director we spoke regularly about some of the most sensitive issues in law enforcement and national security,' she said. 'If he had any concerns regarding the email investigation, classified or no, he had ample opportunities to raise them with me both privately and in meetings.'

'He never did,' she said.