Former FBI Director James Comey knew early on that a key document relating to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email was a bogus piece of Russian intelligence — but he acted on the bad information out of fear that it would become public and undermine his probe, it was reported Friday.

The intelligence claimed to show that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch had assured someone within the Clinton campaign that they’d go easy on the former Secretary of State, according to CNN.

Even though he knew it to be bad intelligence, Comey publicly declared the investigation into Clinton’s email server over, without the Justice Department’s input, and sharply criticized Clinton’s “extremely careless” handling of classified information.

Comey told members of Congress several months ago that the information could “drop,” compromising both his investigation and the Justice Department, a government official told CNN.

The ex-FBI director believed that it wouldn’t matter whether the information was true or not, as it would impossible for officials to discredit it without revealing intelligence methods.