Former FBI Director James Comey was working on his statement regarding Hillary Clinton's email case more than two months before he recommended no charges should be filed against her.
An email made public by the FBI on Monday provides a glimpse into when Comey might have concluded Clinton's actions around setting up and using a private email system while she was secretary of state did not constitute a crime.
The one-sentence email from FBI official James Rybicki reads, "Please send me any comments on this statement so we may roll into a master doc for discussion with the Director at a future date."
Rybicki's note, which was a forward of something Comey had written, was sent May 16, 2016 to several people within the FBI. Comey's original message, which was redacted, carried the subject line of "Midyear Exam" and was sent May 2.
Comey announced July 5, 2016 the FBI was not recommending that charges be brought against Clinton or anyone else involved in her case.
Nothing other than the subject line of Comey's original email is visible, but a likely assumption would be it contained some sort of draft for his Clinton announcement.
The FBI released the email as part of its "Drafts of Director Comey's July 5, 2016 Statement Regarding Email Server Investigation" disclosure.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in August that Comey drafted a memo about not recommending charges against Clinton as many as four months before he made the statement.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.