FBI Director Kash Patel stated last week that “the FBI concealed investigations concerning then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton,” as he advocates for increased transparency within the bureau to restore trust among the American populace.
Patel expressed these views alongside Deputy Director Dan Bongino during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, further noting that former FBI Director James Comey, who was dismissed by President Donald Trump in May 2017, independently chose not to pursue any charges against the former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.
“(The previous) FBI overstepped the constitutional duties assigned to the Department of Justice and the Attorney General,” Patel remarked, adding, “Comey made unilateral decisions regarding which cases to prosecute and which to dismiss.”
Patel specifically cited Clinton’s email controversy prior to the 2016 election—before she allegedly orchestrated the ‘Trump-Russia collusion’ narrative to divert attention from herself.
“If you doubt my claims, refer to the video evidence,” Patel stated, adding that Comey “deliberately excluded investigation details or misrepresented prosecution choices during his time as FBI Director.”
During the peak of the campaign season in the summer of 2016, Comey held a press conference to declare that, although the FBI had uncovered what many considered prosecutable offenses related to Clinton’s attempts to hide emails from investigators, “no reasonable prosecutor” would file charges.
Then, facing pressure and merely ten days before the election, he reopened the investigation into the email controversy, claiming that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had jeopardized national security by utilizing a personal email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. Clinton subsequently indicated that the timing of this renewed investigation was a significant factor in her electoral defeat.
Patel also addressed the subsequent inquiry into Trump’s purported connections to Russia, which ultimately proved to be a fabrication.
“New information has been revealed” concerning that investigation, Patel stated, further asserting that “Comey maliciously and brutally misrepresented the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and deceived the American public.”
“He concealed pertinent documents and obscured them in locations that are untraceable,” Patel continued.
Bongino expanded on this during a “Fox & Friends” interview on Thursday.
The deputy director indicated that his office discovered evidence from Comey’s time in a room that had been “concealed from us,” as the bureau has had to reallocate resources due to ongoing internal inquiries.
“I wouldn’t describe it as hidden, but at least hidden from us and not disclosed to us, and then we uncovered items in there, much of it from the Comey era, and we are currently striving to declassify it,” Bongino informed Fox News.
He added: “I completely understand people saying, ‘Well, do it now.’ The reality is that not all information is ours to declassify; some belongs to other intelligence agencies, and we literally cannot do it.”
“Once that is completed and made public, and you review some of the materials we discovered that … were not processed through the standard procedure, digitizing it, and incorporating it into FBI records. We found it in bags concealed under Jim Comey’s FBI, and you will be astonished,” Bongino remarked.
Bongino refrained from revealing specific details about what was discovered but seized the opportunity to criticize Comey, who was removed during Trump’s initial term. His comments were made in response to a question from a Fox News anchor referencing earlier statements from Patel regarding a social media post by Comey.
The dismissed FBI director attracted notice earlier this month by sharing a photo on Instagram that depicted seashells arranged to form the number “8647,” along with the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” Certain officials within the administration suspect that the message was directed towards President Donald Trump.
The expression “86,” which originates from restaurant and hospitality terminology, typically signifies the act of removing, rejecting, or eliminating an individual or item, as defined by Merriam-Webster, while ’47’ pertains to Trump.
