Weld: Comey, FBI ‘off the reservation’

by Rebecca Savransky - 10/31/16 2:43 PM ET

Libertarian vice presidential nominee Bill Weld on Monday joined those criticizing FBI Director James Comey for the letter he sent to lawmakers last week announcing the review of new emails related to Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

{mosads}”It’s getting worse and worse. Friday was the letter. Yesterday, law enforcement officials said, ‘We got a warrant to look at the emails that we told you we’d found. We don’t know what’s in them but we got a warrant,'” Weld said during an interview Monday on CNN.

“So what’s tomorrow? … They’re totally off their reservation. And let’s be honest, they’re playing hit and run.”

Comey on Friday sent a letter to Congress telling them the bureau would be reviewing newly discovered emails it says are “pertinent” to its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server while secretary of State.

The emails were discovered during a separate investigation into former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) over an alleged online relationship with a 15-year-old girl. Weiner is the estranged husband of longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Weld said there is no way for the Democratic presidential nominee to know “what the evidentiary basis is on which they made this update to their investigation.”

“And they’ve said themselves they don’t know it, which makes it all the more unreasonable to have waded into these waters in the first place,” he said.

Since the release of the letter, Democrats and Clinton aides have ramped up pressure on the FBI and Comey to release more details about the agency’s review of the new emails.

Weld said Comey likely sent the letter because he was concerned about potential criticism from Congress in the future.

“I think Director Comey did the right thing in July in concluding that no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges,” Weld said.

“And I think that today, most people, senior and former Justice Department officials, would agree that no reasonable prosecutor would do what Mr. Comey has done here.”

Weld said he doesn’t know if he would go so far as to say Comey broke the law with his decision but said it may eventually be necessary for Attorney General Loretta Lynch to step in and “order him to stand down,” depending on how the situation progresses.

“It’s a real mess, and it’s a mess of his making,” Weld said.

Tags Hillary Clinton