FBI clarifies Comey's testimony in letter to Senate panel
Two law enforcement officials tell CBS News that the FBI expects to send a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday afternoon clarifying FBI Director James Comey's testimony last week. While he was questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey misstated the number of emails Clinton aide Huma Abedin forwarded to her husband, Anthony Weiner's laptop.
Comey last week told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that Clinton aide Huma Abedin made it a regular practice to forward "hundreds and thousands" of the former Secretary of State's messages -- including those containing classified information -- to her husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner. But, the sources say that while Abedin did occasionally forward emails to Weiner's laptop for printing, the number was far smaller than Comey claimed and it wasn't a usual practice. Furthermore, none of the emails forwarded were marked classified, but later, a small number were found to contain classified information.
The FBI also acknowledged that Comey misspoke, but did not elaborate on the extent of those inaccuracies or how they might be corrected. The emails on Weiner's laptops were discovered as a part of a sex crimes investigation into Weiner, and threw a wrench into Clinton's campaign just days before the election, when Comey disclosed that more Clinton-related emails were under review.
"Director Comey spoke of hundreds of thousands of emails being forwarded from Ms. Abedin to Mr. Weiner's laptop computer," the letter from the FBI said. "This included emails transferred via backups as well as manual forwarding. Our investigation determined that Ms. Abedin commonly forwarded emails to others who would print documents for her," a letter from the FBI to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said.
(Here is the full letter from the FBI.)
Some consider the late October revelation that more Clinton-related emails were discovered tipped the election in favor of now-President Donald Trump. Clinton herself claimed as much last week, when she said she was "on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off."
Mr. Comey, in his recent testimony, said the thought that his actions may have influenced the election made him "mildly nauseous," but that he wouldn't have changed his actions.
Comey is set to testify before Congress Thursday, and may address the issue then.
CBS News' Andres Triay and Pat Milton contributed to this report.