Bill Weld calls FBI Director Comey’s letter on new emails ‘disgraceful’ and ‘off the reservation’
The former Massachusetts governor and Libertarian VP candidate said the FBI is "playing hit and run."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11bqD8xFNE8
Bill Weld does not approve of the decision by FBI Director James Comey to send a letter informing Congress—and, in turn, the public—of the discovery of new emails that could be connected to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
“They’re totally off the reservation,” the former Massachusetts governor and 2016 Libertarian vice presidential nominee said in a CNN interview Monday. “And they’re—let’s be honest—they’re playing hit and run.”
Weld, a former U.S. Attorney and Justice Department official in the 1980s, said the letter provided no “evidentiary basis” on the decision to update their investigation.
Federal officials obtained a warrant to search the emails—which reportedly came from the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Huma Abedin, a top Clinton aide—on Sunday, but Comey’s letter Friday said officials did not know who sent the emails or what they contained.
“They’ve said themselves they don’t know it, so that just makes it all the more unreasonable to have waded into these waters in the first place,” Weld said Monday
Weld added that he thought Comey sent the letter out of fear of being accused of withholding information if the new emails leaked after the election and that the FBI director was “right” to not recommend charges against Clinton in July.
Weld and his top-of-ticket running mate, Gary Johnson, told the Washington Post following the decision in July that they would not attack Clinton on the her use of a private email server and that they considered the matter issue resolved.
In his letter Friday, Comey wrote he felt “an obligation” to update Congress, but stressed that officials did not know the significance of the new emails.
Nevertheless, the opaque nature of his announcement last week drew criticism from Clinton. Comey’s decision was cheered by most Republicans, including presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Weld, a former GOP governor of Massachusetts in the 1990s, called Comey’s action’s “disgraceful.”
“If you don’t know, keep your mouth shut,” he said. “Don’t speculate. You know, he’s forwarding a gossamer thread saying, this might be something. We don’t know.”
Its not the fist time that Weld, who worked with Clinton on the House Judiciary Committee in the 1970s, has gone to bat in a way for the Democratic nominee, who his Libertarian ticket is theoretically vying with for the presidency.
In a solo Boston press conference last week, Weld implored voters to do anything but vote for Trump, who he compared to a “child” and said demonstrated “the worst of American politics.”
After some media outlets construed his statements as implicit support for Clinton, Weld put out a follow-up statement reiterating his commitment to Johnson’s campaign.
“The sensationalists and wishful thinkers are re-writing Gov. Weld’s forceful condemnation of Donald Trump into a suggestion that voters should support Hillary Clinton,” he said. “That is absurd. … the Johnson-Weld ticket is not giving an inch to Donald Trump OR Hillary Clinton.”
Johnson and Weld are currently averaging about 4 percent support in recent national polls, down from a high of about 9 percent in September.
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