Page:Comey-Interview-12-7-18-Redacted.pdf/198

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it will bring that misdemeanor indications of intention or harm to the United States or obstruction of justice, those kinds of things. And that was the ingredient we didn't have in the Clinton case.

And so the Weiner trove held the prospect that we -- because it might contain evidence of the beginning of her use of her unclass system, might hold that evidence.

Mr. Gowdy. Well, I'm sure you can see, because a smart guy and a good lawyer, the next question is, how can you begin to even draft a non-pros memo if you haven't interviewed two dozen witnesses, including the target, but you're already drafting a non-pros, but the moment you find out that there may be a computer you have not accessed, you reopen the investigation; whatever you found on Weiner's computer, could you not have also found when you were interviewing the two dozen witnesses?

Mr. Comey. Potentially. What I was doing in May was 10 months into an investigation, seeing on the current course and speed where it's going to end, planning. Just -- I'm sure you did too. I drafted plenty of indictments before I finished investigations because it looked like we were going to get enough to charge a person. And so that's what it was about.

And, again -- I know I said this in response to the Democrats' questions -- the prospect, what made Weiner's computer a horse of a different color was the size of the trove and the emails potentially from the first 3 months as Secretary