case was not strong enough. The inspector general hit me that I should have told the public they also would never bring a case where the people communicating all had a clearance and a need to know the information, and that Director Comey failed to be accurate with the American people in saying not only was this no case; it was more of a no case than he realized.
Mr. Gowdy. All right. You have smart lawyers at the Department, smart lawyers at the Bureau. So you knew all of that pretty early on in the investigation. This is one of the first things you're going to ask is, what is the case law? Have there been other prosecutions?
Mr. Comey. Yeah. I didn't know it to that level of detail until the spring, but I knew from just talking to our troops early on it's going to be a hard case to make, given the way the Department of Justice has always understood these statutes. Let's get at it, see what we can find.
Mr. Gowdy. So what were you looking for? What could have changed that analysis? What specific piece or pieces of evidence could have changed that?
Mr. Comey. Significant evidence of knowledge of lawlessness, the nature of the unlawful conduct, significant evidence of communication with people without a clearance or a need to know, significant evidence of obstruction of justice and false statements by the subject, and probably other things that are in the other cases, but those are three that pop into my head
