GOP letter reveals FBI divisions over Clinton case decision, conflicting claims on Rosenstein controversy
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"FBI General Counsel James Baker, however, initially did believe the [Clinton email] case could be made from an evidentiary standpoint and multiple witnesses testified to the Committees the FBI's decision not to recommend charges was not 'unanimous,'" they wrote.
The seven-page letter revealed that Baker, the FBI's former top lawyer, was a critical witness on several aspects of the investigation.
He also spoke to allegations that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed secretly recording the president and removing him from office two weeks after Comey was fired in May 2017, which Rosenstein adamantly has denied.
The chairmen said Baker testified "there were discussions amongst senior FBI and DOJ officials about President Trump's fitness for office, invoking the 25th Amendment, and the prospect of wearing a recording or transmitting device during conversations with the President."
Transcripts from Comey's closed-door interviews in December, meanwhile, revealed his lawyer threatened to shut down the interview.
Rep. John Ratcliffe asked persistent questions over whether Comey mishandled classified info when he shared memos documenting conversations with Trump with Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman and lawyers David Kelley and Patrick Fitzgerald.
Ratcliffe questioned who received the memos and whether they had appropriate security clearances, stating that "four of the seven" memos "have been identified either by you [Comey] or by the FBI as containing classified information."
On multiple occasions, Comey declined to answer questions about his handling of the memos, stating Richman, Kelley and Fitzgerald now act as his attorneys. "I can't -- I'm not going to answer questions about my communications with my lawyers," he said.
Comey confirmed that he "did not have written authorization from the FBI to share the February 14th memo, the unclassified memo" with Richman, but Comey would not provide more detail on what memos were shared with Kelley or Fitzgerald.
Comey did confirm to House investigators that Horowitz was investigating how Comey created and handled the memos, some of which included classified information.
