James Comey Spoils DNC Talking Point

James Comey made his long-awaited appearance in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, calling President Donald Trump a liar and explicitly stating that he believed the President was directing him to drop the investigation into disgraced former cabinet member Michael Flynn. While most of the hearing focused on Comey and Trump’s personal interactions including one-on-one dinners, meetings and phone calls, some questions by Republicans veered towards Hillary Clinton’s emails and the hack of the Democratic National Convention.

One particular question of the Russian hack into the DNC posed by the chairman Senator Richard Burr was the fact that the DNC had not given the FBI access to internal files which would be necessary to conclude that Russia was involved with the hack. Comey confirmed that they weren’t given access, but they had reviewed evidence through a private vendor that had been hired by the DNC to investigate the hack. Burr pushed as to why the FBI felt confident in its determination that Russia had indeed hacked the Democratic election arm without access or “content” from the hacked devices.

“…What was briefed to by (FBI agents) is that they had gotten the information from the private party that they needed to understand the intrusion by the spring of 2016,” Comey replied.

This has been a particularly frequent talking point that both those on the right and left mention when trying to dispel the narrative that the DNC was hacked and Russia being behind it. It will continue to be regurgitated as the investigation into the election continues, but at least there is an on-the-record statement by the then sitting FBI director that despite the department not having direct access they had enough information to reach their conclusion.