But the Federal Bureau of Investigation chief told a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee it would have been far worse to hide his decision - which the Democrat Clinton claims was a key factor in her defeat to Donald Trump.
Comey said he had been in contact with Former Attorney General Sally Yates, who is expected testify about Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser pick, in Congress next week.
"I can't consider for a second whose political futures will be affected and in what way", Comey told the panel.
"I think he just wanted to make it clear what exactly happened", Spicer added.
Comey said he had to speak up on October 28 because he believed the FBI had found emails that could provide insight into Clinton?s use of a private server and possibly shift the focus of the investigation.
"Her meeting with President Clinton on that airplane was the capper for me, and I then said, 'You know what?"
Blumenthal said, "I'll take that as a 'yes'". Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., asked Comey if the FBI was investigating whether members of the Obama administration leaked information about the Trump team to the media.
Comey replied: "I think I treated both investigations consistently under the same principles".
Sundar Pichai's whopping salary revealed
Fortune reported a possible $750 million loss of ad dollars from the boycott; Google has said it is working to fix the issue. We have streamlined efforts where it made sense and in other areas we have seen places to double down.
Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Abedin were being investigated for possible mishandling of classified material, but Director Comey said the Federal Bureau of Investigation ultimately dropped the matter without seeking charges because they could not show either of them meant to violate the law.
The tweets come after Clinton blamed her flawed candidacy, Russia's intervention in the election via WikiLeaks and a letter released by FBI Director James Comey for her 2016 election loss during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour at a Women for Women International event in NY.
"With respect to the Russian Federation investigation, we treated it like we did with the Clinton investigation".
But Comey said that other than confirming the Clinton investigation existed, he did not discuss it until after it concluded a year ago.
Comey said he decided the Justice Department was too compromised in July to publicly explain why Clinton would not be charged without "grievous damage to the American people's confidence in the justice system".
"Fine. Better than the interfering in foreign affairs", Clinton said of the prospect Trump would tweet about her.
The FBI chief said Russian Federation is still interested in trying to affect USA politics, and he believes it "a certainty" that Moscow will try to influence the elections in 2018 and 2020.
He strongly criticized WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling website that published emails from Democratic accounts that intelligence officials say were hacked by Russian Federation.
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