comment on both investigations or neither. reporter: comey specifically citing the meeting with bill clinton and then attorney general loretta lynch. her meeting on the airplane with me was the capper for me. i said the department cannot by itself credibl yerks end this. reporter: the. reporter: the details of the e-mails and how they end up on the laptop of anthony weiner. his thens spouse huma abedin forwarded e-mails to him to printout and deliver to secretary of state. reporter: these revelations coming as cnn learns as president obama former national security adviser declined to
much, but her meeting with president clinton on that airplane was the capper for me. i then sent, you know what, the department cannot by itself credibly end this. the best chance we have, if i do something, i never imagined, step away from them and tell them the american people, the heroes with the fbi found, here s what we think boy that offered us the best chance of the american people the the h believing in a system it was on the wrong way. that was a hard call for me to call the attorney general and say that. tucker: whether the director made the right call or not there was another call worth asking or not, why was he making my decision in the first place? to the fbi director simply have too much power for a single unelected man? a former u.s. attorney has watch this process from the beginning. he joins us now. thank you for coming on. my pleasure. tucker: i don t think anyone wants to have concern about an fbi director, but is there a basis for concerns about this one? ye
things had gone on is, some of which i can t talk about yet that made me worry that the department leadership could not credibly complete the investigation and decline prosecution without grievous damage to the american people s confidence in the justice system. and then the capper was and i m not picking on the attorney general, loretta lynch but her meeting with president clinton on that airplane was the capper for me. i then said you know what? the department cannot by itself credibly end this. the best chance we have as a justice system is if i step away from them and tell the american people look, here s what the fbi did, here s what we found and think. that offered us the best chance of the american people believing in the system that it was done in a credible way. that was a hard call for me to make to call the attorney general that morning and say i m about to do a press conference and not going to tell you what i m going to say. i said i hope some day understand why i m doing
concluded with criminal charges and then there s a public accounting and a charging document. other matters, as is the case with the email investigation and with no charges, but some statement of some sort. others and with no statement. i don t know yet. obviously want to do that in close coronation with the department. will you make recommendations to the deputy attorney general or the special prosecutor if one is appointed as to whether criminal charges should be brought? i don t know in this case in particular, but in general, we must always do. you cannot yourself pursue criminal criminal charges. correct. that s important for the american people to understand because it bears on the question of whether a special prosecutor to be appointed. the fbi cannot bring charges, neither can the intelligence committees do so, nor can an independent commission.
i then said, you know what, the department cannot by itself credibly end this. that was a hard call for me to call the attorney general and say i m about to call a press conference and i can t tell you what i m going to say. reporter: director comey argued it was a matter of timing, too early for the trump election, not so for the clintons. had it been shown that there was investigation into both campaigns, i think the impact would have been different. would you agree? we didn t confirm it existed until three months after it started and it started publicly. we don t confirm the existence of any investigation that involves a u.s. person or a class fight investigation in its early stages. comey also defended his decision to notify congress the day before the vote that the fbi