Hiding info on Hillary probe wouldve been "catastrophic"

Comey, offering an impassioned public defense of how he handled the election-year issues, insisted that the FBI's actions in both investigations were consistent. But he said the only other choice, "concealment", would have been "catastrophic". "I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had", she said. "But I sat there that morning and I could not see a door labeled 'no action here'".

"It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election, but honestly, it wouldn't change the decision", he said.

Breaking that policy would be "really bad", Comey said.

"Not for a moment", he said he replied, "because down that path lies the death of the Federal Bureau of Investigation".

FBI investigators reviewing former Rep. Anthony Weiner's computer in an unrelated case discovered he had thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton's Verizon Blackberry account - which they believed were the missing Clinton emails, Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The organization - Onward Together, an homage to her campaign slogan - will look to identify groups that could benefit from outside funding.

Mrs. Clinton said Tuesday that her election bid was derailed in part by Directors Comey's announcement about the renewed probe of her use of a private e-Mail server while she was Secretary of State.

FBI Director James Comey's revelation came during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as he defended his handling of politically explosive investigations surrounding the Y 2016 Presidential race.

Comey is appearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee for a routine oversight hearing.

In a series of late-night tweets Tuesday, Trump said Clinton should be thanking Director James Comey for letting her off the hook.

Describing Comey as the best thing that had ever happened to Hillary Clinton, President Donald Trump said that the former had given a free pass for many bad deeds. It was then that Comey revealed that the FBI had launched a counterintelligence investigation that could result in criminal charges against members of Trump's campaign.

USA intelligence agencies in December accused Russian-backed hackers of interfering in the election to tarnish Clinton and the Democratic Party in a bid boost Trump's chances of victory.

Comey and other intelligence officials have publicly said they're counting on Russian Federation trying to influence United States elections from here on, using similar tactics to what they used in 2016.

Trump had previously expressed confidence in Comey and said he had no plan to fire him. "People forget, we would not confirm the existence of the Hillary Clinton email investigation until three months after it began".

The FBI said last month the FBI official, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, does not have a conflict. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked if President Trump was among the campaign figures ruled out in the investigation.

Comey called Wikileaks "intelligence porn" that simply pushes out information with no regard to how it's used. He also spoke to a Senate panel on Russian Federation and Wikileaks' role in the election.