On CNN's New Day Tuesday, co-host Chris Cuomo implied his displeasure with FBI Director James Comey over the agnecy's handling of investigations last year, such as the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in addition to looking into whether then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on a private server while serving as Secretary of State. In front of the House Intelligence Committee on Monday, Comey testified and confirmed the FBI is looking into possible ties and collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, though news reports of what Comey confirmed have appeared at least a month beforehand.
Cuomo expressed his outrage by asking CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, "Were you surprised that the Democrats didn't jump on Comey when he gave them the timing of having started this in last July, which is about the same time that he started talking about the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation? He could have revealed this back then. And what effect would that have had?"
"Remember, we had two campaigns under FBI investigation last summer. The public only knew about one of them," Toobin replied. "And one of the candidates' rallies, they were chanting, "Lock her up, lock her up," and the other, there was no hint of it. It's unbelievable."
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CNN Justice Correspondent Evan Perez said the investigation "didn't really go very far for the first few months."
"And I think everybody, including people at the FBI did not expect Donald Trump to win. And they certainly did not expect to see what they saw in the closing months with the Russian campaign," Perez said. "So I think all of that goes into the decision that the FBI has made, to look more deeply into exactly what was going on here. I think, you're right. I mean, perhaps that information could have been publicly released by the FBI, but I don't think that it was a fully baked investigation, then."
Here is the March 21st exchange:
New Day
03/21/2017
6:10:14 AM – 6:11:56 AM [1 min., 42 sec.]
CHRIS CUOMO: Were you surprised that the Democrats didn't jump on Comey when he gave them the timing of having started this in last July, which is about the same time that he started talking about the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation? He could have revealed this back then. And what effect would that have had?
JEFFREY TOOBIN: Remember, we had two campaigns under FBI investigation last summer. The public only knew about one of them. And one of the candidates' rallies, they were chanting, "Lock her up, lock her up," and the other, there was no hint of it. It's unbelievable.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Evan, James Comey addressed that. He said, “I spoke about an investigation once it was closed, once I believe that case was closed, I came out and said what our findings were in the Hillary Clinton case, and the Trump investigation, or into his possible ties with Russia, not closed.”
EVAN PEREZ: That's right, and I think it also, what the FBI director did not say during that hearing is that, frankly, the Trump campaign investigation, frankly, was on simmer. It didn't really go very far for the first few months. And I think everybody, including people at the FBI did not expect Donald Trump to win. And they certainly did not expect to see what they saw in the closing months with the Russian campaign. So I think all of that goes into the decision that the FBI has made, to look more deeply into exactly what was going on here. I think, you're right. I mean, perhaps that information could have been publicly released by the FBI, but I don't think that it was a fully baked investigation, then. And certainly, we reported that Manafort was under investigation. We said that some of these other characters were under investigation, we reported that. That was, I think, widely known. It just wasn't officially acknowledged by the FBI.
