--- title: Hillary Clinton Emails: Republicans Pressure James Comey description: Republicans turned up the heat on FBI Director James Comey, joining Democrats in criticizing his surprising disclosure last week canonical: https://time.com/4552150/hillary-clinton-james-comey-republicans/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-31T19:25:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:23.610Z article:section: Politics og:title: GOP Ups Pressure, Criticism of FBI Head Over Clinton Email Probe og:description: James Comey remains in the political crosshairs og:url: https://time.com/4552150/hillary-clinton-james-comey-republicans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1212d54f35259619/6988ac4f656a3ffea2bcda95/gettyimages-610924756-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2263 og:image:height: 1273 og:image:alt: FBI Director James Comey Testifies To House Judiciary On Oversight At The F.B.I. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: GOP Ups Pressure, Criticism of FBI Head Over Clinton Email Probe twitter:description: James Comey remains in the political crosshairs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1212d54f35259619/6988ac4f656a3ffea2bcda95/gettyimages-610924756-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republicans Up Pressure, Criticism of FBI Head Over Hillary Clinton Email Probe > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 31, 2016 7:25 PM UTC  F.B.I. Director James Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee September 28, 2016 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images F.B.I. Director James Comey testifies before the House Judiciary Committee September 28, 2016 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 31, 2016 7:25 PM UTC Republicans on Monday turned up the heat on [FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4550453/hillary-clinton-james-comey-fbi-emails/), joining Democrats and a growing number of former law enforcement officials from both parties in criticizing his [surprising disclosure last week about a fresh probe into emails](http://time.com/4551810/hillary-clinton-emails-answers/) connected to Hillary Clinton, with some calling on him to release more information before the election. Though much of the criticism of Comey’s actions has come from Democrats and Clinton allies, several Republicans, including a former Attorney General from the Bush Administration, have asked for more details, expressed concern about Comey’s letter to Congress, or both. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio conservative who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, told a [radio host on Monday ](http://radio.foxnews.com/2016/10/31/rep-jim-jordan-r-oh-i-think-this-was-probably-not-the-right-thing-for-comey-to-do-to-come-out-this-close-to-an-election/)that he believed Comey may have made a mistake. “I think this was probably not the right thing for Comey to do—the protocol here—to come out this close to an election, but this whole case has been mishandled and now it is what it is,” Jordan said in an interview with Fox News radio. Jordan added he believes the investigation into Clinton’s emails has been ” wrong from the get go in the way it’s been handled,” and that Comey’s actions on Friday were consistent with that. Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who [faced his own troubles](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/washington/27cnd-gonzales.html) at the Department of Justice, offered a similar critique of Comey’s actions [during an interview on CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/31/politics/eric-holder-op-ed-rips-comey-letter/). “I really worry that in this particular instance, the FBI director has made an error in judgment in terms of releasing this kind of letter, which really says nothing,” he said, adding that the actions were inconsistent with Department of Justice protocol. And in the Senate, [Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley](https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2016-10-31%20CEG%20to%20FBI%20%28Clinton%20Investigation%20Update%29.pdf) sent the FBI Director a lengthy letter with questions about the investigation. The Iowa Senator called for more context and information, especially given fact that Election Day is just over a week away. “While I disagree with those who suggest you should have kept the FBI’s discovery secret until after the election, I agree that your disclosure did not go far enough,” he wrote. “Without additional context, your disclosure is not fair to Congress, the American people, or Secretary Clinton. The factual context is important.” Grassley included a series of questions about the newly discovered emails, including how the FBI knows there is “pertinent” information included therein, that he asked to be answered by Nov. 4. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4552150/hillary-clinton-james-comey-republicans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4552150/hillary-clinton-james-comey-republicans/"},"headline":"Republicans Up Pressure, Criticism of FBI Head Over Hillary Clinton Email Probe","datePublished":"2016-10-31T19:25:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:23.610Z","description":"James Comey remains in the political crosshairs","url":"https://time.com/4552150/hillary-clinton-james-comey-republicans/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Senate","GOP","Election 2016","house republicans"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1212d54f35259619/6988ac4f656a3ffea2bcda95/gettyimages-610924756-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1212d54f35259619/6988ac4f656a3ffea2bcda95/gettyimages-610924756-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FBI Director James Comey Testifies To House Judiciary On Oversight At The F.B.I.","caption":"FBI Director James Comey Testifies To House Judiciary On Oversight At The F.B.I.","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4552150/hillary-clinton-james-comey-republicans/","name":"Republicans Up Pressure, Criticism of FBI Head Over Hillary Clinton Email Probe"}}]}] ```