--- title: James Comey Hearing: 'Mildly Nauseous' About 2016 Influence description: FBI director James Comey said he's "mildly nauseous" about the possibility that he influenced the outcome of the election. canonical: https://time.com/4764972/james-comey-clinton-emails-election-hearing/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-03T15:15:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:00:47.404Z article:section: Politics og:title: James Comey Is 'Mildly Nauseous' About Possibly Influencing 2016 og:description: "There’s an election in 11 days, Lordy, that would be really bad" og:url: https://time.com/4764972/james-comey-clinton-emails-election-hearing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: FBI Director Comey prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Comey Is 'Mildly Nauseous' About Possibly Influencing 2016 twitter:description: "There’s an election in 11 days, Lordy, that would be really bad" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41fdfba48c2da21a/6988cbcc0b72e30e1a6eda26/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Comey Is 'Mildly Nauseous' About Possibly Influencing 2016 Election > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=28911bbe-cb48-42ce-873c-1ab52985bf91&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: FBI Director James Comey Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee [Watch (HLS stream): FBI Director James Comey Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/v3ZsGTIA.m3u8) (1:50)  _Published 2017-05-03. FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 3, 2017 3:15 PM UTC FBI Director James Comey testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 3, 2017 3:15 PM UTC FBI director James Comey said he’s “mildly nauseous” about the possibility that [his announcement](http://time.com/4549527/hillary-clinton-emails-fbi-reopen/?xid=homepage) about reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails influenced the outcome of the election. “This was terrible. It makes me mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election,” Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. “Even in hindsight, and this has been one of the world’s most painful experiences, I would make the same decision.” On October 28, 2016, 11 days before the election, Comey publicly announced the FBI was reopening a probe into Clinton’s emails after closing the investigation in July. He went into more detail about his decision in his testimony, explaining why he decided to announce the reopening of the FBI’s investigation. He said on October 27, a team presented him with evidence that thousands of previously undiscovered Clinton emails were found on former congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop. Comey authorized them to get a search warrant for the emails. “And then I faced a choice,” he said. “I’ve lived my entire career by the tradition that if you can possibly avoid it, you avoid any action in the run up to an election that might have an impact, whether it’s a dogcatcher election or President of the United States. But I sat there that morning and I could not see a door labeled ‘no action here.’ I could see two doors, and they were both actions. One was labeled ‘speak,’ the other was labeled ‘conceal.’… ‘Speak’ would be really bad. There’s an election in 11 days, Lordy, that would be really bad. Concealing in my view would be catastrophic. Not just to the FBI, but well beyond. And honestly, between really bad and catastrophic, I said to my team, we gotta walk into the world of really bad.” Comey came under [intense criticism](http://time.com/4550453/hillary-clinton-james-comey-fbi-emails/?iid=sr-link3) at the time and Clinton has [blamed him](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-blames-russian-hackers-and-comey-for-2016-election-loss/2017/05/02/e62fef72-2f60-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.1e622d01823e) for her loss. “If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,” she said this week. ## Transcript Director Comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? Never. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Question two, relatively related, Have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? No. Has any classified information relating to President Trump or his associates Been declassified and shared with the media >> Not to my knowledge. There have been a variety of leaks but leaks are always a problem but especially in the last three to six months. Look, this is terrible. 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. Everybody who disagrees with me has to come back to October 28th with me and stare at this, and tell me what you would do. Would you speak, or would you conceal? And I could be wrong, but we honestly made a decision between those two choices, that even in hindsight, and this has been one of the world's most painful experiences I would make that the same decision. I would not conceal that. On October 28 from the Congress and I sent a letter to Congress, by the way people forget this. I didn't make a public announcement. I sent a private letter to the chairs and the rankings of the Oversight Committees. Well, did you? I know it's a distinction without a difference in the world of leaks. But it was very important that I tell them Instead of concealing and reasonable people can disagree, but that's the reason I made that choice, and it was a hard choice. 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