--- title: Donald Trump: Comey 'Exonerated' Hillary Clinton Too Soon description: Donald Trump claimed former FBI Director James Comey "exonerated" Hillary Clinton before finishing his investigation into her email server canonical: https://time.com/4924976/trump-james-comey-clinton-congress-investigation/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-01T15:27:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:08.467Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump: Comey Exonerated Hillary Clinton Too Soon og:description: "A rigged system!" og:url: https://time.com/4924976/trump-james-comey-clinton-congress-investigation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0870837e908c84be/6988d464ab6d771e766aed3c/gettyimages-694398560.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3300 og:image:height: 1856 og:image:alt: fbi-james-comey-shirts og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump: Comey Exonerated Hillary Clinton Too Soon twitter:description: "A rigged system!" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0870837e908c84be/6988d464ab6d771e766aed3c/gettyimages-694398560.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump: Comey Exonerated Hillary Clinton 'Long Before' Investigation Was Over > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. ## Video: Here Are All the Things James Comey Said He Couldn’t Talk About [Watch (HLS stream): Here Are All the Things James Comey Said He Couldn’t Talk About](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c3QDjaBF.m3u8) (4:19)  _Published 2017-06-08. It was the most anticipated hearing in years. It didn't disappoint. Here are all the things James Comey said he couldn't talk about._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 1, 2017 3:27 PM UTC  Former FBI Director, James Comey appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Hart Office Building on Thursday June 08, 2017 in Washington, DC. Former FBI Director, James Comey appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Hart Office Building on Thursday June 08, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photograph by Matt McClain—Getty/The Washington Post  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 1, 2017 3:27 PM UTC President Trump claimed Friday that former FBI Director James Comey “exonerated” Hillary Clinton before finishing his investigation into her email server, one day after senior members of Congress came to that conclusion. “Wow, looks like James Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over…and so much more,” the president tweeted. “A rigged system!” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/903587428488839170) His statement came after Republican senators Chuck Grassley from Iowa and Lindsey Graham from South Carolina sent a letter to current FBI chief Christopher Wray asking for additional materials on Comey, after they determined he began drafting a statement clearing Clinton before his investigation had concluded. “According to the unredacted portions of the transcripts, it appears that in April or early May of 2016, Mr. Comey had already decided he would issue a statement exonerating Secretary Clinton,” the senators, both members of the Judiciary Committee, wrote. (Grassley is chairman of the committee.) “That was long before FBI agents finished their work. Mr. Comey even circulated an early draft statement to select members of senior FBI leadership. The outcome of an investigation should not be prejudged while FBI agents are still hard at work trying to gather the facts… Conclusion first, fact-gathering second—that’s no way to run an investigation. The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy.” In July 2016, in the height of the presidential campaign, Comey [publicly recommended](http://time.com/4393372/james-comey-fbi-hillary-clinton-email-speech-transcript/) that no charges be brought against Clinton for her use of a private email server and account [while she served as Secretary of State](http://time.com/4392196/hillary-clinton-fbi-email-investigation-interview/). Trump then [fired Comey](http://time.com/4775430/the-comey-misfire/) as FBI director in May 2017. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4924976/trump-james-comey-clinton-congress-investigation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4924976/trump-james-comey-clinton-congress-investigation/"},"headline":"President Trump: Comey Exonerated Hillary Clinton 'Long Before' Investigation Was Over","datePublished":"2017-09-01T15:27:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:08.467Z","description":"\"A rigged system!\"","url":"https://time.com/4924976/trump-james-comey-clinton-congress-investigation/","keywords":["FBI","Congress","White House","James Comey","hillary clinton","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0870837e908c84be/6988d464ab6d771e766aed3c/gettyimages-694398560.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0870837e908c84be/6988d464ab6d771e766aed3c/gettyimages-694398560.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"fbi-james-comey-shirts","caption":"James Comey - Washington, DC","creditText":"Photograph by Matt McClain—Getty/The Washington Post","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/fbi/","name":"FBI"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4924976/trump-james-comey-clinton-congress-investigation/","name":"President Trump: Comey Exonerated Hillary Clinton 'Long Before' Investigation Was Over"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here Are All the Things James Comey Said He Couldn’t Talk About","description":"It was the most anticipated hearing in years. 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