I was sure Clinton would win election when I reopened email inquiry: Comey

Former FBI Director James Comey has said he reopened investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server just 11 days before the 2016 election because he was sure she would be elected president and not doing so would have undermined her presidency.

Comey made the revelation in his new book, “A Higher Loyalty,” a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian on Thursday and is set to be published on April 17.

In an excerpt from the book, the former FBI director explains why he decided to reopen the probe into the former secretary of state's use of a personal server she used for emails during her time in office, a decision that Clinton believes cost her the presidency.

“I believed it was my duty to inform Congress that we were restarting the investigation. I would say as little as possible, but the FBI had to speak,” Comey said in the book.

The former FBI chief sent a letter to Congress on October 28, 2016, and informed them about the investigation; however, he claims in the book that he might have made a different decision if he thought the then-Republican candidate Donald Trump had a chance of winning the election.

“It is entirely possible that, because I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president, my concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation bore greater weight than it would have if the election appeared closer or if Donald Trump were ahead in all polls,” Comey wrote.

“Hindsight is always helpful, and if I had to do it over again, I would do some things differently,” he noted.

The former US Democratic presidential candidate has repeatedly blamed her 2016 election loss to Trump on Comey, saying his actions “forever changed history.”

Before the election, the dismissed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation led a controversial probe into Clinton’s use of a personal server to exchange thousands of government emails while she was secretary of state between 2009 and 2013, a clear violation of security protocols.

The probe overshadowed Clinton’s campaign and gave Trump an effective opportunity to question the former first lady’s competence to run the country.

The former FBI chief dropped all charges against Clinton shortly before the Election Day on November 8.

After the election, he began investigating President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia as well as a series of cyber attacks against Clinton’s campaign, which Democrats claimed were conducted by Russian hackers.

Trump fired Comey as he was busy heading an investigation into the Republican president’s ties with the Kremlin during the 2016 campaign and transition. Comey later testified that he believed Trump had fired him because he was unhappy with the Russian probe.

Americans find Comey more trustworthy than Trump: Poll

A new poll conducted by ABC News-Washington Post released on Friday showed that Comey was “more believable” than Trump by a 48-32 margin.

Nearly half (47 percent) of the respondents said they disapproved of the US president’s decision to fire Comey, compared to only 33 percent who said they backed the decision.

The poll was conducted between April 8 and 11 among 1,002 American adults with a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

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