In a letter dated November 1, 2015, former FBI Director James Comey stated that the FBI’s policy was to “not take any action against a political opponent in the interest of the election.”
“There is no way to prove a negative.
There is no case law that says a political action committee can’t make donations to a political candidate,” he wrote.
“But the way the system works, it’s not a weapons system, it is not a tool for political repression, it can’t be used to intimidate a political adversary.
I am writing to share with you what we have learned from this experience.
We will never use this system to silence political opponents.”
Comey also said that the system would never be used for any “suspicionless or reckless activity” against political opponents.
On February 27, 2017, Comey said in a letter to President Trump that the bureau was not investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, but was instead investigating the possible “hacking” of Democratic political operatives.
The Washington Post reported that Comey wrote in the letter that the “intelligence community is not in the business of prosecuting political adversaries.”
In response to the Trump administration’s assertion that the DOJ’s investigation was not focused on Russian election interference, Comey also wrote, “There is nothing illegal about using an existing statute to prosecute a political opposition.”
Comey also stated that “there is no precedent for using the Espionage Act to prosecute political opponents and I believe that this statute is applicable only to foreign governments that have been accused of foreign espionage or acts of sabotage.”
The letter from Comey and Trump, as well as a letter from the White House in response, were sent on February 27 and 28, respectively, to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.