Former FBI Director James Comey included the phrase "grossly negligent" in early drafts of his 2016 statement regarding Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email setup.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, obtained from the FBI a draft of a statement dated May 2, 2016. In it, Comey wrote these passages:
"There is evidence to support a conclusion that Secretary Clinton, and others, used the private email server in a manner that was grossly negligent with respect to the handling of classified material.
"Similarly, the sheer volume of information that was properly classified as Secret at the time it was discussed on email (that is, excluding the 'up classified' emails) supports an inference that the participants were grossly negligent in their handling of that information."
Comey later changed the statement when he delivered his final assessment of the case July 5, 2016, in which he said he would not recommend charges be brought against Clinton for using a private email server and multiple email addresses while she served as secretary of state:
"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."
President Donald Trump fired Comey earlier this year, the circumstances of which are being investigated.
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