FBI Director James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that he never claimed Hillary Clinton was truthful about her use of a private email server.
Rep. Steve Chabot (R., Ohio) asked Comey about Clinton’s claims that the FBI director had actually said she was truthful with the American people over her emails in a statement he made in July.
"Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people," Clinton said after Comey’s statement on July 5.
Multiple fact-checkers said her claim was not true, including PolitiFact, which gave her statement its highest rating of dishonesty.
"Two months ago, Hillary Clinton, in talking about her emails, claimed that you said, and I quote, that, ‘my answers were truthful,’" Chabot said. "PolitiFact, by the way, gave this claim a ‘pants-on-fire rating.’ Did you say that she was telling the truth with respect to her email claims?"
"I did not. I never say that about anybody," Comey said. "Our business is never to decide whether someone, whether we believe someone. Our business is always to decide what evidence do we have that would convince us not to believe that person."
"It’s an odd way to look at the world, but it’s how investigators look at the world," Comey added.