Comey gave inaccurate testimony to Congress on Clinton emails, sources say
The FBI director testified on Clinton aide Huma Abedin's involvement.
— -- FBI Director James Comey gave inaccurate testimony to Congress last week regarding former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s handling of her boss's emails, which were later discovered on a laptop belonging to Abedin's husband, Anthony Weiner, sources familiar with the investigation confirm to ABC News.
Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 3 that Abedin “forwarded hundreds and thousands of emails [to Weiner], some of which contain classified information.”
He also said Abedin “appears to have had a regular practice of forwarding emails to him for him I think to print out for her.”
The sources say that Comey vastly overstated the number of emails Abedin forwarded to her husband’s non-government computer and disputed his assertion that it was a “regular practice.” The inaccuracies in Comey's testimony were first reported by ProPublica.
Only a small number of forwarded emails were deemed to contain classified information, one source said.
One law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told ABC News that the vast majority of Abedin's emails were backed up to her husband's computer, rather than forwarded.
None of the forwarded emails were marked classified, but a handful number contained information that was later deemed classified, these sources said.
The emails in question were discovered during a separate FBI probe of Weiner related to child pornography in the closing days of the election. The discovery prompted Comey to re-open the Clinton email investigation -- a move Clinton would later claim was responsible for her election loss when the information was revealed to Congress and later made public.
The FBI found 650,000 emails on Weiner's computer, most of which were unrelated to the Clinton email investigation. Using electronic searches the FBI was eventually able to narrow down 6,000 emails that it had to review. Comey announced two days before the election that the FBI had reviewed those emails and that it decision not to press charges stood.
Weiner was accused of exchanging sexually explicit text messages with a minor, but he has so far not been charged with any crime.
The FBI has not yet responded to ABC News' request for comment.
ABC News has also reached out to the Judiciary Committee for comment on the director's testimony.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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