Newly retired FBI agent speaks to EastIdahoNews.com about Clinton scandal - East Idaho News
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Newly retired FBI agent speaks to EastIdahoNews.com about Clinton scandal

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Frank Montoya retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in September after 26 years of service. He served in numerous positions and was the special agent in charge of the Seattle field office. Montoya worked closely with FBI director James Comey, who announced Friday that the agency was investigating more evidence regarding Hillary Clinton’s email server.

Montoya agreed to speak with EastIdahoNews.com reporter Nate Eaton about the investigation.

NATE EATON, EASTIDAHONEWS.COM: When news broke Friday that the FBI was looking at more emails from Hillary Clinton, what was your reaction?

FRANK MONTOYA, RETIRED FBI AGENT: It was typical James Comey. This is a situation where he told Congress in July that if any additional information were to become available, he would let them know. This was one of those situations where he was living up to his word.

He understands the political nature of the world that we live in when it comes to these kinds of investigations. But we’re talking about a man of the utmost integrity and, frankly, a man who is incorruptible. He’s doing what he believes is right. And it’s not to protect Jim Comey – it’s about doing what’s right.

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EATON: Several reports indicate there’s been some fighting internally at the FBI over Comey’s decision to publicly revive the investigation. What have you heard from your counterparts?

Hillary clinton E-mails
FBI Director James Comey | CNN

MONTOYA: Unequivocally there is no revolt, as Republican nominee Donald Trump has stated several times since the news came out on Friday. There is not any internal revolt within the FBI over whether there were charges or no charges or whether this information should have been released or not released.

Keep in mind there are about 30,000 employees in the FBI and about 12-13,000 are agents spread across 56 field offices around the country and various places around the world. Frankly, in terms of priorities, we’re much more concerned about what’s happening on a day to day basis on our criminal investigations or national security investigations around the country.

The discussions about internal strife over whether she was charged or not charged, over whether he should have put out this information on Friday or not – those occur in the natural progression of discussion over what we’re supposed to be doing but in the end, everybody agrees this is the right thing and we should move forward.

EATON: It sounds like you’re saying there weren’t any political motivations for Comey to do this 11 days before the election.

frank montoya
Frank Montoya recently retired from the FBI after serving 26 years with the agency. | EastIdahoNews.com.

MONTOYA: Absolutely none. When I was an special agent in charge, we would meet with him once a week. It was interesting in discussions with him about this particular investigation, he protected the integrity of the investigation every day. There were not a lot of disclosures to people who were not directly involved in the investigation.

In the end, when the decision was made, he sat down with us on a couple of occasions and explained very specifically what his thought processes were. One thing he stressed continually was this was apolitical and this was about the rule of law. It was about being objective, neutral and independent. Especially in these type of events.

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EATON: Mrs. Clinton has called on the FBI to release everything it has. Is that a realistic request and will that happen within the next few days?

MONTOYA: Not likely, because it’s still part of the investigation. It’s possible that these are duplicate emails and it could become significant. That’s going to be part of the investigation.

EATON: How long could this investigation take?

MONTOYA: A lot of that will depend on how much information there is. I’ve seen the numbers in the media of 650,000 (emails) in terms of the data that’s available. Part of this challenge is the information was discovered in the course of another investigation – completely separate and distinct. Now they have to proceed through the proper legal process in order to get access to the data and then be able to determine what exactly is pertinent to the Clinton email investigation.

EATON: What’s been the biggest misconception you’ve seen reported about all of this and what does the public need to know that we might not be aware of?

MONTOYA: The thing that boils my blood the most, and yeah, I’m very partisan about this because I just spent 26 years of life with this organization, are any insinuations or direct statements that the FBI is corrupt and that Comey is covering his rear end, because of the disclosures he made to Congress and the notifications he provided them.

Some of this criticism comes from former FBI guys, which really frustrates me to no end because one, they weren’t part of the investigation and two, every step was taken to resolve this thing in the fairest manner possible.

Some very strong legal minds made the decision that there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed and having been a part of some of those conversations I can say unequivocally the right decisions were made in the instance of this investigation.

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