title: COMEY EDITS REVEALED: Clinton Probe Remarks Watered Down…Edited to Omit Criminality
text: How did the FBI handle the Clinton email case two words: WATERED DOWN! The big question on this watered down document is WHO MADE THE EDITS?JUDGE NAPOLITANO:  Jim Comey owns it no matter who edited it :"The job of the @FBI is not to decide whom to prosecute, but to present the evidence to professional prosecutors in the DOJ and let them make the decision."   @Judgenap on Comey's @HillaryClinton email probe statement #SpecialReport https://t.co/X5Mhju9rsU pic.twitter.com/Kmo1SjRRhS  Fox News (@FoxNews) December 14, 2017NEWLY RELEASED DOCUMENTS:Newly released documents reveal that then-FBI Director James Comey s draft statement on the Hillary Clinton email probe was edited numerous times before his public announcement, in ways that seemed to considerably water down the bureau s findings.Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, released copies Thursday of the edits to Comey s highly scrutinized statement.WATERED DOWN LANGUAGE:One showed language was changed to describe the actions of Clinton and her colleagues as  extremely careless  as opposed to  grossly negligent.  This is a key legal distinction.Johnson, writing about his concerns in a letter Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, said the original  could be read as a finding of criminality in Secretary Clinton s handling of classified material. The edited statement deleted the reference to gross negligence   a legal threshold for mishandling classified material   and instead replaced it with an exculpatory sentence,  he wrote.The original also said it was  reasonably likely  that  hostile actors  gained access to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton s private email account. That was later changed to say that scenario was merely  possible. The final statement also removed a reference to the  sheer volume  of classified information discussed on email. While the precise dates of the edits and identities of the editors are not apparent from the documents, the edits appear to change the tone and substance of Director Comey s statement in at least three respects,  Johnson wrote Thursday.That includes, Johnson said,  repeated edits to reduce Secretary Clinton s culpability in mishandling classified information. Read more: Fox News