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You probably remember how unexpected it was when former FBI head James Comey let Hillary Clinton off the hook at the conclusion of the investigation into her private email server. After all, he began that press conference by outlining a number of Hillary’s lies uncovered during the investigation.

Hillary had claimed she turned over all relevant emails to the FBI - while in reality she had deleted over 30,000 of them. She claimed to have never sent or received classified information over her private email server, which was found to have occurred on 110 occasions. Hillary claimed she only used one device to send and receive email, when in reality she used numerous devices. Hillary said that people can “judge for themselves” if she behaved appropriately, while Comey said she behaved extremely irresponsibly.

And then Comey let her off the hook because he supposedly couldn’t establish “intent” to break the law.

And now, over a year later, we learn that whatever dirt the FBI found on Hillary was irrelevant all along.

According to the Washington Examiner:

Former FBI Director Jim Comey started to draft a statement exonerating Hillary Clinton in the bureau’s investigation into her use of a private email server before the FBI interviewed her or her key witnesses, the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday.

“Conclusion first, fact-gathering second — that’s no way to run an investigation. The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Judiciary Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a letter to the FBI.

The Judiciary Committee reviewed transcripts, which were heavily redacted, indicating Comey began drafting the exoneration statement before the FBI interviewed up to 17 key witnesses, including Clinton and some of her close aides.

Accusations that the FBI’s meeting with Hillary was just for show are nearly as old as the meeting itself. Comey himself told Congress in July of 2016 that Hillary was not put under oath and there is no transcript of her interview with the FBI, which should’ve raised a few red flags. Now it’s merely confirmed that nothing Hillary said or did would have landed her in jail.

To underscore the point:

[Note: This post was written by Matt Palumbo. He is a co-author of the new book A Paradoxical Alliance: Islam and the Left, and can be found on Twitter @MattPalumbo12]