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FBI Director James Comey deflected questions Wednesday about the agency’s probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email setup while she was secretary of state and insisted, "we don't give a rip about politics" in conducting the investigation.

Comey faced tough questions on the issue during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing from chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley.

The Iowa Republican repeated the argument that the decision about whether Clinton broke any laws by using the private setup for official business will be made by a fellow Democrat in the Justice Department.

“No matter what the FBI finds, a political appointee of the Justice Department will ultimately make the decision of whether or not to prosecute,” he said.

Comey replied, “As I’ve said many times, we don’t give a rip about politics. … We care about finding out what is true and doing that in a competent, honest and independent way. I promise you that’s the way we conduct ourselves.”

Questions about whether Clinton’s emails could have resulted in a national security breach or whether she broke laws began after revelations in March about the setup, which included a private
server and at least one private email account.

Clinton has apologized, but insists she broke no laws or regulations.

Comey was non-committal Wednesday about whether the FBI will release details of its investigation, even if the Justice Department decides not to prosecute Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner.

“I just don’t want to speculate on this particular investigation,” he said.

Comey also said President Obama doesn’t know the status of the investigation because he’s not briefed on the matter.

Clinton deleted roughly 30,000 emails from the server that she and lawyers deemed “private” before turning it over to the federal government.