To avoid the continued promulgation of inaccurate information, the
actual 5-Jul-2016 statement by Comey can be found on the FBI website.
As a point of reference, the DOJ/FBI generally only comments when evidence supporting prosecution is found. The act of making a statement about a non-prosecution is, in itself, unprecedented and reflects the political nature of the investigation.
Anyway, here's the actual substance of the Comey statement (I added bolding to emphasize the key parts):
He specifically quantified the number of emails (30,000+) and the small number of chains (52) of that group that contained classified information, including how many were top secret (8):
He also specifically called out accusations about "deleted emails":
Your tax dollars at work:
The government hasn't disclosed how much was spent on these investigations. One of the reasons that it is difficult to put a price tag on the investigations is that the "email" investigation was actually an
outgrowth of the Benghazi investigation. There were nine Benghazi investigations. The Democratic minority on one of those committees has a
counter website that estimates the cost of
one of these investigations at about $8.7 million dollars.
A conservative think tank estimated that it took about $20 million to review the emails.
FYI: the annual salary for the US Secretary of State is $186,600.
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