James Comey admits polls were ‘a factor’ in email announcement: ‘I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump’

Former FBI director James Comey has said that his assumption that Hillary Clinton would win the presidency was "a factor" in his decision to make an announcement about her emails which may have turned the election.

Sitting down with ABC news during the promotional tour for his book, Comey said that he worried, "if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out."

The announcement was immediately controversial, as it was immediately clear it had not been fully thought out.

“I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and so I’m sure that it was a factor,” Comey told ABC News' chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview ahead of the April 17 release of his book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”

Watch the clip below.