Former FBI Director James Comey – who oversaw a spying and potential entrapment operation on the Trump campaign, is now doing “CNN Town Hall” events as the Obama-era intelligence community’s conduct comes under increased scrutiny post-Mueller report.
Sitting down with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper on Thursday, Comey slammed everyone from outgoing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to current Attorney General William Barr, to his favorite President – Donald John Trump, pushing hard on the obstruction narrative now that Trump has been cleared of conspiring with Russia during the 2016 US election.
And considering that Barr assembled a DOJ team to conduct an investigation into the Obama intel community’s conduct during the 2016 US election, Barr’s credibility must be impugned in order for potentially guilty actors to try and win in the court of public opinion.
While initially praising Barr – noting that his distinguished career had initially earned him the benefit of the doubt, Comey said that the AG’s recent behavior has been “less than honorable.”
“I think he acted in a way that’s less than honorable in the way he described it in writing and described it during a press conference – and continues to talk as if he’s the president’s lawyer. That is not the Attorney General’s job.” Barr has “lost most of his reputation with the way he has conducted himself,” Comey added.
James Comey believes Attorney General William Barr acted “less than honorable” in the way he previewed the Mueller report with his summary, press conference, and still “continues to talk as if he is the President’s lawyer” #ComeyTownHall https://t.co/69UAoPP9Re pic.twitter.com/5SGh6ILFRO
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 10, 2019
On Barr’s characterization of the FBI sending several undercover operatives to infiltrate and surveil the Trump campaign as ‘spying’ – Comey sugested that the Attorney General simply adopted Trump’s language, and said he found that it was “really disappointing.”
On AG Barr’s claim that the FBI was “spying” on the @realDonaldTrump campaign, @Comey says he found it “really disappointing”
“He knows better than that & knows that the FBI conducts electronic surveillance by going to federal judges and getting warrants based on probable cause” pic.twitter.com/ZuKlkICGLG
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 10, 2019
Is former Director of National Intelligence and CNN contributor, James Clapper, also adopting Trump’s language when he said this week that what the Obama administration did to the Trump campaign “meets the dictionary definition of spying”?
Or the CIA’s ex-counterintelligence chief, James Olson, who said “I’d call that spying.” But we digress.
Comey moved on to outgoing Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, who he said was “not a person of strong character.”
James Comey says Rod Rosenstein is not a person of strong character. One thing to note: President Trump used Rosenstein’s letter to justify firing Comey #ComeyTownHall https://t.co/UZQt5UgTLE pic.twitter.com/ngG3bBwr1g
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) May 10, 2019
[People like Rosenstein] start telling themselves a story to justify their being trapped which is “yeah he’s awful but the country needs me”—Republicans are doing this in Congress—“Yeah it’s awful but if I speak I’ll get defeated and this nation needs me here right now” and so they start to make little compromises to stay on the team: Echo [Trump’s] words. Use the term spying. Talk about collusion, or just be silent, thinking “that’s what I need to do to survive” and in the process, [Trump] has eaten their soul. –James Comey
Trump is ‘Not above the law’
Comey said that he thinks President Trump has likely committed crimes that could be cause for indictment upon the end of his presidency, and that were he not president, he would have probably already been indicted.
“Yes. agree. No doubt,” said the former FBI Director whose family ‘passionately‘ supported Hillary Clinton, adding that whether Trump could be indicted in 2021 or 2025 when he is out of office is something the Justice Department “will have to take a serious look at.”
When asked whether Trump acted with corrupt intent to obstruct an ongoing investigation, Comey replied: “It sure looks that way.”
Comey also brushed off the suggestion that the president by definition cannot obstruct justice by exercising legitimate constitutional powers to run the executive branch, saying: “The president is not above the law.”
Watch the entire interview below:
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2WwbrBA Tyler Durden