Former FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday defended the investigations into President Donald Trump’s campaign after reports of interference by Russian agents in 2016, using a comparison that seems bound to get under the president’s skin.
Trump has decried the FBI’s and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election as “presidential harassment” and the promotion of a “hoax.” Though Mueller’s long-awaited report supposedly did not establish evidence of any collusion between Trump and Russia, investigators have determined there were concerted Russian efforts to sway the election in Trump’s favor.
During an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt aired Wednesday night, Comey turned the scenario around, suggesting that if the president had been Barack Obama and the interfering foreign power had been Iran, there would be no question that a thorough investigation would be necessary.
“Close your eyes. Again, change the names. Let me make one up for you,” said Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017. “The Iranians — this is totally made up — the Iranians interfere in the election to help elect Barack Obama because they think they’ll get a better nuclear deal from him. And during that election an Obama aide meets with the Iranians and talks about the dirt they have that will help Obama get elected. And the FBI finds out about that. We should not investigate that?”
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“The hypocrisy is revealed just by changing the names,” Comey said. “The FBI did what it absolutely had to do.”
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Comey also said he felt that his firing could amount to obstruction of justice, though the former director did not definitively say that was the case. Trump fired Comey after initially expressing displeasure with his treatment of an investigation into Clinton’s emails, but the timing of the dismissal and reports that Trump wanted to get rid of Comey to stop investigations into his ties with Russia prompted many to suspect obstruction of justice. During an interview with Holt a few days later, Trump said that the specter of a possible Russia investigation played a role in his his decision to fire Comey.
Mueller’s report did not take a position on whether the president committed obstruction, though Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that nothing the special counsel found rose to the level of a chargeable offense.
“The president appears to be saying — I don’t know what’s in his head, which is why I can’t reach the conclusion — what he appears to be saying is, I got rid of this guy to shut down an investigation that threatened me,” Comey said Wednesday. “Anything’s possible with this president. It’s possible he was lying to me when he told me earlier in the year how well I had handled the Clinton thing … doesn’t seem likely to me.”
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Former FBI Director James Comey defended the investigations into Trump’s campaign after reports of interference by Russian agents in 2016, using a comparison that seems bound to get under the president’s skin https://t.co/PipUzyc8S7
— POLITICO (@politico) March 28, 2019
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