Devin Nunes says James Comey could still face charges
IG report questions James Comey motivation when he briefed President Trump on the Steele dossier; insight from California Congressman Devin Nunes, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Congressman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Tuesday that former FBI Director James Comey is not in the clear yet, following the release of an inspector general's report last week.
Appearing on “America’s Newsroom” with host Sandra Smith, Nunes said that what Comey was “really doing” was “interrogating the president and then using that information and feeding it right back into the 'Crossfire Hurricane' team at a time when … Congress nor the president-elect knew he was under investigation.”
“Crossfire Hurricane” was the code name for the FBI’s Russia probe.
The comments came on the heels of the release of a report by the inspector general for the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz.
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Additionally, the report stated Comey’s motives for briefing then-President-elect Trump on the Steele dossier in January of 2016 included that the president might offer up evidence to help the investigation.
Nunes said that even though the DOJ decided not to prosecute Comey for violating department policies -- in the handling of memos documenting conversations with the president as well as passing along documents with the intention of leaking information -- there is a “tremendous amount of evidence” that would build a case for “conspiracy.”
He also told Smith that Comey refused to answer or could not recall key details about his handling of memos during closed congressional testimony. The IG report shows that Comey had significant advance preparation time when testifying.
“Well, when you look at the manipulation of the intelligence or lying to the FISA court for political purposes you now know the evidence that we have is that Comey wasn't going to brief the president just to get him up to speed. He was acting as if he was an agent working for the 'Crossfire Hurricane' team,” he said.
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“So, that is clear evidence that he was involved in this where before he's tried to pretend that he's like a step or two away from what happened…Well the IG report really makes clear that that's not the case when you read through 80 pages,” said Nunes.
On Monday, Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Smith that Comey “ignored all the rules and procedures in place to get an outcome he desired” and that he wanted the president to be investigated.
“He took the rules and procedures in his own hands to get an outcome. The rules be damned,” Graham stated.
On Tuesday morning the president took to Twitter labeled the Russia investigation a “giant and illegal SCAM.”
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Nunes concluded he believes Comey and his team ran the “entire” Russia probe under “so-called counter-intelligence because you can go to secret courts.”
“You know … really the question that we need to have answered is…how did they get to decide what was classified or not classified? I think that's a very important question.”
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