Former FBI Director James Comey's and his deputy's allegedly partisan actions during the bureau's Russia investigation make its controversial inaugural director "look like a saint," according to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
Nunes, compared Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's activities detrimental to President Trump to that of J. Edgar Hoover, in a Thursday interview on "Hannity."
Host Sean Hannity reminded Nunes that Comey previously leaked sensitive memos detailing his contact with President Trump.
Comey used an intermediary - Columbia University faculty member Daniel Richman - to make the memoranda public.
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Nunes responded, calling Comey and McCabe "dirty cops" and accusing them of abusing their positions within the government.
"What I would say, Sean, in the future when you look up the words 'dirty cop,'... you will see the pictures of Comey and McCabe," he said.
"These guys make Hoover look like a saint," he continued, adding that he was outraged by a clip Hannity played of Comey discussing the White House interrogation of Gen. Michael Flynn. Hoover was criticized for collecting intelligence on those whom he personally considered enemies of the United States.
In 2018, Comey told Nicolle Wallace, a former White House communications director for former President George W. Bush, that he sent agents to question Flynn without fully informing the Trump administration.
"I sent them," Comey told Wallace, now an MSNBC host. "[I]n a more organized administration ... if the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official, you would work through the White House counsel and there would be discussions ... I thought it's early enough, let's just send a couple guys over."
Nunes called the remarks "despicable," adding Comey should have gone through the proper channels to talk to Flynn, then the national security adviser.
"It is absolutely despicable that the head of the FBI would think it's funny and cute to send over these FBI agents to go and interview the national security adviser," the lawmaker claimed. "Then they walk out and say we don't think this guy is lying but you double down."
Flynn pleaded guilty to providing false statements to the FBI during a January 2017 interview. He admitted to lying about his communications with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016.
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and William Mears contributed to this report.
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