Geraldo Rivera has “little doubt” the Obama Justice Department spied on the Trump campaign and “made absolutely probable all of the trauma we’ve gone through with this whole Russia thing.”
Speaking on Fox & Friends, Rivera, Fox News’s roaming correspondent-at-large, hailed William Barr as an “impeccable superb professional” after the Attorney General’s testimony this week that “spying did occur” against the 2016 campaign.
Barr’s comments have since been questioned by James Comey, the former FBI Director, as well as Democrats and the media. Comey said during a cybersecurity conference in California Thursday that he had “never thought of” electronic surveillance as “spying”.
Rivera dismissed Comey’s latest comments as “one of the most disingenuous interviews I have heard recently”.
COMEY SCOFFS AT BARR TESTIMONY, CLAIMS 'SURVEILLANCE' IS NOT 'SPYING'
“To say that electronic surveillance and spying are different, what is the exact difference? Is it the method? There is no doubt, I believe they did wiretap…Trump's office here in New York,” Rivera said. “I believe that they turned informants in the way they twisted arms to get people in trouble, get them conflicted. So they had to snitch. Anything they knew about the president.
“[George] Papadopoulos, Carter Page, you have a situation. Poor Michael Flynn, they twisted these people, they got them in the perjury trap, they had them by the short hairs, got them to cooperate, and guess what? There was still no Russian collusion. But there is no doubt, to make a fine distinction between surveillance and spying is, I think, deflecting attention from what is going on," he said.
Despite the backlash from the likes of Comey and Democrats over Barr’s testimony, he appeared to refer to intelligence collection that already has been widely reported and confirmed.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page are currently the subject of a Justice Department inspector general investigation looking at potential misconduct in the issuance of those warrants. That review also reportedly is scrutinizing the role of an FBI informant who had contacts with Trump advisers in the early stages of the Russia investigation.
Rivera continued: “President Trump, President-elect Trump, was totally paranoid. That doesn't mean he did not have people spying on him. And as it turns out, everything he said basically is correct.
BARR HAMMERED FOR STATING 'SPYING DID OCCUR', DESPITE CONFIRMATION OF TRUMP TEAM SURVEILLANCE
“They went after him full bore… It is not overstating to say 'spying'. Maybe it’s overstating to say there was an attempted coup. But they were talking about the 25th Amendment, they were talking about high management getting cabinet-level officials to declare the president non-compos mentis, and to take over.
“I mean this was very, very serious. I think the blowback from this is gonna be way bigger than Russia gate was. The collusion illusion is going to dim into history as we find out how a group of non-elected officials try to overthrow the president of the United States.”
Rivera also reserved a few words for Julian Assange, who was arrested in London Thursday after spending years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy.
“Julian Assange, to me, is an anti-American slimeball whose every action was designed to hurt the United States of America. He did it with Chelsea Manning in the spying in 2010, 2011, when he released those videos of civilian casualties from American airstrikes.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
He added: “I have nothing but contempt for Julian Assange and I hope that justice finally comes calling.”
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
More from Politics
