Trump should not be prosecuted for inciting riot on Capitol Hill, former FBI Director James Comey said

President Donald Trump should be sentenced by the Senate, but not criminally prosecuted for inciting rioters on Capitol Hill, former FBI Director James Comey said on Sunday, adding that it would give America a space to “heal.”

“The country would be better off if we didn’t give it the platform that a lawsuit would be over the next three years,” Comey told UK broadcaster Sky News, which, like NBC News, is owned by Comcast Corp.

“Instead, turn off the camera lights,” said Comey, who was fired from his role as FBI director in 2017 by Trump as he led an investigation into the president’s possible collusion of the presidential campaign. of 2016 with Russia.

“I would love to see some of the lights go out and he can stand on the lawn at Mar-a-Lago and scream at the cars in his robe and none of us will hear him,” he said.

Trump became the first U.S. president to be impeached twice last week for his role in inciting a violent mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6.

The Senate will now decide whether Trump should be convicted of inciting an insurgency, and discussions have also taken place over potential criminal charges stemming from the same behavior after his departure.

Comey, 60, said he would like Trump to be condemned by the Senate and barred from taking public office again, but the former FBI boss said he was concerned that a lawsuit would hamper the efforts of Biden to reunite the nation.

“The country needs to find a way to heal itself and the new president needs the opportunity to lead and heal us – both literally and spiritually,” Comey said. “And it will be much, much more difficult if Donald Trump’s show is on our television screens every day in the nation’s capital.”

He said the trial will give Trump the attention he needs.

“It would last three or four years,” Comey said. “How does Joe Biden do what our country needs him in this environment?”

According to NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos, NBC News legal analyst, the decision to prosecute a former president should be a balancing test between the strength of the criminal case and the social and political consequences of a trial.

“If the case against Trump for incitement to hatred were a slam dunk, then the benefit of the lawsuits could outweigh the potential harm to the republic,” Cevallos said in response to Comey’s comments. “The prosecution case is not a slam dunk. Trump has tremendous freedom of speech and other defenses against incitement.

History has seen America face a similar dilemma, he said, adding that President Gerald Ford granted former President Richard Nixon a controversial pardon, which many say cost Ford his popularity and a longer term as president.

“We’ll never know, but a Nixon lawsuit could have prolonged – rather than resolved – the country’s pain,” he added.

Download the NBC News app for the latest news and politics

The attack on the Capitol, seat of American democracy, rippled across the country, sparking political upheaval just days before Joe Biden came to power and leaving authorities across the country on high alert for more. of violence before Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

Comey said he was optimistic the threat of further violence will be neutralized, but said it must be taken very seriously by law enforcement.

He said he was “sickened” by the attack on the Capitol and the inability to defend the building.

“It mystifies and angers me,” Comey said, adding: “It will be important for our country to understand this failure.”