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President Trump said Friday that James Comey was "lucky" that Attorney General Bill Barr did not sue him, claiming that the "disastrous" report of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice released this week denounced an illegal plan to deprive his supporters of his rights.
The report released on Thursday revealed that the former FBI director had repeatedly violated FBI policies by writing, filtering and keeping notes of his conversations with the president. The Department of Justice reviewed the findings, but did not lay charges.
"The fact that James Comey has not been sued for his absolutely horrendous acts is a good illustration of how fair and reasonable Attorney General Bill Barr is," Trump said on Twitter on Friday. "So many people and experts that I've seen and read would have gone totally different." Comey was lucky!
A GI report states that James Comey violated FBI policies with memos on trump talks
Inspector General Michael Horowitz's investigation determined that Comey's notes were "official FBI records" that should have been treated with greater care, concluding that Comey was giving a "dangerous example" with his actions.
"By not backing up the information obtained during his employment with the FBI, and using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the more than 35,000 current employees of the FBI. FBI – and the thousands of other former FBI employees – who have access to or access non-public information, "says the report.
Comey has broken the FBI's policies several times with the memos, the report said, including "providing one of the unclassified memos containing official FBI information, including confidential investigative information, to his friend, with instructions to this friend to share the contents of the memo with a reporter. "
Comey admitted to having done so in the hope that this would lead to the appointment of a special council to take charge of the investigation on Russia.
But Trump, after speaking little about the report the day of its publication, said Friday that the investigation had revealed how he had been treated "unfairly", as well as those who supported his presidency.
"IG's disastrous report on James Comey shows in the strongest terms how much I've been treated unfairly, as well as the tens of millions of exceptional people who support me," tweeted Trump. "Our rights and freedoms have been illegally removed by this dishonest fool. Should we be making our time stolen?
Horowitz's report not only revealed Comey's violation of FBI policy, but gave new details about Comey's interactions with Trump during the transition period and how it might have worked in the Russian investigation. .
During the transition period, Comey met Trump several times. But even though the FBI director of the time had assured Trump that he was not the subject of a personal investigation, officials were apparently curious about what the president had to say at a meeting of January 6, 2017 in Trump Tower about the salacious allegations set out in the report. Anti-Trump folder.
John Brennan, director of the CIA era, James Clapper, director of national intelligence, and Mike Rogers, director of the national security agency, also attended the meeting, but "agreed that the briefing "on the record" must be a face to face, so that Comey could present the information "salacious" in the most discreet and least embarrassing way. "
According to the IG's report, there was talk of whether Trump "could make statements or provide useful information to the ongoing investigation into the Russian interference" known as of "Crossfire Hurricane".
GI report highlights apparent inconsistencies in COMEY testimony on TRUMP memos
After Comey shared the statements in the file with Trump, he observed the President's reactions and quickly documented them for investigation, according to the Inspector General.
"Comey said that an FBI-safe laptop was waiting for him in his car and that when he got into the vehicle, he was handed over and" began to tap while the vehicle was moving forward, "says the report. from the Inspector General.
Comey then went to the FBI office in New York to discuss the issue during a secure videoconference with other members of the Crossfire Hurricane team, according to the report. The team, which includes FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, was formed in July 2016, when Strzok officially opened the first FBI investigation in Russia.
Republicans called for a more in-depth review of FBI and DOJ actions, and highlighted ongoing investigations that may involve more senior officials.
REPUBLICANS PLAN THE REBUKE OF THE IG IS THE ICEBERG POINT FOR THE FBI, THE DOJ ON THE "ANTITRUMPES CONTOUR" & # 39;
"This is the first of what we can expect to be more disclosures, holding former FBI and DOJ officials accountable for their reprehensible conduct against President Trump and his campaign," said House Freedom Caucus President Rep. . Mark Meadows, RN.C. , after the publication of the Comey report. "I'm looking forward to these results."
Representative Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, also said he looked forward to the "FISA process abuse" findings.
Horowitz acknowledged that his office was already examining possible FBI (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) violations by the FBI during the investigation in Russia. Earlier this year, Barr tasked Connecticut US Attorney John Durham to examine the government's alleged inappropriate oversight of the 2016 Trump campaign during the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
The internal investigation of the investigation conducted by the Ministry of Justice in Russia focused on transcripts of recordings made by at least one government source having met with the former assistant of the Trump George Papadopoulos campaign in 2016, seeking precisely to know why some "exculpatory" documents from them had not been presented. Fox News reported in subsequent requests for warrants.
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According to sources, the transcripts have been filed, but Barr would likely have access to these documents after Trump's decision in May to approve the declassification of documents related to the monitoring of his campaign in the 2016 elections.
Gregg Re and Alex Pappas of Fox News contributed to this article.
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