Former FBI Director James Comey appears to be at the center of the criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation, according to former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova.
Over the past few days, former CIA Director John Brennan was interviewed by U.S. Attorney John Durham’s team at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, after which his longtime aide said he was told he is not a “subject or a target” of a criminal investigation, and Comey told CBS News on Sunday that he “can’t imagine” being a target of the inquiry.
During an appearance Monday on WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall show, diGenova, a lawyer whose work was caught up in the Ukraine-impeachment controversy, surmised that Brennan is now a witness against Comey.
“I don’t know whether he’s a target or not. I can’t concede to the fact that he isn’t given that Kevin Clinesmith guilty plea last week. But there’s no doubt that Comey is at the center of the investigation,” he said. “The fact that he has not been interviewed and the fact that the FBI, it is obvious, is now the central focus of the Durham investigation.”
DiGenova, a vocal Trump defender who makes weekly appearances on the radio show to offer his take on Justice Department matters and other legal developments, said he doesn’t doubt the statement released by Nick Shapiro, Brennan’s former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser, which noted that Brennan praised Durham for the “professional manner” he and his team conducted the interview.
“The fact that Brennan’s representative said that he was interviewed for eight hours at the CIA by Durham and was told that he was not a subject or a target — I have to believe that. I can’t imagine his spokesman would make a false statement about the nature of his relationship Durham, which Durham could quickly correct,” diGenova said.
“I’m assuming that Brennan is free, and as a result of that, he has become a witness against James Comey,” he added. “Not willingly, but I think he’s been forced to become a witness. And I think it’s pretty clear right now that what they are doing is, they’re following up on Bill Barr’s prescription, which is not every abuse of power is a crime. And that is what Brennan got the benefit of.”
In his weekend interview with Face the Nation, Comey defended the conduct of the FBI during its investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. He also chided Durham’s so-called investigation of the investigators being overseen by Attorney General William Barr.
“Given that I know what happened during 2016, which was a bunch of people trying to do the right thing consistent with the law, I’m not worried at all about that investigation of the investigation. Next, I’m sure will be an investigation of the investigation of the investigation. They just want to have an investigation to talk about,” Comey quipped.
DiGenova isn’t the only one to express the belief that the FBI is coming under increasing scrutiny as Durham’s review nears its end. “There are more things coming out with the Durham report that show the FBI’s primary concern is its own reputation,” former Rep. Trey Gowdy said last week.
Last week, Durham snagged his first guilty plea from former FBI lawyer Clinesmith for doctoring an email during the process of the bureau seeking a court’s permission to renew an order to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser. He is also examining the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference in the election, which Brennan and Comey helped put together.
Other leading officials at the FBI during the Russia investigation and possibly top brass at the Justice Department might be in Durham’s crosshairs as he examines their approval of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications, which relied on a flawed dossier from British ex-spy Christopher Steele.
One person mentioned by diGenova was Bill Priestap, the FBI’s former head of counterintelligence, whom Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has said he believes gave misleading information to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2018 about the reliability of Steele’s research and will refer to Durham’s team.
