Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., worries that next week’s testimony from former FBI Director James Comey could wind up being a one-sided “hit job.”
“Here is what I worry about,” Graham said on Fox News. “[Comey] will just focus on his conversation with the president and not answer any other questions because of the investigation. That would be a hit job on President Trump and I hope this hearing doesn’t become a hit job on President Trump.”
Graham went on to say he hopes Comey can answer questions about whether or not the president is the direct subject of an investigation into colluding with Russian agents and Russia’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election.
“I think Director Comey should answer the question is Donald Trump under investigation?” Graham said. “Is he a target? A subject of an investigation regarding him colluding with the Russians? I don’t believe he is. There is a cloud over the presidency that needs to be removed if the facts justify it being removed. So I just hope it’s not a one-sided discussion where he recounts a conversation with the president and he won’t answer any other questions.”
Graham is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which had hoped to question Comey in addition to the Senate Intelligence Committee, where Comey will testify next Thursday.
Besides worrying that Comey’s testimony would only discuss his conversations with President Trump and provide few details on anything else, Graham is concerned that Comey may simply still be upset over his firing.
This past Sunday, Graham had also been on CNN’s Sunday News show ‘State of the Union’ expressing his dismay that Comey may have relied on a fake email when deciding how to proceed in the Hillary Clinton email investigation in the run up to the 2016 election.
“I want to get back to the idea that the FBI director’s decision to jump into the election and say that Hillary Clinton did not commit a crime but she was pretty much incompetent was based on a fake email from Russia. He never told anybody in Congress, which is stunning,” Graham said on Sunday.
Graham is referring to an email that Comey may have had which was supposedly written by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee at the time. Media reports say the email indicated that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch would not let the Clinton email investigation proceed too far.
Comey likely knew the email was false, but worried what it could do to a polarized electorate who might not be persuaded that the message was a fake.
“And at the end of the day, if the Russians are this sophisticated, we need more sanctions yesterday against the Russians. Or if, in fact, this is a true email, I want to see the email,” Graham added.
