Former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova said former FBI Director James Comey is “not out of the woods” after the Justice Department declined to prosecute him for how he handled memos that documented interactions he had with President Trump.
In an interview on Fox News last week, diGenova said it was “very obvious” that top officials at the Justice Department and FBI sought to “frame” Trump to keep him out of the White House. He said accountability will come from a review of the Russia investigation origins being led by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
“Comey’s not out of the woods,” diGenova told host Laura Ingraham. “He is the target along with a number of other people of a major criminal conspiracy investigation by John Durham. Doesn’t mean he is going to be charged but … he’s right in the middle of the grand conspiracy that John Durham is investigating. I applaud what Bill Barr in dismissing — in not bringing this case.”
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz sent a referral to the DOJ about memos Comey leaked to a friend to give to the press, a move he testified was done with the hopes of sparking a special counsel investigation. Although prosecutors found the watchdog’s findings compelling, they decided against prosecution under classified information protection laws because of uncertainty regarding Comey’s intent.
Comey has denied leaking classified information, but two of his memos were deemed confidential, the lowest form of classification, after an FBI review.
Still, Horowitz is nearing completion of a report on alleged government abuses that began during the 2016 campaign. The investigation will likely scrutinize how Comey signed three of the four FISA applications targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, which is a focus of Horowitz’s investigation. Those FBI applications relied on a dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, which has largely been discredited.
Durham, at the behest of Attorney General William Barr, is conducting review of the Russia investigation’s origins, and could take prosecutorial action, depending on the findings and recommendations from the independent watchdog.
“Accountability is what matters now after the disgrace that we’ve had where it is very obvious the DOJ and FBI under Obama — Sally Yates, James Comey, [Andrew] McCabe, all of these people tried to basically frame Donald Trump, to defrock him, to remove him from office, to prevent him from taking office,” diGenova said.
“What we need now is accountability through disclosure, accountability, transparency, public reports, the Horowitz report, and if there are serious crimes — let’s say a group of people got together and said even though we know Carter Page is innocent, we are going to lie to the FISA court so we can listen in and see if we can get stuff on the Trump people. If that happened, I’m for prosecuting that,” he added.
