Former Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy blasted former FBI Director James Comey for admitting he was wrong in his handling of the FISA process his department used to obtain warrants to conduct surveillance on associates of President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“Sometimes, Maria, it’s better late than never, and sometimes it’s just too damn late,” Gowdy said on Sunday Morning Futures. “And in this case, Comey is about two years too late. We could have used his objectivity.”
During a wide-ranging interview on Fox News Sunday just hours earlier, Comey acknowledged his department showcased “real sloppiness” as top officials applied for warrants to keep a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign afloat. He admitted he was “wrong” to have said the process was “handled in a thoughtful, responsible way.”
Comey’s comments followed the Justice Department inspector general’s recent report, which outlined more than a dozen instances of errors or omissions top FBI and DOJ officials made as they applied for a federal warrant to conduct surveillance on four individuals associated Trump’s campaign.
“I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice have built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough,” Comey told host Chris Wallace. “It’s incredibly hard to get a FISA. I was overconfident in those because he’s right, there was real sloppiness.”
Comey also said it would have been “impossible” for him to know the details of the FISA application process “seven layers below” him. The remarks angered Republicans such as Gowdy.
“He said it was a policy and procedure issue, it’s not,” Gowdy said of Comey. “There have always been policies against manufacturing evidence and withholding exculpatory evidence. That’s not new. Those aren’t new policies. This is a personnel issue. It’s the wrong people in the wrong positions of power.”
