Senate Republicans blasted former FBI Director James Comey for failing to provide forthright responses to their questions about the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation into President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Comey, who oversaw the bureau during the Obama administration and at the beginning of Trump’s term, frustrated GOP lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday by failing to recall information related to the investigation or saying it was never provided to him by subordinates.
Republicans focused their line of questioning on the FBI’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as a means to gain access to FISA warrants to surveil Trump campaign allies as well as the newly revealed Russian sub-source to the now-discredited Steele dossier, the anti-Trump opposition research document authored by ex-British spy Christopher Steele.
“I just asked him a series of questions, in which he was attempting to tell me that he didn’t really remember that the Democratic Party was funding [the Steele dossier]. He absolutely knew. He’s testified he knew. He told the IG that he knew,” Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told the Washington Examiner. “So, what he does is now, when he’s under oath, and now, when some of his previous misstatements have been brought to account, now, he suddenly develops amnesia and says he didn’t want to answer.”
Hawley added, “In fact, he knew that Steele was funded by the Democrats, he knew that there were significant problems with the Steele dossier, he should have known that the sub-source for Steele, the primary source for Steele, was potentially a Russian agent, but now, he doesn’t want to take responsibility for any of that, and he’s trying to hide behind the subterfuge that they just can’t recall.”
Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy said Comey is “slippery as an eel,” telling the Washington Examiner, “I think he’s dodging bobbing and weaving and to listen to him, his job was a janitor at the FBI as opposed to FBI director. He knew nothing, he saw nothing. He heard nothing. He hasn’t been very forthcoming.”
Democrats on the committee, however, appeared satisfied with Comey’s responses and defended the former FBI director.
“Well, it is a trip down memory lane to go back four years to look at Russian interference, when we’re smack dab in the middle of an election with Russian interference. I made that point in committee,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said.
