Former FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday he is confident that Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation will not find that he or others around him at the FBI did anything wrong, but “if the truth was there was something concerning, then let’s hear it.”
At a CNN town hall Thursday night, exactly two years after he was fired by President Trump on May 9, 2017, Comey said no matter what is found by Horowitz’s probe or by the investigation being conducted by Attorney General William Barr, “they should be transparent about it.”
Comey and the FBI have come under scrutiny for the handling of the Trump-Russia investigation, with allegations of politicization, improper surveillance, spying, and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper told Comey that “the inspector general, the attorney general, they’re now obviously looking into the origins of the investigation into the president and his campaign.” He asked Comey: “Are you confident you did everything by the book, and that the FBI, the people around you did everything by the book?”
[Related: DOJ inspector general ‘homing in on’ FBI’s use of unverified Steele dossier]
Comey said he was confident that he, and the FBI more broadly, had done nothing wrong, replying, “Yes. No doubt in my mind. But that doesn’t mean I’m against review of it. That’s totally fine.”
Cooper then pressed him further, asking, “So you think the inspector general will find nothing inappropriate?”
Comey said, “I don’t think so. At least not that I know of. But if they do, they do. And they should be transparent about it.”
The Justice Department inspector general is looking into alleged FISA abuse related to surveillance of Trump campaign associate Carter Page. The watchdog is also investigating the FBI’s reliance on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier. That research was compiled at the behest of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was itself being paid by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. The dossier was a key part of FISA applications and renewals; Comey signed off on three of them.
[Also read: Barr says ‘multiple criminal leak investigations underway’]
Cooper told Comey that “CNN has spoken to people within the FBI that say they have concerns that the inspector general could find something, and that they are bracing for what may be uncovered.”
Comey emphasized he looked forward to the results of the investigation and stressed that he was unaware of any wrongdoing by himself or by the FBI. “Again, I’m a big believer in the truth. If the truth was there was something concerning, then let’s hear it. I don’t know of anything like that,” he said.
Barr told Congress that the Justice Department has launched an investigation into how the Justice Department and the FBI handled the Trump-Russia investigation, and he said that “the people helping me with my review will be working very closely with” Horowitz.
Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation during 2016 was criticized in a voluminous report released by Horowitz in June 2018, which Cooper reminded Comey of by saying that the Justice Department inspector general “called your decision not to inform the bosses about the Clinton press conference, they called it extraordinary, insubordinate.” Cooper further reminded him that “they also said your letter to Congress about reopening the Clinton emails investigation to the emails was based on your personal views even if it meant rejecting long-standing department policy or practice.”
Comey replied, “Yeah, that’s fair criticism.”
Cooper then asked, “Is it true? Extraordinary and insubordinate and that it rejected long-standing policy practices?”
“Yes, except for the insubordinate part,” Comey contended.
Barr has said Horowitz’s Trump-Russia investigation into the actions of the Justice Department and FBI should be completed in either May or June.
