Rep. Devin Nunes says former FBI Director James Comey could still face charges.
Last week, the Justice Department inspector general released a report that strongly rebuked Comey for how he handled memos describing his discussions with President Trump. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Comey for his behavior, but Nunes believes the 83-page report sets the stage for Comey to be part of a conspiracy indictment.
“The IG report, even though it didn’t lead to a prosecution, it’s a tremendous amount of evidence that would build into the case that we’ve been making that there was in fact a conspiracy here, and that is what the Justice Department should be looking at — conspiracy to break many laws,” the California congressman told Fox News on Tuesday.
As the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes has led a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. Earlier this year, he sent eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department, two of which focus on conspiracy.
Nunes said Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report shows Comey was acting as if he were an “agent” for the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” team conducting a counterinvestigation into members of Trump’s campaign: specifically, that Comey used the guise of a private briefing at Trump Tower in January 2017, in which he told Trump about a dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele containing allegations about his ties to Russia, to collect evidence on the then-president-elect. During this one-on-one meeting, Comey told Trump he was not a subject of the investigation.
The watchdog’s report reveals that Comey and senior FBI officials, including supervisors of the counterintelligence inquiry, discussed the briefing ahead of time and considered whether Trump would “make statements about or provide information of value to the pending Russia interference investigation.”
Nunes said Comey may have also sought to “fraud” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as part of a conspiracy, using Steele’s unverified dossier to obtain warrants to wiretap onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Comey was one of the signatories of the warrant applications.
“He always pretends that he doesn’t know what happened with the FISA situation, he doesn’t know what happened with the intelligence. Well, the IG report really makes clear that that’s not the case when you read through 80 pages,” Nunes said.
With special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation complete, Attorney General William Barr is overseeing a review of the origins of the Russia investigation. He has tasked U.S. Attorney John Durham with leading the effort and says he is working closely with Horowitz as he wraps up a separate inquiry into alleged FISA abuses.
Comey declared Horowitz’s report on his memos cleared him of being a “liar and a leaker,” but Nunes said he hopes the DOJ’s “investigation into the investigators” will hold the former FBI director accountable.
“We know that Bill Barr has asked the U.S. attorney in Connecticut to look at everything. The origins of this investigation. Because, remember, in the Mueller report that came out, even though it cleared and exonerated Donald Trump, it really didn’t answer the very basic questions that we have been looking to as House Republicans, right? Who are all these characters that started this investigation? How did this begin? How did you use our secret, most powerful capabilities in this country that are designed to go after foreigners, go after bad guys? How does that system get turned around to target an American political campaign for president, nonetheless?” Nunes said. “So, those are the types of questions that Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, needs to answer.”
