Comey Makes Big Admission: 'I Was Wrong' with FISA Conduct
Former FBI Director James Comey offered a drop of contrition in an ocean of defensiveness Sunday during a “Fox News Sunday” interview with Chris Wallace.
During the interview, Comey alleged the FBI was sloppy, not out to get anyone.
“[T]he FBI was accused of treason, of illegal spying, of tapping Mr. Trump’s wires illegally, of opening an investigation without justification of being a criminal conspiracy to unseat — defeat and then unseat a president. All of that was nonsense,” Comey said.
“I think it’s really important that the inspector general looked at that and that the American people, your viewers and all viewers, understand that’s true. But he also found things that we were never accused of, which is real sloppiness, and that’s concerning. As I’ve said all along, has to be focused on. If I were director I’d be very concerned about it and diving into it.”
During the often-contentious interview, Wallace confronted Comey with what Wallace believed to be the dissonance between Comey’s claim that Justice Department Inspector Michael General’s report on the FBI vindicated him and the report’s documentation of 17 major errors in the FBI’s documentation that allowed it to surveil the Trump campaign.
“I was wrong,” Comey said. “I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice had built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough. It’s incredibly hard to get a FISA. I was overconfident in those. Because he’s right. There was real sloppiness, 17 things that either should’ve been in the applications or at least discussed and characterized differently. It was not acceptable and so he’s right. I was wrong.”
“But you make it sound like you’re a bystander, an eyewitness. You were the director of the FBI while a lot of this was going on, sir,” Wallace replied.
“Sure. I’m responsible for it. That’s why I’m telling you I was wrong. I was overconfident as director in our procedures and it’s important that a leader be accountable and transparent. If I were still director, I’d be saying exactly the same thing that Chris Wray is saying, which is we are going to get to the bottom of this. Because the most important question is, is it systemic? Are there problems in other cases?” Comey said.
Elsewhere, Comey appeared to minimize any FBI errors.
“The Inspector General did not find misconduct by any FBI people. He found mistakes and negligence in oversight,” Comey said, only to have Wallace interject that a DOJ attorney changed a document presented to the FISA court.
Comey referred to that as “this business with the lawyer changing some email to a partner on the team.”
Although Comey admitted the allegation is significant, he also said it was minor in contrast to what he saw as the damage done to the FBI’s image.
“The FBI was accused of criminal misconduct. Remember, I was going to jail, and lots of other people were going to jail. People on this network said it over, and over, and over again. The Inspector General did not find misconduct by FBI personnel, did not find political bias, did not find illegal conduct,” he said.
“The Inspector General found significant mistakes, and that is not something to sneeze at; that’s really important. But the American people — especially your viewers — need to realize, they were given false information about the FBI. It’s honest. It is not political. It is flawed.”
Comey refused to say the investigation was focused on President Donald Trump.
“He was — Trump — I have to keep correcting you. President Trump was not being investigated. His campaign was not being investigated. Four Americans — two of whom were no longer associated with the campaign — were being investigated,” he said.
Wallace then challenged Comey that the report issued by Horowitz said the FBI was either guilty of gross negligence or there was an intention to lie to get the OK needed to open surveillance.
Comey replied that Horowitz “doesn’t conclude that there was intentional misconduct by these career special agents.”
“No,” Wallace replied. “He just says it’s one of two things, and he can’t decide: gross negligence or it was intentional misconduct.”
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