Comey, who was fired by 🍊as America’s top law enforcement official in May 2017, came under intense questioning on Fox News Sunday, sparring with anchor Wallace over the findings of the inspector general’s report into the FBI’s investigation 🇷🇺interference in the 2016 election.
Comey seized on one of Michael Horowitz’s main conclusions, that there was no evidence of political bias in the investigation, to launch an impassioned critique of how he and his FBI colleagues had been treated by Trump.
“The 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 a president. All that was nonsense.”
He also had pointed words for Fox News: “Remember, I was going to jail, lots of other people were going to jail. People on this network said it over and over again … The American people, especially your viewers, need to realise they were given false information about the FBI.”
At the same time, Comey was forced under persistent questioning by Wallace to admit he presided over serious mistakes in the course of applying for permission to place former Trump adviser Carter Page under surveillance.
The IG report gives details of 17 “significant errors and omissions” in the way four applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) court were made from October 2016, the first two on Comey’s watch.
