Sen. Lee: Comey blatantly accused President Trump of horrible things without facts
Utah senator joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss James Comey’s fuzzy memory of the Russia probe's origins.
Former FBI Director James Comey “blatantly accused the president of the United States” of “horrible things without any evidence,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Lee erupted at Comey during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where the former FBI director was grilled over exactly what he knew about FBI actions in the early stages of the Russia Investigation.
A Justice Department Inspector General (DOJ IG) report previously found that the initial FISA warrant application for surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page -- as well as subsequent applications for its renewal -- contained inaccuracies and omissions and relied on the Steele dossier despite evidence that it was unreliable.
During the hearing, Lee brought up discussions he had with Comey about FISA while Comey was going through the confirmation process to lead the bureau in 2013.
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“I trusted you. I believed that you would act in good faith,” Lee said. “When I asked you in my office and later in committee hearings -- first in your confirmation hearing and then in our subsequent oversight hearings -- what you would do to help make sure that the FISA process was respected and not manipulated, you gave me your word. And having established that brief relationship with you all those years earlier, I trusted you ...
“With all due respect," Lee added, "you don’t seem to know anything about an investigation that you ran."
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On Thursday, Lee said that lawmakers learned “very, very little” from Comey’s testimony, “other than his ongoing, old-school caterwauling and blatant antipathy toward the current president of the United States -- antipathy that I would add is not born in fact, it’s based on an inarticulated suspicion or hunch.
“It’s based on his mood,” Lee continued. “He blatantly accused the president of the United States, even in that hearing yesterday, of horrible things without any evidence, even after acknowledging he didn’t know what he was talking about when he signed the certification to the FISA court.”
Host Brian Kilmeade asked Lee if he thinks Comey “was being untruthful when he said he didn’t know when he briefed the president of the United States if the dossier was true or not, knowing what we know now?”
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“It seems difficult for me to accept that on face value given what we know now,” answered Lee, who added that “nothing” Comey said “gave me an added degree of confidence or any added reason to believe his account, which had already been severely undermined after previous hearings we’ve had on this including our conversations with [former Deputy Attorney General ] Sally Yates.”
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer, Kelly Phares and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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