Former FBI director James Comey admitted in a new interview that his actions as head of the nation's top law enforcement agency helped President Donald Trump win the 2016 election.
Comey, a Trump critic who was fired by the president in May 2017, spoke with CNN on Tuesday about special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe — which kicked off after Comey was dismissed.
"Sure. And I hope someday somebody proves that we were irrelevant," Comey said when asked if he thinks he helped Trump win after announcing the FBI was taking another look at the Hillary Clinton email investigation days before the election.
"I hope we had no impact. I hope it's proven that it was irrelevant. But all it does is increase the pain. It doesn't change how I think about the decision. My view and the view of my team was: I cannot conceal from the American people that the investigation we told them, and fought to tell them, is done, is done, is done — is not done, and the result could change."
Comey has criticized Trump on social media and in interviews ever since he was fired. After Attorney General William Barr released a summary of Mueller's findings last month that cleared Trump of conspiring with the Russians, Comey posted a cryptic tweet that read, "So many questions," accompanied by a photo of him staring up at trees in a forest.
Comey told CNN, however, that Barr "deserves the benefit of the doubt."
"Give him a chance to show us what he feels like he can't show us," he said. "I have to imagine that former [FBI director] Mueller wrote the report with an eye towards it being public some day, so I can't imagine a lot needs to be cut out of it. But let's wait and see. The attorney general deserves that chance."
Regarding the claim that Trump obstructed justice, on which Mueller could not come to a definitive decision, Comey said obstruction comes in many forms.
"People obstruct to avoid embarrassment, to protect family and friends, to protect businesses because they're worried the investigators might find something out," he said. "Martha Stewart went to jail for lying about an investigation. She wasn't convicted of insider trading. Bringing those kind of obstruction cases are really important because you'd create an incentive to obstruct" if you didn't.
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