Former FBI Director James Comey on Sunday admitted he was “wrong” and “over confident” about the FBI procedures used during the investigation of the Trump campaign and Russia meddling in the 2016 election.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Comey was grilled about the damning report on the FBI’s procedures that was delivered by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
“I’m responsible,” he declared. “I was wrong, I was over confident on our procedures,” he said.
Comey then said he would say exactly what current FBI Director Christopher Wray has said about the IG report, “We are going to get to the bottom of this.”
"The most important thing" is to determine is whether the procedural errors are “systemic."
But host Chris Wallace called out Comey on once calling the unsubstantiated dossier put together by former British spy Christopher Steele — which was used to get a FISA warrant to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page — as merely part of the reason for the application.
Horowitz, in his report, called it a “central” component of the application.
“I’m not sure [Horowitz] and I are saying dfferent things,” Comey said, adding: “The FBI thought it was a close call… I don’t think we’re saying different things.”
Wallace dismissed his rationale, and said the Horowitz conclusion essentially refutes Comey's excuse that the application was merely part of a “broader mosaic” of reasons for seeking permission to surveil Page.
Wray told The Associated Press last week that the report identified problems that the report found problems that are “unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution." The FBI is taking more than 40 steps to fix those problems, he said.
Horowitz told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that no one who was involved in the warrant application process should feel vindicated, rejecting claims of vindication that Comey had made in an opinion piece earlier in the week. Comey said Sunday that he simply meant that the report had debunked some of the gravest allegations that Trump and his supporters had made.
“All of that was nonsense. 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," Comey said.
He also criticized Attorney General William Barr for saying in a separate interview last week that the many errors by the FBI left open the possibility that agents may have acted in bad faith.
“The facts just aren’t there, full stop," Comey said, when asked whether Barr has a valid point. “That doesn’t make it any less consequential, any less important, but that’s an irresponsible statement."
Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.
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