Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said Wednesday on “Hannity” that even if Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors decline to indict former FBI Director James Comey, he may not be “in the clear” due to new evidence uncovered by the agency.
The DOJ is reportedly expected to ask a grand jury to indict Comey on allegations of lying to Congress as a legal deadline for charges approaches. While discussing the case, host Sean Hannity asked for Jarrett’s legal take, noting that the infamous Steele dossier that Comey backed was deemed “BS.”
“Well, it should have been brought a long time ago, and, unless you weave it into an ongoing conspiracy, the statute of limitations on the FISA lies by Comey and others has expired. Hillary invented the Russia hoax, but it was Comey that drove the narrative to falsely incriminate Trump knowing full well it was all a lie,” Jarrett said. “Frankly, there were some of the acts of corruption and deceptions and misfeasance. You need an elaborate flow chart to keep track of it all. But these reports indicate that this particular case focuses on whether Comey leaked highly classified information to a non-FBI friend who passed it on to the media.”
In 2016, the Steele dossier paved the roadmap for the FBI’s investigation of alleged collusion between President Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and Russia. Reports broke in July that Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan were placed under criminal investigation for potential wrongdoing regarding the dossier as they had testified about it to Congress. (RELATED: ‘Justice Must Be Served’: Donald Trump Puts Pam Bondi On Blast Over Comey, Schiff)
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In 2018, Comey told Congress that the FBI had not verified the infamous dossier prior to the agency’s reliance on it to obtain a FISA warrant on Trump’s then-campaign adviser Carter Page. The former FBI director additionally claimed to lawmakers that Republicans had backed the dossier at the time, saying he believed it was important for investigators to understand the dossier was “a politically motivated effort, first by Republicans, then by Democrats.”
Jarrett added that Comey has allegedly lied to Congress on multiple occasions, pointing to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe implicating him in 2018 to allegedly knowing about leaks to the media.
“When questioned by Congress, Comey allegedly lied about it repeatedly. Indeed on more than one other occasion he denied that he had ever been an anonymous source. But the evidence belies that claim. In fact his own deputy director Andrew McCabe implicated Comey as complicit in leaks of sensitive information. Other top officials at the FBI confirmed,” Jarrett said. “Comey was a prodigious leaker often to improve his image and smear Trump. Whether a grand jury will indict we’ll have to wait and see.”
“There’s certainly been disagreement in the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Jarrett added. “Reportedly some prosecutors don’t think they can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial, it’s a very high standard. But even if perjury or obstruction is not brought against Comey, he’s not in the clear. The FBI director said he discovered burn bags [of] other hidden documents squirreled away in the building during Comey’s tenure involving the Russia hoax. I mean that could also be fresh evidence of wrongdoing in a conspiracy case. We just don’t know at this point.”
By 2020, Comey sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee, pleading ignorance to knowing that there had been significant problems with the dossier’s reliability. At the time, Comey said his staff at the FBI had not notified him of issues regarding Igor Danchenko, who was the primary source for the dossier’s author Christopher Steele.
Comey also told the lawmakers that he could not “recall” details from a briefing in October 2016 about the DOJ’s concerns over the dossier’s political bias against Trump.
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