The following article by Jacqueline Thomsen an Luis Sanchez was posted on the Hill website March 17, 2018:
Former FBI Director James Comey ripped President Trump just hours after the firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, saying Americans will “judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not.”
“Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not,” Comey tweeted on Saturday.
Comey is expected to use his upcoming book tour to directly rebut Trump’s attacks on the FBI.
The book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” is due out April 17.
Comey, who was fired by Trump last year, made the comment the day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe.
Sessions said that McCabe was dismissed for not being honest with investigators and for making an unauthorized disclosure to the media.
However, McCabe said that he was authorized to share the information at the time and that he was instead fired as part of an effort to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia.
McCabe served as acting director of the FBI after Comey’s firing last year, which has reportedly been a key area of interest for Mueller in the probe.
The inspector general has yet to release its report of McCabe’s actions but, according to The New York Times, the report focuses on disclosures McCabe made to The Wall Street Journal in 2016 and faults McCabe for not being truthful with internal investigators.
McCabe said in a statement released Friday night that he had authorization from Comey to share the information he gave to the media and that the practice continued under current FBI Director Christopher Wray, Trump’s pick to lead the bureau.
“It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter,” McCabe said. “It was the type of exchange with the media that the deputy director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request.”
Trump had celebrated McCabe’s firing on Twitter late Friday and used the opportunity to also take a shot at Comey.
“Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!” Trump tweeted.
Trump’s personal lawyer John Dowd on Saturday also said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should follow Session’s lead with McCabe and fire Mueller.
View the post here.