Trump on Comey and Brennan
During a lunch event on Wednesday, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doucy posed a question to President Donald Trump regarding whether he wished to meet with former FBI director James Comey and former CIA director John Brennan.
The FBI has initiated a criminal investigation concerning Comey and Brennan, focusing on possible fraud linked to the Steele dossier inquiry, which suggested that Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russia to influence the election. Trump indicated during the lunch that Comey and Brennan might have to “pay the price” for what he described as “cheating” and “crossed” lines.
Doucy asked, “Do you want to see [Brennan and Comey] behind bars?”
Trump responded, “Well, I know nothing other than what I read today. But I tell you, I think they’re cheating people; I think they’re bent like hell. And maybe they have to pay that price. They believe they are really bad people and illicit people.”
CIA director John Ratcliffe introduced FBI director Kash Patel to evidence of Brennan’s alleged misconduct based on a declassified “Lessons learned” review regarding the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). This review noted that the editing process of the ICA exhibited a “procedural anomaly.”
Brennan is also accused of providing false statements to Congress in 2023, claiming he hadn’t approved the inclusion of the House Judiciary Committee in the ICA. Newly declassified information reveals that he had actually requested the related documents be included.
Additionally, there is an investigation into Comey’s conduct. In 2018, he testified to Congress that the FBI hadn’t reviewed the controversial documents before they were used to secure a spy warrant against Trump’s campaign advisor Carter Page. He later told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 that he had not been informed of issues concerning Igor Danchenko, the main source behind the dossier authored by Christopher Steele, a former British spy.
Comey has repeatedly been criticized for allegedly misleading the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, where Republicans initially backed the controversial documents.
