Fired FBI Director James Comey had his feet held to the fire on Fox News Sunday by anchor Chris Wallace, who grilled him on the FBI’s misconduct during the Russia probe. Despite Comey’s admission that the FBI mislead the FISA court in their applications to spy on a Trump campaign staffer, the liberal broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) refused to cover Comey’s comments on their flagship morning and evening news programs between Sunday and Monday evenings.
Instead of reporting on Comey’s comments regarding the FBI’s misconduct, the networks tried to pump up the excitement for the partisan impeachment vote in the House on Wednesday. They also went gaga for Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, which finally topped the charts after 25 years. A showcase of their priorities.
While their silence was deafening, Fox News Channel’s Special Report provided an update on Monday evening. “Former FBI director James Comey concedes he was overconfident when he backed the agency's use of surveillance of an advisor to then-candidate Trump’s 2016 campaign and then when he gave the process has full-throated defense afterwards,” announced anchor Bret Baier before handing it off to correspondent Kristin Fisher.
Fisher added: “Former FBI Director James Comey admits there were major problems with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA applications used to obtain a warrant to surveil a former advisor to President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Warrants, which served as the basis for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.”
Pointing out the inconsistencies between the facts and Comey’s past statements to Fox News, Fisher recalled that Comey originally claimed the infamous and completely debunked Steele dossier was not crucial to the FISA warrant. The Justice Department inspector general found, in reality, the dossier played a critical role:
MICHAEL HOROWITZ: We concluded that the Steele reporting played a central and essential role in the decision to seek a FISA order.
FISHER: But, on Special Report last year, Comey said the Steele dossier was not critical to the FISA application.
COMEY: My recollection was, there was a significant amount of additional material about Page and why there is probable cause to believe he was an agent of a foreign power.
“Now, Comey says Page was treated unfairly,” Fisher noted before adding that Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (IL) said that Page deserved an apology from the federal government, while on CBS’s Face the Nation. On top of that, Durbin also delivered this ominous prediction about the future of the FBI: “This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time the FBI misrepresents evidence before this court and proceeds.”
Fisher concluded by recalling that “there is another ongoing internal investigation: The Durham probe, and it has already been elevated to a criminal inquiry.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
December 16, 2019
6:08:40 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Former FBI director James Comey concedes he was overconfident when he backed the agency's use of surveillance of an advisor to then-candidate Trump’s 2016 campaign and then when he gave the process has full-throated defense afterwards. Correspondent Kristin Fisher has the story.
[Cuts to video]
JAMES COMEY: I was wrong.
KRISTIN FISHER: Former FBI Director James Comey admits there were major problems with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA applications used to obtain a warrant to surveil a former advisor to President Trump’s 2016 campaign. Warrants, which served as the basis for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
COMEY: I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice [Department] had built over 20 years. [Transition] There was real sloppiness. 17 things that should have been in the application or at least discussed and characterized differently. It was not acceptable, and so, he was right…
FISHER: “He” is the Justice Department inspector general, Michael Horowitz, who testified last week before Congress that the now-infamous dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and paid for by Democrats, was the centerpiece of the FBI's FISA application to monitor Carter Page.
IG MICHAEL HOROWITZ: We concluded that the Steele reporting played a central and essential role in the decision to seek a FISA order.
FISHER: But, on Special Report last year, Comey said the Steele dossier was not critical to the FISA application.
COMEY: My recollection was, there was a significant amount of additional material about Page and why there is probable cause to believe he was an agent of a foreign power.
FISHER: Now, Comey says Page was treated unfairly, and the number two Democrat in the Senate says Page deserves an apology from the U.S. government.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): This isn’t the first and won’t be the last time the FBI misrepresents evidence before this court and proceeds.
FISHER: Somebody else who wants an apology, is President Trump, who said, on Twitter, "So now Comey is admitting he was wrong. What are the consequences for his unlawful conduct? Could it be years in jail? Where are the apologies to me and others, Jim?"
[Cuts back to live]
Now, to be clear, the inspector general report found no evidence that Comey did anything unlawful or criminal. It also did not find any intentional misconduct by the FBI. But remember, there is another ongoing internal investigation: The Durham probe, and it has already been elevated to a criminal inquiry. Bret.
BAIER: Kristin, thank you.
