Publisher's Note: One of the most significant things you can do to promote Liberty is to support our mission. Please make your gift to the 2024 Year-End Campaign today. Thank you! —Mark Alexander, Publisher

December 16, 2019

Comey Rebuked for False Spin on Horowitz Report

The disgraced former FBI director dismisses serious FISA abuse as just “sloppy mistakes.”

James Comey once again displayed why he is the worst kind of lawman. In a hard-hitting interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace on Sunday, the former FBI director was left spinning answers to the damning findings of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation into the FBI’s abuse of FISA applications. From the moment the report was released, Comey has downplayed the significance of Horowitz’s findings, distancing himself from any culpability for the “errors and mistakes” and painting himself and the FBI as the real victims.

Comey feigned that he would “be very concerned about [the IG’s findings] and diving into it,” but he pushed back on any notion that anyone in the FBI may have acted with intentionality against Donald Trump. Evidently, Comey doesn’t believe the overt anti-Trump and pro-Hillary text messages between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page showed any bias. Hogwash.

While admitting that errors and mistakes did occur, Comey chalked them up to simple “sloppiness” that was done in good faith. (You know, kind of like Hillary Clinton’s email server.) Yet Wallace noted that Comey had previously asserted having full confidence in the FBI’s handling of the FISA warrants. Comey responded, “I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice Department have built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough.” He then deflected, “It’s incredibly hard to get a FISA [warrant]. I was overconfident in those because [Horowitz is] right: There was real sloppiness.”

Comey also lamely claimed that he was too distant from the Trump investigation to have been aware of the “significant errors” that occurred under his watch — even on the FISA warrant applications he repeatedly signed off on. “As the director, you’re not kept informed on the details of an investigation,” Comey asserted. “So no, in general I didn’t know what they’d learned from the sub-source. I didn’t know the particulars of the investigation.”

Wallace wasn’t buying that excuse. He pushed back, “But this isn’t some investigation, sir. This is an investigation of the campaign of the man who is the president of the United States. You had just been through a firestorm investigating Hillary Clinton. I would think if I had been in your position I would have been on that like a junkyard dog.” Comey then played Barack Obama’s favorite trick, claiming he was just too busy running a massive agency and that it would have been “impossible” to know all the details behind the FISA warrant application.

In one of the more telling exchanges, Wallace asked Comey if he would have resigned following Horowitz’s report if he had still been the FBI director. “No. I don’t think so,” Comey answered, adding, “There are mistakes I consider more consequential than this during my tenure.” Yikes.

Finally, Comey blasted as “an irresponsible statement” Attorney General William Barr’s assessment that the IG’s findings left open the possibility to infer bad faith by certain members within the FBI. Pot, meet kettle. Comey’s bad faith — and higher loyalty to Hillary Clinton — has been on display for some time to anyone willing to look. And as for Comey’s pathetically self-serving admissions, former Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy aptly summed it up: “Sometimes … it’s better late than never, and sometimes it’s just too damn late. And in this case, Comey is about two years too late.”

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.