In Friday morning remarks, President Donald Trump lashed out at James Comey, who was criminally indicted Thursday evening — just days after the President urged his Attorney General to take action against his political enemies, including his former FBI Director.
Comey was indicted on two counts, including making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, according to NBC News.
Just before 7:00 AM on Friday, President Trump praised the Comey indictment.
“James ‘Dirty Cop’ Comey was a destroyer of lives. He knew exactly what he was saying, and that it was a very serious and far reaching lie for which a very big price must be paid!” Trump charged.
“He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been, but he was just assigned a Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge, so he’s off to a very good start,” he added.
“Nevertheless, words are words, and he wasn’t hedging or in dispute. He was very positive, there was no doubt in his mind about what he said, or meant by saying it. He left himself ZERO margin of error on a big and important answer to a question. He just got unexpectedly caught,” Trump said about alleged remarks Comey made five years ago.
Attorney Ed Whelan, a constitutional law expert and senior fellow at the right-wing Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote on Thursday night: “Indictment doesn’t happen w/o president’s vindictive personal intervention and directive. I wouldn’t call that ‘equal justice under the law.'”
Responding to Trump’s Friday morning remarks, Politico senior legal correspondent Kyle Cheney wrote: “Trump’s inability to stop live commentary on Comey’s case could actually doom it. This isn’t just a broad ‘no one is above the law,’ he’s doing legal analysis that Comey’s team will plug right into their selective prosecution motion to dismiss the indictment.”
Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias, responding to the President’s remarks, wrote: “There are some subtle indications here that the Comey prosecution reflects direct involvement in the process by a president who pre-judged the case rather than an objective prosecutorial assessment of the facts.”
Overnight, MSNBC Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Dilanian wrote, “The filing of felony charges based on a five-year-old statement to Congress, against a man whom Trump has identified as one of his chief political enemies, underscores the extent to which Trump has shattered the post-Watergate norm that the Justice Department would operate independently of the White House on criminal matters.”
“Trump has not only ended that tradition,” Dilanian added, “but he has bent the Justice Department to his will, firing prosecutors and FBI agents his supporters don’t like, quashing politically inconvenient criminal cases, and pushing for criminal investigations against his adversaries.”