Comey defends Russia inquiry in Senate testimony
WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director James Comey testified Wednesday before a Republican-led Senate committee seeking to discredit the investigation he opened during the 2016 election into ties between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.
With another presidential election looming, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were eager to portray Trump as a victim of a politically motivated smear by the FBI that unfairly cast a shadow over his presidency. And they contended that Comey was the ringleader.
Comey, testifying by video from his home, strongly defended the FBI’s handling of the investigation, including his decision to open it. But he acknowledged, as he has before, that his initial claims were wrong that a wiretap of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, was properly handled and conceded that the bureau had been sloppy on that aspect of the broader inquiry.
Comey remains a centerpiece of a monthslong attempt by conservatives to rewrite the Trump-Russia narrative.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Judiciary Committee chairman, renewed his criticism of the FBI’s investigation of ties between Russian election interference and the Trump campaign.
The panel has for months pounded away at the inquiry, building its work on an investigation by the Justice Department’s independent inspector general that found evidence of negligence and errors in one narrow aspect of the investigation: the FBI’s applications to wiretap Page. But where the inspector general concluded there was no evidence of illegal activity or a politically motivated plot by senior department officials, Graham insists there may have been.
Democrats have opposed Graham at every turn, accusing him of abusing his Senate powers to help Trump and take attention from the continuing Russian threat. On Wednesday, they said he was unfairly trying to discredit the entire investigation based on one small aspect of it, a dossier of unverified information compiled by a British former spy, Christopher Steele, that investigators relied in part on to secure court permission for the Page wiretaps.
“Those errors were serious, but the errors and the so-called Steele dossier — and this is important — played no part in the broader Russia investigation,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the panel’s top Democrat.
She noted that of the 10 people interviewed in the committee’s investigation, not one had claimed anything different.
Comey offered a forceful defense.
Comey, who had not testified before Congress since Horowitz’s report was released in December, remained steadfast in his decision to open the investigation, arguing that the FBI had sufficient reason to scrutinize the ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“In the main, it was done by the book, it was appropriate and it was essential that it be done,” Comey said under questioning by Graham. “Overall I am proud of the work, but there are parts of it we will talk about that are concerning.”