Former FBI Director James Comey took a victory lap after the Inspector General's report that vindicated neither he nor the FBI "committed treason," as was claimed by President Donald Trump.
In an MSNBC interview with Nicolle Wallace, Comey said that it's reassuring that Trump has tried to politicize the FBI, but that he's been unsuccessful.
He also noted that one of his biggest concerns was that his mother-in-law who was sitting in an assisted living facility watching Fox News was convinced that he was going to jail. He worked to reassure her for years, saying that the report would ultimately become known and he would be exonerated.
"Two years of sitting silently at the FBI while you’re lied about and finally the truth is out. It was lies and the FBI finally has its day with the American people and I hope they pay attention," said Comey.
Comey also took aim at Attorney General Bill Barr, saying that not only did he make false statements about the FBI, but that he's continuing to make false statements about the investigations and subsequent report.
"You can blow off what the president says, but what's hard is when good people believe something when the president of the United States says it," said Comey. "So you've got not just my mother-in-law but millions of people around the country drinking this stuff and believing it. So, having people -- forget me -- that the FBI committed treason? It is a bad place for this country to be. We all need that institution, and it is a fundamentally good institution."
When it comes to whether Barr will ever be willing to admit that he ignored probable cause to investigate the president, Comey said that maybe some day, long after both he and Trump are out of office.
"Is there a reasonable basis for opening an investigation? Are there articulable facts?" Comey reiterated the inquiry. "That's not a close call here. In the Mueller report, you see it laid out. In the Horowitz report, you see it laid out. We should have been fired if we didn't investigate this. Given what we learned. And whether the attorney general accepts it or not, the truth is a stubborn thing and the FBI in the long-run will be fine, because it's committed to that."
He went on to say that it was "very serious" that the attorney general made such false statements about his own investigators when he alleged that the FBI spied on the Trump campaign. He hoped that Barr would "at least have the decency" to admit that he was wrong to the FBI.
Watch in the video below:
