'Give me a break!' Lindsey Graham pounds table as he yells about James Comey charges
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) seemed to encourage Attorney General Pam Bondi to expand the investigation into former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday.
The South Carolina Republican grilled the attorney general about a number of topics before zeroing in on the "Crossfire Hurricane" counterintelligence investigation opened into Donald Trump's first presidential campaign in summer 2016. He suggested that Comey and others should face criminal liability for their roles in the operation.
"In July [2016], they opened up 'Crossfire Hurricane' and in August they have a discussion in front of [then-Vice] President [Joe] Biden that there's intel that maybe this is generated by his political opponent," Graham said. "Nothing happened [and] in September, are you aware of the fact that the intelligence community sent a memo to the FBI director detailing intelligence that suggests it's [Hillary] Clinton's campaign behind the idea that Trump is colluding or cooperating with the Russians?"
Bondi agreed those details had been reported, and then he asked her about previous testimony by former FBI agent Peter Stzrok about the timeline.
"That was addressed to the FBI director and Mr. Strzok, this memo, are you aware that he told this committee?" Graham said. "I don't recall that the FBI director – well, I can tell you this. What the hell would you recall? You're the sitting FBI director. There's a campaign for president going on. You've opened up an investigation, believing that the Republican candidate may be a Russian asset, and now all of a sudden, less than a month later, two months later, you have two inquiries, two events to suggest it may be his political opponent? Did anybody in the FBI inform the FISA court or anyone else about this activity that you know of?"
Bondi said she was unable to discuss the matter, and Graham continued his buildup.
"Is there a requirement by law enforcement to tell the court if a warrant is being sought or a defendant that there's exculpatory information out there about you in general?" Graham asked, and Bondi said there was.
"So, to the country, the FBI director gets a memo from the intel community [saying] this may be all a political plot by his opponent. They didn't do a thing. Are you familiar with the Steele dossier? That was a dossier prepared and paid for by the Clinton campaign. Are you aware that it was, that document was used to get a warrant on five different occasions against Carter Page, an American citizen?"
Bondi indicated she was familiar with the document produced by former British spy Christopher Steele indicating that Trump and his campaign might have improper ties to Russian entities, but federal investigators were unable to substantiate some of the claims made by witnesses.
"Are you aware of the fact in February 2017, after Trump is president, the person who gave Christopher Steele the information, the Russian guy told the FBI, the information I provided you was all bar talk, hearsay and not reliable – are you aware of that?" Graham said, and Bondi agreed that she was. "Was there ever an effort by the FBI to tell the FISA court about evidence that the man who helped prepare the document retracted his statement? Should there have been?"
"You wonder why we're looking at Comey?" Graham added, pounding the table and his voice cracking. "Give me a break! Why are we looking at Comey? Because he ran an FBI and personally knew about exculpatory information and let it slide. How in the hell can two FBI agents interview a man who says the document you're using against a sitting president to suggest he may be a Russian agent or Carter Page that is now no longer reliable? How does that not get to the court? Can you tell me how that doesn't get to to court you can't, can you?"
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