Former FBI Director James Comey said Sunday he believes Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “acted dishonorably” when he wrote the damning memorandum that claimed Comey mishandled the Clinton email investigation.
Comey told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that Rosenstein wasn’t right to release that narrative before President Donald Trump fired him.
“The deputy attorney general, in my view, had acted dishonorably by putting out this pretext about why I was fired,” Comey said Sunday.
“Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives. The way (Comey) handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong,” Rosenstein wrote. “As a result, the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them.”
The former FBI director also said the president and his team operate like a mafia family.
“He’s part of the family now. I can’t trust him,” Comey said.
Rosenstein is the official at the Department of Justice that has authority over special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself. If the president decides to fire Mueller, which many speculate he will do, legal experts think Rosenstein would have to approve it.
While Comey says he can’t trust Rosenstein, he said he does not believe the deputy attorney general would follow through with such an order.
“I think, given his experience with me that he has an opportunity in overseeing Bob Mueller to restore some of his professional reputation. And I’m highly confident that he would refuse to abide that order,” Comey said.
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