Former FBI Director James ComeyJames Brien ComeyJohn Durham's endgame: Don't expect criminal charges Trump DOJ officials sought to block search of Giuliani records: report Tina Fey, Amy Poehler to host Golden Globes from separate coasts amid pandemic MORE sparred with Fox News's Chris Wallace
Christopher (Chris) WallaceBill Gates: Goal of eliminating emissions by 2030 'completely unrealistic' Fox News's Chris Wallace praises Biden's discipline Klobuchar: Impeachment trial 'was about not hiding history' MORE on Sunday over the Justice Department inspector general's (IG) report on the bureau's investigation into President Trump's campaign and whether the probe cleared the FBI of wrongdoing.
Wallace pressed Comey on "Fox News Sunday" on whether the "victory lap" he said the former FBI director had taken since the report's release was justified. While Comey has claimed the report by Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz vindicated the FBI, Horowitz in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week said that "the activities we found don’t vindicate anybody who touched this."
"Maybe it turns upon how we understand the word," Comey said. "What I mean is the FBI was accused of treason, of illegal spying, of tapping Mr. Trump's wires illegally, of opening an investigation without justification, of being a criminal conspiracy to defeat and then unseat a president. All of that was nonsense."
Democrats and Republicans have voiced starkly different views of the Horowitz report. While Trump's allies point to the litany of errors the inspector general found in the FBI's handling of the case, Democrats stress that its central conclusion – that the investigation into the Trump campaign was not politically motivated – goes against claims Trump has been making for years about a conspiracy to target him.
When Comey admitted to "sloppiness" in handling certain parts of the investigation, Wallace responded that "sloppiness may be a euphemism for what he found" and pointed out the IG found 17 errors in one of the applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court for a warrant to wiretap Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
"Seventeen significant errors in FISA process, and you say it was handled in a thoughtful and appropriate way," Wallace said.
"He's right. I was wrong. I was overconfident in the procedures the FBI and Justice had built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough. It's incredibly hard to get a FISA. I was overconfident in those. He's right. There was real sloppiness."
Wallace repeatedly pressed Comey over his characterization of the Steele dossier's role in the FBI's investigation and FISA application.
James Comey talks about the reliability of the Steele Dossier on FOX News Sunday amid a new IG report that finds FBI mishandling during the origins of the Russia probe. #FNS #FoxNews
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) December 15, 2019
#FNS #FoxNews #IGReport pic.twitter.com/gxnQWJJMyS
Exclusively on FOX News Sunday: Chris Wallace asks Former FBI Director James Comey if the IG Report vindicates him. Director Comey responds to previous statements he made in 2018 about the Carter Page FISA warrant being handled appropriately: "There was real sloppiness." pic.twitter.com/vPmCV11hRe
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) December 15, 2019