(AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Friday followed up his cheering of the indictment of political opponent James Comey by branding the former FBI director a “dirty cop” and declaring him guilty. Presidents have historically bent over backward — at least in public — to show clear separation between the White House and the Justice Department. Trump has smashed that precedent, making clear he intends to influence Comey’s case.
“He is a Dirty Cop, and always has been,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform. “He just got unexpectedly caught” and “a very big price must be paid!” Trump wrote. Comey was charged late Thursday with making false statements and obstruction of justice in connection with the probe he conducted into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election that Trump won and if he colluded with the Russians.
The charges on Thursday came days after Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against Comey and others he sees as enemies. Trump, who just hours earlier had insisted he had nothing to do with the case, swiftly went on social media to celebrate. “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” he wrote, calling Comey “one of the worst human beings this Country has ever been exposed to.”
Trump has used his office since returning to power in January to pressure a huge variety of individuals and institutions that either opposed him in the past or, as in the case of several media outlets, had sought to maintain their independence from him. The charges against Comey are the most dramatic instance yet. Comey faces up to five years in prison if convicted, according to federal prosecutor Lindsey Halligan, who was appointed by Trump just days ago to pursue the case. A former personal lawyer to the president, she has no experience as a prosecutor.
In a video posted on Instagram, Comey said “I’m not afraid” and denied any wrongdoing. Comey has been prominent during Trump’s second term, as a critic of what he says are the Republican’s efforts to weaponize the justice system for his own political use. But Trump’s feud with Comey goes back to the early days of his tumultuous first term when Comey was the director of the FBI.
Trump fired Comey in 2017 amid a probe into whether any members of the Trump campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 presidential vote. The controversy over Russia’s involvement — and links to the 2016 Trump campaign, as well as to Trump himself — dogged the Republican throughout his first term. Trump has vowed to take revenge on all who investigated him in the affair, which he brands the “Russia hoax.” And his intelligence chiefs have issued reports casting the original probes as politically motivated and flawed.
However, the intelligence community’s original findings that Russia meddled in the tumultuous 2016 US election have been backed up by committees both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The case against Comey has been criticized as deeply flawed from the start. The five-year statute of limitations on his alleged lying to Congress expires Tuesday, forcing prosecutors to rush to indict. However, the chief prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia declined to press charges, reportedly because there was not enough evidence. She then left her job under pressure from Trump, who appointed Halligan and exhorted her to “get things moving.”
– Sebastian Smith
© 2024 AFP
