(AFP) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused former FBI director James Comey and ex-CIA chief John Brennan, two prominent critics under criminal investigation, of being “crooked” and said they may have to “pay a price.”
Asked on Wednesday about the FBI’s opening of a probe into Comey and Brennan, Trump said he knows “nothing about it other than what I read today.” “But I will tell you I think they’re very dishonest people,” the president told reporters at the White House. “I think they’re crooked as hell and maybe they have to pay a price for that.”
Fox News Digital first reported the probe into Comey and Brennan, saying it involved “potential wrongdoing” related to the investigation into claims of Russian interference in the 2016 election won by Trump, and alleged false statements made to Congress. CIA director John Ratcliffe, a Trump appointee, had referred “evidence of wrongdoing by Brennan” to FBI director Kash Patel, another Trump appointee, for potential prosecution, Fox News Digital said, citing Justice Department sources.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said the agency does “not comment on ongoing investigations.” Comey and Brennan were named to their respective positions as head of the FBI and CIA by Democratic president Barack Obama, and they have a contentious history with Trump dating back to his first term in the White House.
Trump fired Comey in 2017 as the FBI chief was leading a probe into whether any members of the Trump campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 presidential vote between Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. That investigation, which Trump has denounced for years as the “Russia hoax,” was taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller, who found there had been interference by Russia in the 2016 election in favor of Trump. But Mueller said the probe “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
Trump revoked Brennan’s security clearance in 2018, accusing the former CIA chief of making “unfounded and outrageous allegations” about his administration. Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against his perceived enemies, stripping former officials of their security clearances and protective details, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him, and pulling federal funding from universities.
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