“The man is a lying demagogue who can’t be trusted,” the former FBI chief said.
After a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump held a siege of the U.S. Capitol and Trump was later accused of inciting insurgency, former FBI Director James Comey expressed concern over the meetings. of general information that Trump might be entitled to receive after his term ends.
“The View” co-host Ana Navarro told Comey on Friday’s program that he was upset that Trump, once he left office, could divulge sensitive information to people who are not authorized to receive it or sell information to foreign opponents, such as Russian Vladimir Putin or North Korean Kim Jong Un.
Navarro asked Comey to detail the kind of briefings Trump could receive after the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20th.
“In my understanding, former presidents are given, not always, but on a regular basis, general informative information about the state of the world and threats to the country,” Comey said.
He said it “makes a lot of sense” because presidents often speak publicly both nationally and internationally after leaving office.
“We want to give them a picture of what’s going on in the world,” Comey said. “They are also provided with specific information if there is a threat to them.”
Comey said post-presidential briefings are usually “controlled” by the director of national intelligence, “who will have to look very carefully if he should receive information from Donald Trump, including any information that may be sensitive to security.” of the United States. “
“This guy is a lying demagogue who can’t be trusted,” Comey said. “You want to be very, very careful with what you give him.”
“I hope he has been stripped of the benefits of a former president being convicted by the U.S. Senate and banned from holding public office,” he added. “Maybe that will be a reason for them to cut it completely.”
Comey’s statements come after the House vote to oust the president on Wednesday, a week after a mass of his supporters revolted on Capitol Hill. At least five people died as a result of the violence.
Trump is the first president in U.S. history to be indicted twice. It was also the largest bipartisan removal vote in American history.
To convict Trump in the Senate indictment trial, all Democratic senators will have to vote in favor of the conviction and will also have to get the support of 17 Republican senators. In a statement released just after the House approved the dismissal article Wednesday evening, McConnell said it would be best for the country to wait until Biden takes office next week to hold a trial in the Senate.
In Comey’s book “Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency and Trust,” which he said ended in the fall of 2020, Comey wrote that if Trump faces federal charges after leaving office, Biden should consider forgiving. Trump. He explained why in “The View.”
“It was a very hard and narrow question. Now it’s even harder and closer and I’m not sure I’m right,” Comey said. “But I’m worried about what will happen to our country if we give it prominence in Washington, DC”
Comey posed a scenario in which “Trump moves through the courts of DC and is constantly there as a new president tries to heal the nation, both spiritually and physically, as we fight this terrible pandemic.”
“I generally prefer that the Senate convict him, ban him from office, and prosecute him in the local prosecutors in New York for the fraud he was, before he came. [into] “It would have been better if we had turned off Klieg’s lights and chased him locally, instead of giving him the spotlight while Joe Biden tried to direct us,” Comey said.
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