Former FBI Director James Comey tried very hard to get President Trump indicted in relation to the Russia investigation, according to Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C.
Comey should have known information contained within British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s Trump dossier was unverified, Meadows claimed Monday on “Hannity.”
“What we see is, James Comey went through not only yellow flashing lights, but he went through red stoplights to try to get this president and indict this president,” Meadows said.
“We know that Christopher Steele not only was talking to the DOJ, was talking to the FBI, was talking to the media — he was talking to anybody who would listen.
“He was sending smoke signals everywhere trying to get somebody to take this particular story that was false. The FBI knew it was false. They knew they had credibility problems, and yet, they continued to spy on American citizens.”
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Meadows also referenced documents unveiled earlier this year showing that shortly after the 2016 presidential election, then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr discussed new allegations sourced to Steele concerning the Trump campaign’s Russia connections.
The previous month, in October 2016, Kavalec had met with Steele and documented his political motivations in writing — particularly that Steele’s client was “keen” to see his anti-Trump materials “come to light” prior to the election. Kavelec forwarded her written notes, in which she also pointed out that some of Steele’s claims were apparently false, to a senior FBI executive.
Despite Kavalec’s concerns, the FBI used Steele’s information to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page just weeks later. The warrant application did not clearly state that the dossier’s creation was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Furthermore, Meadows and Sean Hannity noted key witnesses sought for questioning in the Justice Department inspector general’s investigation into alleged government surveillance abuse recently came forward “at the 11th hour.”
Sources familiar with the matter said at least one witness outside the Justice Department and FBI started cooperating — a breakthrough that came after Attorney General William Barr ordered U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead a separate investigation into the origins of the bureau’s 2016 Russia case that laid the foundation for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Fox News’ Gregg Re, Catherine Herridge and Cyd Upson contributed to this report.