Trump: Comey, Top FBI Officials Were ‘Breaking the Law in So Many Ways’

President Donald Trump poses for photos as he meets with Paraguay's President Mario Abdo Benitez at the White House, Friday, Dec. 13, 2019, in Washington. Evan Vucci/AP Photo

President Donald Trump, in the wake of a stunning report from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, said that former FBI Director James Comey and other top FBI officials were “breaking the law in so many ways.”

Horowitz found that the FBI made 17 “significant errors or omissions” in applying to the secretive FISA court to spy on Carter Page, a Trump 2016 presidential campaign associate, and also made additional errors in following internal guidelines known as the Woods Procedures.

“So, if Comey & the top people in the FBI were dirty cops and cheated on the FISA Court, wouldn’t all of these phony cases have to be overturned or dismissed? They went after me with the Fake Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary & the DNC, which they illegally presented to FISA,” Trump said on Twitter late Dec. 17.

“They want to Impeach me (I’m not worried!), and yet they were all breaking the law in so many ways. How can they do that and yet impeach a very successful (Economy Plus) President of the United States, who has done nothing wrong? These people are Crazy!”

Comey said he was “wrong“ after the release of Horowitz’s report, while James Baker, who was the FBI’s top lawyer when the FISA abuse was taking place in 2017, said he felt ”completely distressed“ while reading the inspector general’s report. Both attempted to dismiss the widespread abuse, which involved the highest levels of the bureau.

Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, said on Tuesday that “everyone in the FBI and anyone who reads that report is shocked and horrified by what they’ve seen in the recitation of the 17 errors.”

He also claimed that Horowitz didn’t find evidence that the significant errors or omissions were intentional, despite an FBI lawyer being referred for criminal investigation for allegedly removing a crucial line from an email that showed Page was a CIA asset. The removal of this detail led to the approval of a FISA warrant to spy on Page.

Trump also highlighted a rare public statement by the chief judge of the FISA court, who admonished the FBI for lying to the court in a statement on Dec. 17.

“Statement by the Court was long and tough. Means my case was a SCAM!” Trump said.