Gingrich: Congress ‘should abolish’ special counsel after Comey testimony

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) slammed former FBI Director James Comey on Sunday, accusing him of manipulating the investigation into Russian election meddling and calling for Congress to dismiss the special counsel entirely.

“It’s very clear that Comey hates Trump,” Gingrich told radio host John Catsimatidis. “Comey is clearly extraordinarily hostile to Trump.”

“I think Congress should now intervene and they should abolish the independent counsel, because Comey makes so clear that it’s the poison fruit of a deliberate manipulation by the FBI director leaking to the New York Times, deliberately set up this particular situation. It’s very sick.”

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Gingrich’s comments followed Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, in which he told lawmakers that he had instructed a friend to share an unclassified memo of an interaction between him and President Trump with a reporter.

That memo detailed a February meeting in which Trump allegedly pressed Comey to drop the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey said that by leaking the memo, he had hoped to prompt the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to lead the Russia probe.

A day after The New York Times published an article detailing that memo, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel in the investigation.

Trump’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz accused Comey of leaking so-called “privileged” communications with the president and suggested the former top cop should be investigated for doing so.