Comey: Bannon in ‘a world of trouble’

Former FBI Director James Comey said Sunday that former White House strategist Steve Bannon was in “a world of trouble” following his indictment on fraud charges.

“It’s another reminder of the kind of people this president surrounds himself with. At this point they could almost start their own crime family,” said Comey, who is also a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where Bannon was indicted. “It’s a very serious case. The Southern District of New York has laid it out in a very detailed indictment called a speaking indictment, and he’s in a world of trouble.”

Bannon was indicted along with three others on charges of allegedly defrauding donors to the “We Build The Wall” fundraising campaign, which solicited money for the purpose of privately constructing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“It’s a very serious fraud case with a huge amount of money stolen from innocent victims,” Comey added on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “That’ll drive up potential punishments.”

{mosads}”You know he’s in trouble because the indictment lays it out in such detail, including excerpts from texts. If you’re Steve Bannon [or] you’re his lawyers, you’re reading this saying, ‘I’m going down here.'” Comey said. “I don’t know what the next steps are for him and his co-defendants, but that’s what I meant by ‘world of trouble.'”

CBS’s Margaret Brennan also asked Comey about criticism of the FBI’s response in the Senate’s intelligence report on the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) servers. The criticism included faulting the bureau for not doing more to alert DNC officials.

“That’s fair criticism,” Comey responded. “I think at the time our folks thought that just telling an institution that the Russians are inside your house was enough. … Nobody anticipated this wasn’t normal intelligence gathering, this was an effort to weaponize.”