Comey in op-ed after IG report: ‘Barr needs to stop acting like a Trump spokesperson’

Former FBI Director James Comey criticized Attorney General William Barr in a Washington Post op-ed on Monday, saying he “needs to stop acting like a Trump spokesperson.” 

Comey called on Barr to provide “an acknowledgement of the truth” and admit he was wrong in the aftermath of Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s released report on the FBI’s investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Well, the wait is over, and those who smeared the FBI are due for an accounting,” Comey wrote. “In particular, Attorney General William P. Barr owes the institution he leads, and the American people, an acknowledgment of the truth.”

“As the leader of an institution that is supposed to be devoted to truth, Barr needs to stop acting like a Trump spokesperson,” he wrote. 

The former FBI director said the report that found no political motive for launching the investigation told the truth. 

He said the bureau surveilled Trump campaign adviser Carter Page after approval and renewal from federal judges and after learning that another adviser George Papadopoulos worked to receive emails damaging to opponent Hillary Clinton. Comey added that nothing was released to avoid affecting Trump’s campaign. 

The president and his supporters have bashed the bureau and Comey for its investigation into the Trump campaign, calling it “treason” and an effort to prevent Trump from becoming president. Barr had also claimed there had been “spying” on the campaign in 2016. 

“Those of us who knew that truth had to remain silent while a torrent of smears and falsehoods flowed from the White House, from some congressional committee chairmen, the attorney general and Fox News personalities,” Comey wrote. 

Comey acknowledged that the report found 17 mistakes in how FBI officials handled the investigation, calling that “always unfortunate,” but adding “human beings make mistakes.”

The attorney general responded to the Horowitz report release Monday by saying it showed that the bureau started the investigation based on the “thinnest of suspicions.”