Former FBI Director James Comey “had no courage or guts” and “demeaned the FBI” by leaking a memo to the press, Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Monday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“I really thought [Comey] demeaned the FBI by leaking material about unsubstantiated allegations, by trafficking in gossip,” Dershowitz said. “But he had no courage or guts to speak himself in front of the TV. He laundered it through a law professor and gave the worst excuse last night.”
Comey’s first televised interview since President Donald Trump fired him in May 2017 aired on ABC News’ “20/20” Sunday night. Comey, who is touting his upcoming book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” admitted while testifying to Congress last year that he asked a friend of his, Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman, to leak his memo recounting a meeting with Trump to the press. He told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he didn’t “want to get involved” in commenting on “whether you can leak unclassified information.”
Comey did, however, focus heavily on his negative impressions of Trump — whom he deemed to be “morally unfit to be president” — during the interview. The former FBI director also told Stephanopoulos that he believed Trump “possibly” obstructed justice in the events leading up to his firing and the firing itself, arguing that “certainly” there was “some evidence of obstruction of justice.”
“This is a man without courage,” Dershowitz said of Comey, arguing that the former FBI director had an obligation to tell Trump to his face at the time if he believed Trump was erring.
“[Comey] didn’t have courage to tell the president to his face he was wrong. Instead, he leaked it,” Dershowitz said. “He didn’t have courage to walk out of the meeting, which he said was an improper meeting. When he was in the presence of the president, he showed no courage.”
Dershowitz said he believes that “one of the reasons” Trump “talks to me from time to time” is that he tells Trump “exactly what I think at every point in time,” unlike Comey.
“I told [former President Barack] Obama what I thought. I told [former President Bill] Clinton what I thought,” Dershowitz said. “If you’re the head of the FBI you have to look the president in the eye, and you have to say, ‘Mr. President, you’re wrong.'”
Ultimately, Dershowitz said that he “agreed with one thing” Comey said during his ABC interview.
“And that is, let’s leave it to the voters. Let’s not go to impeachment,” Dershowitz said, pointing to liberal hysteria and calls for Trump’s impeachment. “Let’s not try to criminalize political differences — that’s what I’ve been arguing about for a long time.”
Related: Must Read: The 13 Most Outrageous Statements by Jim Comey
When asked whether he believed Trump should be impeached if special counsel Robert Mueller finds the chief executive obstructed justice, Comey said, “I hope not because I think impeaching and removing Donald Trump from office would let the American people off the hook and have something happen indirectly that I believe they are duty-bound to do directly.”
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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