There is a “growing body of evidence” indicating that former FBI Director James Comey lied under oath about his investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Thursday night on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
Comey (above, center) led the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server for official business while serving as secretary of state. Comey testified under oath in July 2016 that he “did not coordinate” with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch (above, right) or “anyone” regarding his July 2016 statement exonerating Clinton.
Meadows (above, left), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the evidence suggests otherwise.
“We know because we have a number of documents, a growing body of evidence, Brian, that now would suggest that Director Comey … under sworn testimony, a number of times, has said there was no coordination between Loretta Lynch’s DOJ and — and [the] FBI investigation,” Meadows told Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade.
“Not only was that false, but we know that over and over again now, we have emails that would suggest that that testimony was false and at best misled the American public, at worse was lying to Congress,” Meadows continued.
“And here we are today with emails, text messages, that say that even the ‘no coordination’ message that Director Comey put out on that infamous day in July, was actually suggested by the Department of Justice,” Comey said.
Meadows pointed to a July 1, 2016, text message exchange between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, both of whom were involved in the Clinton investigation.
“Timing looks like hell,” Strzok told Page. “Will appear choreographed. All major news networks literally leading with ‘AG to accept FBI [director’s] recommendation.'”
“Yeah, that is awful timing,” Page replied. “Nothing we can do about it.”
“What I meant was,” Strzok continued, “did DOJ tell us yesterday they were doing this, so [Comey] added that language.”
Page replied she thought “we had some warning of it,” noting that “they sent some statement to [former Comey chief of staff James] Rybicki bc he called [former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe].”
Pointing to that exchange, plus “another email from the Department of Justice” that described “how to articulate the exoneration of Hillary Clinton,” Meadows said that more questions have been raised regarding Comey’s honesty under oath.
“As you go further from another source other than Peter Strzok and Lisa Page within the Department of Justice, we now know that the edits — that they had given edits to Director Comey, or at least the emails would suggest that,” Meadows said.
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“As we are looking at this, we have got Director Comey out there saying, ‘Well, I was a Boy Scout. I was above reproach,'” Meadows added. “Now we have evidence that would suggest that that’s not accurate. So we have to look at it further.”
Meadows said that “there’s also additional evidence that would suggest that DOJ narrowed the scope of the Hillary investigation to make sure that she was exonerated.”
Comey has been on a press tour touting his new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” over the past several days. Many media members and liberals have been fawning over the negative details and stories Comey shared about Trump in his book and in interviews, focusing on whether or not Comey believes that Trump will be impeached on allegations of “obstruction of justice” for firing him.
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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