Former FBI Director James Comey has been indicted on two counts related to lies he allegedly told Congress regarding the FBI’s role in the Russiagate investigation, and, as could be predicted, the whole D.C. Swamp is up in arms over the news, freaking out over the idea that one of their own could face consequences. Amongst those leading the verbal charge in freaking out over the matter was Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
As background, former FBI Director Comey was indicted on two charges, one of which was making false statements to Congress and the other of which was obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The charges stem from Mr. Comey’s testimony about the FBI’s involvement in the 2016 Russia Hoax and related investigation before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 30, 2020, with critics contending that he lied to Congress during that testimony.
Sen. Van Hollen, ignoring the clear case of lying to Congress on which the federal grand jury acted when it indicted Comey on both counts, freaked out over the matter when he appeared on Friday, Sepbeter 26, for an interview on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports.” He even declared that the indictment was a “gross corruption of the judicial process.”
Commenting on the matter, the irate and woke Senator insisted, “What we’re talking about here is a gross corruption of the judicial process. The president effectively ordering his Department of Justice to bring charges against Comey over the objections of people in the Department of Justice initially, including the Eastern District of Virginia attorney who was, by the way, a Trump supporter, who said that there were inadequate grounds for bringing these charges, as did many others.”
Continuing, he told Tur that Comey facing fire for allegedly lying to Congress is “political persecution,” saying, “And so, what we see here is a political prosecution, political persecution. We are in very, very dangerous territory here. And this, of course, comes on the heels of the president’s effort to use government power to crack down on free speech.”
Chiming in at that point, the MSNBC host asked Sen. Van Hollen if he trusts the Attorney General Pam Bondi-led Department of Justice, presumably meaning to ask if he believes that it will do the right thing here, whatever that is. She asked, “Do you have faith in the Justice Department? And if you do, where do you place it?”
Responding, Sen. Van Hollen told her, that he does not have faith or trust in this DOJ, and that he thinks Bondi is acting illegally because President Trump wants her to. He said, “Oh, I do not have faith in this Justice Department. You’ve got an attorney general, Attorney General Bondi, who is a rubber stamp for the president rather than exercising independent legal judgment.”
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Continuing, and insisting on that angry point about AG Bondi, he snapped, “She is just an instrument of the President of the United States. And unlike in other administrations, the president of the United States is directing the Justice Department through his social media directly.”
Then, entertainingly, Van Hollen made much the same claim, even using the same phrase, when he appeared on CNN to discuss it. He said, “This is exhibit A in the gross corruption of the DOJ and the justice system under the Trump administration … when we have a system where the president is ordering the prosecution of particular individuals, we have a gross abuse of power … I think the country will see very clearly that we have an authoritarian president.”
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video