On Wednesday, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz told lawmakers that his investigators will “assess” new allegations of “inconsistencies” in former FBI Director James Comey’s congressional testimony.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) told Horowitz that he and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) plan to make a referral to him about inconsistencies in Comey’s testimony.
“I’m finding just a number of irregularities,” Meadows said. “So would it be appropriate if ranking member Jordan and I were to refer those inconsistencies to the IG and if we did that with the IG look at those inconsistencies?”
Horowitz replied: “It’s certainly appropriate for us to get a referral about a then-employee of the department.”
Meadows explained to Horowitz that he believes the information in the closed-door testimony Comey gave in December 2018 conflicts with the information revealed in Horowitz’s latest report. The report, released last month, found that Comey violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining memos recording private discussions with Trump in an effort to start a special counsel investigation into President Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice. But, Meadows claims that Comey testified he denied initiating an investigation into obstruction of justice.
“So two of those can’t be true,” Meadows concluded. “So we’ll be referring those inconsistencies to you today, Mr. Horowitz.”
In plain language, this means the I-G will examine whether James Comey lied to Congress. If so, the I-G would send a criminal referral to the Justice Department.
Reps. Meadows and Jordan vowed to identify for the I-G what they believe are Comey’s false and misleading statements. They claim that Comey denied initiating an obstruction case when he testified before Congress. Yet, he admitted to the I-G that he leaked government documents to initiate an obstruction case. But that is just one example of the many deceptions attributed to Comey.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has also accused Comey of provided it with an account that is “inconsistent with information contained in FISA applications.” Comey feigned ignorance of nearly every aspect of the 3 FISA warrant applications he signed. But documents show he had intimate knowledge.
Comey has also been accused of giving false testimony to Congress about the number of Hillary Clinton emails found on her aide, Huma Abedin’s, laptop; the FBI had to correct the record because documentary evidence proved that Comey’s count was not even close to being accurate.
In another hearing, he testified that he had never been given “any kind of memorandum from the Attorney General outlining his recusal.” That was false. Documents provided by the DOJ showed that he had received a detailed email informing him of Sessions’s “recusal and its parameters.”
Finally, he testified that he had not decided to clear Clinton until after her interview. Yet, documents show he wrote her exoneration statement months in advance.
It is a mathematical challenge to keep track all of Comey’s false and misleading statements.