Former FBI Director James' Comey's book tour has been "an absolute disaster," and the revelations have "blown up in his face," Rep. Ron DeSantis said Saturday.
"The leaking of those memos was malicious, even apart from classified information," the Florida Republican told Fox News' Neil Cavuto of the documents Comey leaked last year after meeting with President Donald Trump.
"That was government information. Those were conservations he had based on his position with the president, and the fact that two of the memos has classified information, I think Comey has a lot of exposure here."
Meanwhile, DeSantis also thinks former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe is "absolutely liable" for criminal referral because of his statements to the agency.
"The average American, if they were to lie to the FBI, and we see that a little bit in the [Robert] Mueller investigation with people like Mike Flynn, I mean, the FBI won't hesitate to nail them to the wall," said DeSantis, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. "Is there two sets of standards or is this something where we're all under the same law?"
It is not only the memos that may get Comey in trouble, but the fact that he testified in front of Congress and did not make the decision to exonerate 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton until after he interviewed her, when the decision came before, said DeSantis.
Now, McCabe is suing the Trump administration for defamation and wrongful termination and the Democratic National Committee is suing Russia and the Trump administration, and DeSantis said those actions are "frivolous."
"McCabe was terminated on the recommendation of the inspector general, that was totally legitimate, and what the DNC is doing, it seems like they realize the whole Russia collusion angle has petered out," said DeSantis.
"There's not been evidence of collusion with Trump's campaign so I think they're doing everything they can to resuscitate the narrative, throw as much against the wall as they can and hope something sticks, but I don't think it will work," he added.
Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has reportedly told Trump that he is not a target of Mueller's investigation, but DeSantis said such a probe is "very fluid."
He also said he has issues with how the FBI conducted its raid on the offices of Trump attorney Michael Cohen, as it was "hyperaggressive" if the underlying offense was a look into campaign finance violations.
"I think that was way overboard for that. and here's I think the thing that bothers a lot of Americans is that level of zealousness," said DeSantis. "You didn't see that at all when the FBI and [Barack] Obama's DOJ was investigating Hillary for the classified information in her email server. In fact they weren't even doing subpoenas, using grand juries, they were doing immunity, so you know, are we going to apply the law equally or not?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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