Following the release of the Department of Justice’s inspector general report on federal agencies’ abuse of secret surveillance of American citizens, former FBI Director James Comey has finally backtracked on some of his assertions about Spygate. During a Sunday morning interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace, Comey conceded he was overconfident in the FBI’s internal systems.
“Significant errors in the FISA process, and you said it was handled in a thoughtful and appropriate way,” Wallace said.
Backed into a corner, Comey admitted he’d been telling Americans an untruth for the past three years about the reliability and integrity of the federal investigation agency he led.
[Horowitz is] right, I was wrong. I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and the Justice [Department] had built up over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough. It’s incredibly hard to get a FISA. I was overconfident in those, and he’s right. There was real sloppiness—17 things that either should’ve been in the applications or at least discussed and characterized differently. It was not acceptable, and so he’s right, and I was wrong.
“But, you make it sound like you were a bystander, an eyewitness. You were the director of the FBI while a lot of this was going on, sir,” Wallace responded.
Chris Wallace Grills Comey Over IG Report: You Weren't a 'Bystander,' You Were the Head of the FBI! https://t.co/5EDVTIwVlo
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) December 15, 2019
Comey responded by conceding that he was responsible.
“Sure. I’m responsible. That’s why I’m telling you, I was wrong. I was overconfident as director of our procedures, and it’s important that a leader be accountable and transparent,” Comey asserted.
After years of covering up for the inaccuracies and lies of the FBI, the IG report has finally compelled Comey to admit he was responsible for the newly exposed errors.