President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Friday that the Justice Department’s inspector general report on how the FBI handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation justified Trump’s decision to fire him last year.
“This report is a complete and absolute explanation of why Comey had to be fired,” Giuliani said. “So how can it be obstruction of justice?”
Democrats have argued that Trump fired Comey in order to disrupt the investigation into Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. But Comey was also despised by Democrats because he publicized the decision to reopen the Clinton investigation just days before the 2016 election.
Giuliani said the report shows several reasons why Comey had to go.
“Every reason for firing him is laid out here,” he said. “He usurped the power of the attorney general, he leaked information illegally, he had a department that was leaking like a sieve at the higher level.”
He noted the IG found several FBI officials were leaking to the press in exchange for gifts.
“That’s called bribery,” he said.
Giuliani said the report is such a mess for the FBI that there should now be a deeper investigation of the FBI itself.
“This thing has to change from an investigation of the Trump administration for collusion, which is a made-up charge by [FBI agent] Peter Strzok … It should become an investigation of Comey, those FBI agents who should be fired today and in prison next week,” he said.
