Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said either former FBI Director James Comey or his Deputy Andrew McCabe gave false testimony to Congress and should be legally held accountable for their actions.
“Comey and McCabe’s statements are irreconcilably contradictory,” Cruz wrote in a Thursday post on social platform X.
“Whoever is lying under oath is committing a federal crime — and that’s what Comey has been indicted for,” he added.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday announced official charges against Comey for false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding.
The battle stems from 2020, when Cruz asked Comey at a hearing whether he had ever authorized a leak about the FBI’s investigation into former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails and connections between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Cruz’s question was an attempt to highlight conflicting accounts from Comey and his former deputy, McCabe, about a leak to The Wall Street Journal about the Clinton investigation days before the 2016 election. Clinton ended up losing that election to Trump.
Comey has said he was unaware of the leak, but McCabe has indicated Comey knew about and authorized the leak. Comey has also said McCabe implied in a conversation with him after the Journal’s report that he also wasn’t aware of the leak.
A 2018 report from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General supported Comey’s past statements and said McCabe authorized the leak and “lacked candor” when he told his boss and investigators that he had not done so.
Cruz has argued that Comey deserves to be indicted by the Trump administration’s Justice Department and accused of him of being blatantly partisan while serving within the role of FBI director.
“Jim Comey, I think, demonstrated complete arrogance and unwillingness to comply with the law. I think that’s why he was indicted,” Cruz said during a Thursday appearance on the “Mark Levin Show.”
“He was not indicted because Donald Trump doesn’t like him, although, to be clear, Donald Trump has every reason not to like him because Jim Comey abused the power of the FBI to target and persecute Donald Trump because he didn’t like him and because he was mad at the American people for electing him,” he added.
FBI Director Kash Patel has echoed similar claims.
“Career FBI agents, intel analysts, and staff led the investigation into Comey and others. They called the balls and strikes and will continue to do so. The wildly false accusations attacking this FBI for the politicization of law enforcement comes from the same bankrupt media that sold the world on Russia Gate- it’s hypocrisy on steroids,” he wrote on X.
Comey maintained his innocence after his indictment.
“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system,” he said. “And I’m innocent. So, let’s have a trial. And keep the faith.”
Democrats have accused Trump of going after an enemy with the indictment of Comey.
Trump told reporters Friday that he was not using his power to go after enemies and that he didn’t have a list of enemies.
“It’s not a list, but I think there will be others. They’re corrupt. These were corrupt, radical-left Democrats,” Trump said, criticizing those in the Justice Department who he feels had unfairly targeted him.
“They weaponized the Justice Department like nobody in history. What they’ve done is terrible. And so I hope — frankly, I hope there are others. Because you can’t let this happen to a country,” he added.
In a separate Truth Social post earlier this month, the president wrote a message to Bondi urging her to go after New York Attorney General Letitia James, who previously brought charges against him, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who served on the Jan. 6 select committee.
Former President Biden preemptively pardoned Schiff earlier this year, although the California lawmaker described the provisional protection as “unnecessary.”
