Former FBI Director James Comey doesn’t believe President Donald Trump should be federally prosecuted after leaving office, according to an excerpt from his new book ― and Twitter users didn’t take kindly to the news.
Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, wrote in his upcoming book “Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency and Trust” that the United States’ next attorney general under soon-to-be President Joe Biden should not “pursue a criminal investigation of Donald Trump no matter how compelling the roadmap left” by special counsel Robert Mueller or “how powerful the evidence strewn across his history of porn stars and financial fraud.”
The Guardian obtained an early copy of Comey’s book and reported on the excerpt Wednesday.
Comey reportedly went on to say: “Although those cases might be righteous in a vacuum, the mission of the next attorney general must be fostering the trust of the American people.”
Such rhetoric from a vocal critic of Trump may come as a surprise. Comey has consistently attacked the president’s abuses of power since his sudden May 2017 firing; his removal prompted Mueller’s appointment as special counsel to lead the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The book is reportedly critical of Attorney General William Barr, who made sure Trump avoided obstruction of justice charges in the wake of Mueller’s investigation, and Comey doubts that Biden will pardon Trump like President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon after Watergate.
“By pardoning a resigned president, Ford had held [Nixon] accountable in a way that Trump would not be, even were he to be pardoned after losing re-election. That might not be enough accountability in Trump’s case. Or it may be, especially if local prosecutors in New York charge Trump for a legacy of financial fraud,” wrote Comey, per The Guardian.
Of course, Trump’s critics on Twitter didn’t share Comey’s feelings on whether the feds should prosecute the corrupt ex-president: