President Donald Trump’s ongoing attempts to successfully prosecute former FBI Director James Comey experienced another twist on Monday when the Justice Department again filed charges against him — prompting Comey to describe the situation as “almost… funny.”
“It would almost be funny if it weren’t such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to,” Comey said at the time in a statement.
Comey faces two counts. The first is that in late 2016 he while possibly working with others and “lawfully possessing, accessing, controlling, and being entrusted any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance and note relating to the national defense, and with information relating to the national defense—and having reason to believe such information could be used to injure the United States and to the advantage of any foreign nation—knowingly and willfully communicated, delivered, transmitted and caused that information to be communicated, delivered, and transmitted to a person not entitled to receive it.”
In the second count, Comey is similarly accused of sharing information he was not authorized to disclose.
Trump has been fixated on prosecuting Comey ever since he blamed the former FBI director for not squashing investigations into him. In July CNN legal analyst Elie Honig when into detail about how exactly Comey has been targeted by Trump, the man whose election in 2016 he may have unintentionally facilitated by declining to publicly disclose information about him being allegedly connected to Russia while releasing information about a sexting scandal involving Hillary Clinton’s campaign official’s then-husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY).
The document concluded, “In furtherance of the conspiracy and to effect the objects thereof, on October 5, 2016, the defendant through one and more co-conspirators directed Individual #1 to disclose national defense information to a reporter for a national news publication.All in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(d) and (g).”
In July, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig remarked on Trump’s desire to convict Comey of a crime.
“The first thing that I think is notable about the reporting is that Donald Trump was directly involved in this, getting real-time updates, getting FBI interview notes on the spot,” Honig, a former federal prosecutor, explained. “… So much for [Todd] Blanche’s claim that we’re completely separate from the president.”
Honig added, “We were thinking about calling him as a trial witness for about three minutes, and I said, absolutely not. This guy has zero credibility. That’s their star witness now! And if your basis for your case against Jim Comey is Sammy Gravano from 1990 thinks it could mean that, you’re going to lose. I promise you.”