Trump Praises Barr, Says Comey ‘Got Lucky’ in Avoiding Prosecution

(Carlos Barria/Reuters)

By MAIREAD MCARDLE
National Review

President Trump praised his attorney general Friday morning, saying William Barr showcased his fairness in making the call not to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump said “got lucky.”

“The fact that James Comey was not prosecuted for the absolutely horrible things he did just shows how fair and reasonable Attorney General Bill Barr is,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “So many people and experts that I have watched and read would have taken an entirely different course. Comey got Lucky!”

A day earlier, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General outlined Comey’s mishandling of official memos, including retaining certain documents on communications with the White House after he was fired in 2017 and no longer permitted to retain them, as well as his disclosure of one memo to the media.

While the oversight report said the DOJ would not prosecute Comey and confirmed he had not leaked classified information, it strongly condemned the former FBI head’s handling of sensitive official information.

“The disastrous IG Report on James Comey shows, in the strongest of terms, how unfairly I, and tens of millions of great people who support me, were treated. Our rights and liberties were illegally stripped away by this dishonest fool. We should be given our stolen time back?” Trump said in an earlier tweet Friday.

Comey hit back Thursday after the Inspector General’s report was made public, accusing his critics of lying about his actions.

“I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a ‘sorry we lied about you’ would be nice,” the controversial FBI chief wrote on Twitter. “And to all those who’ve spent two years talking about me ‘going to jail’ or being a ‘liar and a leaker’—ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president.”