The legal team of President Donald Trump has perfected plans to file a complaint against former FBI boss James Comey amid the damning testimony he made before the Senate intelligence committee. The President Council will petition the Justice Department Inspector General and the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, CNN reported.
However, the Department of Justice is constrained by limited jurisdiction over former employees. Though they are empowered to investigate, the relief in the event of the indictment would be to make a statement in Comey’s file should he apply for employment again in the Department of Justice.
Trump's empty threats
As a typical businessman, Trump is known for threatening legal action but barely followed through on those threats. In the wake of the 2016 election campaign, Trump threatened lawsuits against Senator Ted Cruz, his main opponent, together with Washington Post, the Republican Party of Louisiana and the New York Times on several occasion. He also threatened to sue the women who accused him of sexual abuse. Neither of those lawsuits saw the light of the day.
The complaint would be about Comey’s testimony which he handed over to a friend the content of memos about his interaction with President Trump and asked the friend to then hand that details to a reporter. On Friday, the former FBI director said he gave the friend – he referred as Daniel Richman, a Columbia University professor and a confidante of Comey – after President Trump tweeted that he could have tapes version of his interactions with Comey.
Complaint against Comey
Trump’s counsel, Marc Kasowitz may file the complaints any moment next week, a source hinted.
Republicans have looked to disbelieve James Comey by describing him a leaker because he publicized the details about Trump.
On Thursday, the former FBI boss said the memos he memorializes were not classified. Publicizing unclassified information is not regarded as leaking, and President Trump didn’t evoke executive privilege to prevent Comey from testifying.
Judging Comey's action
President Trump accused Comey of leaking and lying in a tweet he sent Friday.
According to the source, for the mere reason that the fired FBI boss chooses to publicize the information because of a tweet was gold for the legal team of the president seeking to file a complaint against Comey.
Former White House aide under President Barack Obama, Norm Eisen, told reporters that the former FBI boss did the right thing by disclosing details of the meeting in which President Trump asked him to end the probe against Michael Flynn.
