Turley on Comey Indictment: Obstruction Count Suggests There Was Conduct Besides Obviously False Statement On Leaking
FOX News contributor and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley analyzes the breaking news of the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.
GILLIAN TURNER, FOX NEWS, ‘SPECIAL REPORT’ GUEST HOST: Ben told us a moment ago that he would not be surprised if this ultimately leads to a conviction for Comey. What are your thoughts? JONATHAN TURLEY: Well, we really need to see what those underlying allegations are. One of the reasons that we’ve been focusing on his statement in 2020 about the league is because that’s not a matter of interpretation. Much of what people objected to with Comey over the years is that his answers were very evasive. He tended to say he didn’t remember things that you would think he would remember because they were rather momentous, and then he would remember other details no matter how fine the grain. But this is different. With regard to that leak, either he did leak the information or caused someone to leak it, or he did not. And that’s not a matter of interpretation. So if that’s the false statement, the question is, what’s the underlying information that supported the indictment? And the question here is, if it is the same statement that we’ve been talking about, could he face his former associate and friend, McCabe, and will he repeat on the stand that I was told to leak this by Comey? So that’s one of the things we’ll be looking at for that source. The obstruction count is really intriguing. That suggests that there was conduct besides obviously that false statement. And that’s what we really need to look at. An obstruction count can go from 5 to 10 years of potential sentencing, but it depends on what the obstruction was.
