Alwaght- Former FBI Director James Comey rebuked US House Republicans on Monday for not standing up to President Donald Trump's attacks on the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Comey made the remarks on Monday after his second appearance this month before two House of Representatives committees. He was fired by Trump in May 2017 while he was leading an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.
"People who know better, including Republican members of this body, have to have the courage to stand up and speak the truth, not be cowed by mean tweets or fear of their base. There is a truth and they're not telling it. Their silence is shameful," Comey told reporters after his nearly six-hour interview with members of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.
He said lawmakers had interviewed him about former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's emails and a dossier that the FBI allegedly used to conduct clandestine surveillance of a Trump presidential campaign aide.
"So another day of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Steele dossier,” Comey told.
“This while the president of the United States is lying about the FBI, attacking the FBI and attacking the rule of law in this country. How does that make any sense at all?” he asked.
Comey suggested Republican lawmakers are too weak to stand up for the FBI for fear of political backlash.
"Republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter, the words of a president matter, the rule of law matters and the truth matters. Where are those Republicans today?" he asked.
“At some point, someone has to stand up and in the fear of Fox News and fear of their base, and fear of mean tweets, stand up for the values of this country and not slink away into retirement.”
He also slammed Trump for calling his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen a “rat.”
“This is the president of the United States calling a witness who is cooperating with his own Justice Department a ‘rat,’ ” he said, suggesting people at home reflect on “where we have ended up.”
Trump has called the Russia investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller a "witch hunt" and condemned Cohen as a "rat" for cooperating with federal investigators.
White House fires back at Comey
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused former FBI director James Comey of "tremendous corruption" in a blistering statement after he criticized Republican lawmakers for not standing up to President Donald Trump's treatment of the FBI.
"Republicans should stand up to Comey and his tremendous corruption - from the fake Hillary Clinton investigation, to lying and leaking, to FISA abuse, and a list too long to name," Sanders said in a tweet on Monday night. "The President did the country a service by firing him and exposing him for the shameless fraud he is."
