The White House has a new argument for why President Donald Trump fired James Comey earlier this year: The FBI director possibly committed perjury. At her Monday briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders faced a question about former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s recent interview on 60 Minutes. Bannon told journalist Charlie Rose that Trump’s firing of Comey in May was the “biggest political mistake in modern history.”
Sanders disputed that characterization by offering a list of reasons Comey was fired. “Since the director’s firing, we've learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing, including giving false testimony, leaking privileged information to journalists, he went outside of the chain of command, and politicized an investigation into a presidential candidate,” she said.
The other points are familiar ones, but “giving false testimony”? When and about what did Comey mislead or lie under oath? In front of a congressional committee? As part of a criminal probe? Or the special counsel investigation? The White House won’t say. Sanders referred further questions to the Department of Justice and did not answer me in a follow-up email.
A spokeswoman for the DoJ, Sarah Isgur Flores, declined to comment as well. “We won't have anything beyond the DAG’s memo,” Flores said.
That would be the deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, whose memo recommending Trump fire Comey. Rosenstein’s memo does not mention anything about false testimony—only that Comey mishandled the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server.
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01.20.2025