Former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday addressed a portion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report in which White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged misleading the press about Comey’s firing.
“I wasn’t shocked, I knew it was a lie when it was first said at the time. And it was, I guess, gratifying to see the special counsel have her admit that it was,” Comey said at a CNN town hall.
The former FBI director was addressing Sanders’s assertions shortly after his firing in 2017 in which she claimed that “countless” rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in him. She has since said that her misstatements were a “slip of the tongue.”
{mosads}“I gather she’s back on saying ‘slip of the tongue’ again,” Comey told CNN’s Anderson Cooper during the town hall on Thursday. “And if I need to explain to you what her deal is, I can’t help you.”
Sanders made the comments when seeking to explain President Trump’s firing of Comey in 2017.
“The DOJ [Department of Justice] lost confidence in Director Comey. Bipartisan members of Congress made it clear that they had lost confidence in Director Comey. And most importantly, the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director,” she said during a press briefing at the time.
She later told investigators with Mueller’s team that the false statements were a “slip of the tongue” made “in the heat of the moment,” according to the report.
CNN held its town hall with Comey on the 2-year anniversary of his firing.