Trump says Justice Dept will decide on any Comey indictment
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump criticized James Comey on Thursday but said the Justice Department would decide whether to seek the indictment of his former FBI director.
“I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, because I don’t know,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He said federal prosecutors would “make a determination.”
Prosecutors are expected to ask a grand jury to indict Comey, Trump’s longtime political antagonist, in the Eastern District of Virginia in the coming days, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Trump said he believed he would be allowed to get involved in the Comey case but chose not to do so. “I can only say that Comey is a bad person. He’s a sick person,” Trump said. “Actually he did terrible things at the FBI.”
Trump has regularly assailed Comey since he fired him in 2017 during his first White House term. Comey, who has become a critic of his former boss, had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to influence the election outcome. Trump and Russia have denied any collusion.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bhargav Acharya and Susan Heavey)
