A crusading attorney who already has challenged the bar membership of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Clinton lawyers David E. Kendall, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson now is going after James Comey, the fired FBI director.
Texas attorney Ty Clevenger already has won a court order in Maryland demanding the state’s grievance committee investigate Kendall, Mills and Samuelson over claims they destroyed evidence in the Clinton email probe.
His complaint against Lynch is based on Comey’s assertion she pressured him to minimize the Clinton probe.
Now Clevenger is accusing, in is complaint to the New York bar, Comey of lying to Congress and destroying potential evidence.
The revelation came just months after Comey testified before Congress in July that he did not predetermine the outcome of the FBI’s probe into Clinton.
“Insofar as Mr. Comey gave materially false testimony to Congress, it appears that he violated Rules 1.0(w), 3.3(a)(1), and 8.4 of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct,” Clevenger wrote in a letter to the grievance bar.
Clevenger filed the grievance in New York, where Comey is licensed to practice law and was a former U.S. attorney.
The chances of Comey getting disbarred are slim in a Democratic jurisdiction, Clevenger told WND.
“Fifty-fifty at best, because this is Democrat jurisdiction – but Democrats aren’t exactly happy with Comey either, so who knows how the politics may play out,” he said. “Most grievance committees and bar prosecutors don’t like to go after high profile attorneys, they’d rather go after the low hanging-fruit – some solo-practitioner that nobody has ever heard of who won’t have the resources to fight back. Politically it causes potential blowback at bar prosecutors if they’re going after public officials, so most of them just won’t do it.”
President Trump blasted the Justice Department Wednesday after the FBI confirmed the Comey prematurely drafted a statement exonerating Clinton.
“Wow, FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete,” Trump tweeted. “Many people not interviewed, including Hillary Clinton herself. Comey stated under oath that he didn’t do this – obviously, a fix? Where is Justice Dept?”
Wow, FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete. Many..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017
…people not interviewed, including Clinton herself. Comey stated under oath that he didn’t do this-obviously a fix? Where is Justice Dept?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2017
He followed up: “As it has turned out, James Comey lied and leaked and totally protected Hillary Clinton. He was the best thing that ever happened to her!”
But holding Comey criminally accountable will ultimately be up to President Trump, Clevenger told WND.
Trump, the crusading attorney warned, must either replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the investigation of Clinton’s email server, or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
“The only way he can be held accountable criminally, if he lied to Congress, is he is going to have to be prosecuted by the Justice Department. There’s been a bit of an anomaly in this administration, it was all triggered when Jeff Sessions recused himself from a lot of these cases,” he said, “Rod Rosenstein, as the Deputy Attorney General is very much a creature of the establishment. I [had] dealings with him back when he was the U.S. attorney in Maryland. I just don’t have any confidence in him.
“Rosenstein is going to protect people in power. That’s who he is and that’s what he does. If Sessions is recused, and Rosenstein is making all the decisions, then I don’t expect anything much to get done,” he continued. “It’s a question of whether the president is going to get fed up enough and fire Rosenstein or even Sessions.”
A lot of the members would like to do something about Comey, Clevenger said, but “the problem is there hands are tied.”
“There is not a lot they can do – even if Congress fights Comey for contempt, it’s still up to the administration to prosecute the contempt charge,” he said. “At some point the administration is going to have to buckle down and take this stuff seriously – Jeff Sessions, in particular and the Justice Department. ”
Just a day earlier, the FBI admitted that a statement was drawn up by Comey exonerating Clinton – even though she was “extremely careless,” at best, with national secrets – months before she was even interviewed about the issue.
Clinton was under investigation by the FBI throughout the 2016 presidential race for using a private email address on a private server while she was U.S. secretary of state.
Long lists of classified and secret information about the nation’s security ended up on that unsecured private computer, even after Clinton denied that that could happen.
Two months ago, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote to the FBI expressing concern that Comey drafted the statement clearing Clinton of criminal charges before the investigation was complete.
The senators reported they had obtained transcripts of interviews from the Office of the Special Counsel that was investigating Comey’s actions.
During the middle of the election race, Comey held a press conference announcing the FBI would not be recommending that the Department of Justice pursue charges, though Clinton had been “extremely careless.”
But the FBI released documents Monday suggesting the statement was drafted far earlier.
The FBI titled the release “Drafts of Director Comey’s July 5, 2016 Statement Regarding Email Server Investigation,” in reference to the press conference.
The bureau interviewed Clinton on July 2, 2016. Yet according to the newly released documents, Comey sent an email with the subject line “midyear ex Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, general counsel James Baker and chief of staff and senior counselor James Rybicki” on May 2, 2016.
