Why Is James Comey Central To Trump-FBI Feud?

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00:00And you know what, Sarah, for viewers who might not have followed every twist of the saga,

00:06remind us, why is James Comey such a central figure in the long-running feud between Donald

00:13Trump and the FBI? Yeah, James Comey, Leanne, really personifies all of President Trump's

00:23main grievances with the FBI. So if you cast your minds back to 2016, you had this extremely

00:31critical presidential election. There was an investigation headed by James Comey and the FBI

00:38into alleged Russian interference in the presidential election and whether President

00:46Trump's campaign colluded on that. Now, for President Trump, for his supporters here in the US,

00:53that inquiry in and of itself was seen as a major betrayal. President Trump has often framed this

01:01as a deep state plot against him. However, for critics of this indictment that has been brought

01:07against James Comey, they are saying that this is not justice, that this is revenge. This is

01:14President Trump going after his political opponents. And what's really explosive about this case,

01:21Leanne, is not just the indictment on those federal charges itself, but the way that this came about.

01:28Now, the US attorney in Virginia who had pushed back against bringing these charges, he resigned.

01:35Then you had bought in Lindsay Halligan. She was installed. Now, she is a former Trump lawyer.

01:41She is not someone who has prosecutorial experience. And what you've got here in the US right now is

01:52career prosecutors saying there are issues with some of these charges. The evidence seems weak. Indeed,

02:00one of the charges that went before the grand jury was dropped. So even before we've heard any evidence,

02:06there's a lot of political theatre around this. Interestingly, President Trump was questioned

02:11a little earlier on today as he left the White House. The report is saying to him, who else is on

02:16the list? Who's next on the list for retribution? The president said, well, there is no list, but there

02:22will be others. He's making it very clear. He does think that it is worth going after other people

02:29potentially involved in this issue that has caused him such grievance. He pushed back at the reporter

02:36saying that it is justice. It's not revenge. But Leanne, many, many critics, as I said,

02:43here in the US seeing this as exactly that, an act of revenge against Trump's political opponents.

02:50And James Comey is just the first of what it seems, according to the president, might be many more.