Fox News pundit: Justice Department officials should be prosecuted for fraud
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrettargued on Wednesday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former FBI Director James Comey, and other former top Department of Justice officials should be prosecuted for fraud and other crimes for their role in spying on a former Trump campaign official.The inflammatory and ill-founded accusations are the latest example of how pro-Trump pundits are trying to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Trump’s Russia ties by claiming that the Justice Department has been compromised by anti-Trump bias and corruption.Jarrett made the accusations during a discussion with Fox News host Sean Hannity at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Wednesday. Hannity asked Jarrett which government officials might be in “serious legal jeopardy” over the way they handled the Steele dossier, a document put together by former British spy Christopher Steele alleging deep ties between Trump and Russia.Trump supporters, including House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes, claim — without merit — that Justice and FBI officials used that dossier inappropriately to get permission from a court to spy on former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page during the 2016 presidential campaign. Jarrett told Hannity that he thinks top officials who signed off on using the dossier in the legal request for permission should be in big trouble.
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“Well, I think James Comey, who signed off on it, Rod Rosenstein, who signed off on it, [former FBI Deputy Director] Andrew McCabe signed off on it, [former acting Attorney General] Sally Yates as well,” Jarrett said.“Using a fake document as an officer of the court to convince a judge to spy on an American citizen is six different crimes: abuse of power, false and misleading statements, it’s perjury, it’s major fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and obstruction of justice,” Jarrett added. “Those are the crimes and people need to be prosecuted.”