Trump ‘should NOT be prosecuted even if there is powerful evidence,’ fired FBI director Comey says
PRESIDENT Donald Trump should not be federally prosecuted when he leaves the White House – even if there is powerful evidence, fired FBI director James Comey has said.
In his new , Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency and Trust, wrote that President-elect 's attorney general should not "pursue a criminal investigation" against .
In an excerpt of his new book obtained by that was published on Wednesday, Comey wrote that the Justice Department should not probe the outgoing president "no matter how compelling the roadmap left" by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
even stated that the sitting-president should not be prosecuted no matter "how powerful the evidence strewn across his history of and ."
“Although those cases might be righteous in a vacuum,” Comey wrote, “the mission of the next attorney general must be fostering the trust of the American people.”
On whether Trump should be pardoned by his successor, Comey said: "By pardoning a resigned president, Ford had held [Nixon] accountable in a way that Trump would not be, even where he to be pardoned after losing re-election."
"That might not be enough accountability in Trump’s case," he added.
"Or it may be, especially if local prosecutors in charge Trump for a legacy of financial fraud."
On Wednesday, it was reported that Biden .
The ex- director's stance comes as a surprise, as his abrupt firing in May 2017 became the catalyst that began the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The 59-year-old former lawyer replaced Robert Mueller after being nominated by then-President Barack Obama but was dismissed in May 2017 by Donald Trump.
Comey only learned of his dismissal via TV news reports.
Initially the reason given by for Comey being fired was due to a recommendation by the US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy Rod Rosenstein.
Rosenstein had sent a memo to Sessions, forwarded to Trump, which listed objections to Comey's actions during the investigation into Senator Hillary Clinton's emails.
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However, it later emerged that Trump had requested, on May 8, Sessions and Rosenstein detail in writing a case against Comey.
Trump told reporters he had fired Comey because he "wasn't doing a good job."
Comey was replaced by Christopher A Wray, 53, a former lawyer.