White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told investigators that she lied to reporters about President Donald Trump‘s motives when he fired FBI director James Comey in May 2017, when she stated that “countless” FBI agents had lost confidence in the director’s leadership.
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The revelation was made Thursday after the release of the redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian interference during the 2016 presidential election. Just one day after Comey was fired as FBI director, Sanders stood in front of the press painting Comey as a lame-duck, who had lost the confidence of all those around him.
According to Mueller’s findings, Sanders stated in a 2018 interview under oath that her comments were a “slip of the tongue” when she repeatedly doubled-down to reporters that “countless members” of the FBI were unhappy with Comey. She noted that her comments were made “in the heat of the moment.” Sanders acknowledged to investigators that her comments were “not founded on anything.”
Mueller’s team was interested in the decision making that ultimately led to the firing of Comey to determine whether or not the president was engaging in possible obstruction of justice.
