Former Whitewater independent counsel Robert Ray said James Comey is “coming unhinged” during an appearance on Fox Business Friday.
Ray addressed the release of Comey’s private memos and what bearing they might have on the conversation going forward.
Host Maria Bartiromo began the segment by noting that President Donald Trump appeared to feel vindicated by the memos, tweeting to that effect just after their publication.
James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2018
Ray backed the president’s assessment of the situation, saying, “He’s substantially right. I mean, I said at the time, the president saying ‘I hope you can see your way to letting Flynn go,’ whatever Jim Comey may think that means, I think, to me, I don’t see how you make an obstruction case out of that. The president’s right about that.”
But he didn’t stop there. Ray also suggested that the president was correct in his overall assessment of Comey. “Second, I think he’s also right about the fact that Jim Comey is bitter, and one would naturally conclude hopefully biased.”
Ray went on to address what the memos could mean going forward, since they do offer a contemporaneous view of “things that happened while they were happening,” but he felt that they didn’t offer the proof necessary to go forward with a case for either collusion or obstruction of justice.
What Ray couldn’t understand, he admitted, was why Comey thought it wise to do interview after interview, as Bartiromo said, “trashing the president”: “That is somebody coming unhinged. I know Jim well, but I just, that to me is beyond the pale.”