WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are vowing to haul James Comey and James Clapper back before Congress to ask which one committed perjury about briefing then-President Barack Obama on Michael Flynn’s calls with Russia’s ambassador.
Comey, the fired former FBI director, said in newly released congressional testimony that Clapper, the former US intelligence chief, briefed Obama. Clapper testified, however, that he did not.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told The Post, “You don’t have to be a senior at city college to realize one of them is lying. I think we ought to call them both back in and ask them: Which one of you guys is lying to Congress?”
“If you or I lie to Congress, it’s supposed to be a felony,” Kennedy said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told The Post he plans to hold hearings about a Jan. 5, 2017, meeting in the Oval Office where Obama startled then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who ran day-to-day operations at the Justice Department, by informing her about two December 2016 calls between Flynn, a campaign adviser and transition aide to incoming President Trump, and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
“We’ll have hearings about the Jan. 5 meeting,” Graham told The Post. Comey and Clapper “definitely” would be invited, he said.
Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SC) noted the Judiciary Committee’s role to The Post, saying that “these guys can’t seem to shoot straight. Clearly there were a lot of misstatements and everything else that need to be researched and further investigated.”
Reps for Comey and Clapper — who are among the top officials who tried to “unmask” Flynn’s identity during the Russia probe, according to a report by acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FBI under Comey routinely bypassed Justice Department leaders, including in announcing a decision not to criminally charge Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information.
Some Republicans say Obama may have had disproportionate influence in the Flynn case. The FBI moved to close an investigation into Flynn a day before the Oval Office meeting. Then-FBI official Peter Strzok salvaged the probe with a theory about Flynn violating the never-used Logan Act of 1799. Strzok later conducted an interview with Flynn where he allegedly lied.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told The Post that “my guess is there’s going to be even more information coming out that’s even stronger tying Obama to all of the decisions around Flynn.” Clapper, who admittedly offered Congress false testimony in 2013 about domestic surveillance, “should have been prosecuted before and I think he’ll go down in history as a big fat liar,” Paul said.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in late 2017 and agreed to cooperate in an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Special counsel Robert Mueller subsequently found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
In pleading guilty, Flynn avoided charges for work as an unregistered lobbyist for Turkey. Last week, the Justice Department moved to drop its case against Flynn, finding the investigation was improperly conducted. A judge must still sign off on that motion.
How exactly Obama learned about the Flynn calls is unresolved.
Comey told Congress in March 2017, “I briefed it to the Director of National Intelligence” and then, “In the first week of January, [Clapper] briefed the President and the Vice President and then President Obama’s senior team about what we found and what we had seen to help them understand why the Russians were reacting the way they did.”
In a 2019 book, former FBI Director Andrew McCabe backed Comey’s version, The Federalist reported. McCabe wrote: “I shared it with Comey; Comey shared it with the director of national intelligence, James Clapper; and Clapper verbally briefed it to President Obama.”
But in July 2017, Clapper privately told the House Intelligence Committee “no” in response to whether he “ever” briefed Obama “on the phone call, the Flynn-Kislyak phone calls?”
Since leaving office, Comey, Clapper and McCabe each have been sharp critics of Trump, and Republicans are savoring the possibility of finger-pointing on perjury.
Clapper’s former general counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Robert Litt, told The Post, however, that “Clapper doesn’t lie. It’s not in his character. I worked with the man for six years.”
Litt said, “I don’t get the sense from [The Federalist’s article] that either Comey or McCabe has personal knowledge that Clapper did it.”
Litt said it’s possible another official briefed Obama, such as Susan Rice, Flynn’s predecessor as White House national security adviser.
Republicans in the House, meanwhile, don’t have power to summon witnesses and pinned their hopes on an investigation of the FBI’s Russia probe being run by US Attorney for Connecticut John Durham.
“It is important for John Durham’s team to get to the bottom of this discrepancy between Clapper and Comey’s accounts to Congress. One of them wasn’t telling the truth and, last I checked, lying to Congress was a federal crime,” said Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY).
“If any justice remains in the federal system, Comey and Clapper will be the beginning of many indictments to come, and not just for perjury,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).
House Intelligence Committee member Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said, “We’re aware of the discrepancies in the stories, and it’s far from the only issue in the transcripts.”
“The Department of Justice should open and aggressively proceed with a criminal investigation,” added Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). “It is not just perjury. It is the entire politicization of the intelligence agencies to undermine, and ultimately replace, the constitutionally elected government of the United States.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Post, “You just know that they were lying, it’s pretty simple. Listen, when people violate the law, there should be consequences. But I’m more of the tune that just get this stuff all out, it’s going to do even more good than prosecution.”