James Comey Says He Gave ‘Literally True’ Answers To ‘Ambiguous’ Questions Central To Indictment

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey is pushing to dismiss his indictment because he answered “fundamentally ambiguous questions with literally true answers.”

Comey faces charges for lying to Congress during his September 2020 testimony, where he allegedly claimed not to have “authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports” regarding an investigation into Hillary Clinton, and obstructing a Congressional investigation.

“Here, the indictment conspicuously omits the lengthy, confusing questions that prompted Mr. Comey’s testimony,” Comey’s motion filed on Thursday states.

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz asked Comey during the aforementioned 2020 hearing on whether his prior testimony in 2017, where he affirmed to Sen. Chuck Grassley that he never authorized someone to be an anonymous source in news reports, was true in light of his deputy Andrew McCabe’s claim that he leaked information to The Wall Street Journal with Comey’s knowledge.

“Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true; one or the other is false,” Cruz asked Comey, according to the motion. “Who’s telling the truth?”

Comey stood by his prior testimony.

“So, your testimony is you’ve never authorized anyone to leak,” Cruz followed up. “And Mr. McCabe when if he says contrary is not telling the truth, is that correct?”

Comey replied that he would not “characterize Andy’s testimony, but mine is the same today.”

“Senator Cruz’s questions are fundamentally ambiguous because people of ordinary intellect would not be expected to understand that he meant to ask a broad question about Mr. Comey’s interactions with anyone at the FBI—including Daniel Richman—during a colloquy focused on Mr. McCabe,” Comey’s attorneys argued in the motion. “On the contrary, a reasonable person readily would have understood Senator Cruz to be asking only whether Mr. Comey had specifically authorized Mr. McCabe to be an anonymous source in news reports.”