Ari Hoffman, Associate Editor of the New York Sun Interview

Ari Hoffman talks with Mendte in the Morning about the case brought against James Comey, why it happened now, and the likelihood of the former FBI Director being charged.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's get to Ariy Hoffman, associate editor of The
New York Sun with us every Monday at this time.
So let's talk about James. Call me these charges against
them area. You've been looking at this, and by the way,
good morning to you. How substantial are they? Are these
going to stick?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well? Good morning, Larry, and great to be with you
as always. Well, the first thing to say is that
you know, it was now or never for the government,
right the statute of limitations was about to expire earlier
this week, so you know, the dj had decision to
make do we go forward with this or sort of

(00:39):
let that deadline pass? And you know, d OJ, I think,
after what's fair to say, some robust internal debate which
I've covered as well, decided to go to go forward
with it. Now, you know, I think on one level,
you know, perjury cases are fairly straightforward. You know, James

(00:59):
Comy and twenty twenty told Senator Cruz that he did
not authorize leaks relating to the Trump or the Clinton investigations.
He said that he had also denied that in twenty seventeen.
So you know, on some level, I think if it
can be shown that in fact, those leaks were authorized.

(01:20):
I think the government has a pretty solid case. One
challenge that is going to be that they're going to
have to rely on Andy McCabe for that. Andy McCabe
was a deputy of James Comey, who has his own
credibility problems related to the Russiagate investigations. So we might
have a little bit of a Michael Cohen situation here, Larry,

(01:41):
where you know, sometimes the witnesses you have or not
the witnesses you would create in a lab, but you know,
you kind of have to have to make do with
what you have. The other thing to say is that
you know, for you and I are you know, talking
on the radio and or just in everyday life, you know,
up is up and down is down. But oftentimes in

(02:03):
these in these in these poetury trials, you know, defendants
will try to say, well, I didn't really need that,
or it was ambiguous, or I was asking a different question.
So expect a lot of parsons and a lot of
you know, kind of trying to wiggle out of what
appears to be a denial that James Comy leaked information. Now,

(02:25):
I think if you or I had to take a
polygraph tech Larry, and someone asked them, do you think
James Comy was leaking information? I think we both say yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
And the professor from Columbia that he was leaking information
through he even admitted. He even admitted it when he
was asked about it. He had to, it was already
out there. Uh, that person's going to be called as
a witness, I would imagine.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know, generally speaking, it's not a
crime to sort of receive leaked information. You know, if
it's classified, maybe that could be different. So you know,
someone like that couldn't really invoke the Fifth Amendment against
self incrimination. So yeah, I think, you know, part of
what this trial will do will bring to light will

(03:11):
surface some of the shenanigans that were going on under
James Komy, especially with respect to to the Russia, you know,
the Russian investigation into twenty sixteen. The one thing I
think the DJ might have to get passed a little
bit is remember, you know we had the Durham investigation.

(03:34):
You know, you know that didn't result in charges being
filed against Komy. So you know, this stuff has been
pretty well combed over. So we'll see, you know, we'll
see what kind of evidence the dj can can bring
to bear. But you know, with only two charges, there's
not a lot of give here, right, It's not like

(03:55):
they've thrown up twenty charges against the Wall and you
know they only have to get him on a few.
It really does turn on this twenty twenty testimony.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I agree with you, and I'm so I'm so disappointed
that this is all they have because it's like going
after al Capone on his tax records. But except that
was successful. This is a guy, in my belief, that
led a coup against the government, that lied to the
Pisa Court, that said that the Steele dossier was legitimate,

(04:28):
that showed it to the President just so he could
leak it to the press, and it really paralyzed the
government for about a year and a half as this
was all investigated. It dominated the news. He was a
major player in that and the fact that they only
have a couple of week charges to go after him with,

(04:50):
to me, is extremely disappointing.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, I mean, one thing to you know, in terms
of chances of a conviction, and I agree with you, Larry,
is that you know, James Kobe is sort of disliked
by everyone, not the pilot on the guy. But you know,
so sometimes in this in these cases, you know, for example,
we've spoken a lot on this program about Letitia James.
You could see a jury there being very politicized and

(05:16):
a jury of Democrats kind of you know, swinging behind her.
I don't think Democrats remember James Komy too fondly either,
you know, with his release of the Clinton email stuff
right before the election. So you know, when it comes
to kind of like, you know, will there be a
sympathetic jury, how does that play politically? You know, I

(05:40):
think it's probably pretty much a wash. You know, Comy
is not is not the bell of the ball on
either side of the political aisle.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, I agree with you. I think he's going to
scale on this thing, and it's so disappointing because he
deserves to be in jail. Harry Hoffman, Associate editor of
The New York Sun, with us every Monday at nine
oh five. Thanks again, Airy, Thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Learning