Sarah Sanders: Trump will ‘let the attorney general’ decide whether to prosecute, indict James Comey

William Barr will decide if James Comey is prosecuted for a crime, Sarah Sanders said Sunday.

In an interview defending the attorney general’s investigation of the FBI, CIA, and other agencies, the White House press secretary made it clear that President Donald Trump is leaving indictments for Comey and other top intelligence officials on the table. Sanders told NBC’s Meet The Press that the Trump administration “already” knows that the FBI was corrupt when it spied on the Trump campaign, but the White House will leave it up to Barr whether to bring charges.

“We’re going to let the attorney general make that determination as he gets to the conclusion of this investigation,” Sanders said. “The people that were responsible and that were part of this unprecedented obstruction and corruption at the FBI, those people should certainly be held responsible.”

Sanders’ interview came just days after she released a statement from the White House declaring that Trump ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with Barr’s probe. The president also granted Barr full authority to declassify documents related to the FBI’s spying on the Trump campaign in 2016.

Sarah Sanders: Comey could face arrest

The declassification set off a firestorm as the media, top Democrats, and the likes of former CIA chief John Brennan decried Trump’s “dangerous” decision. The media’s hand-wringing was evident Sunday when Meet The Press host Chuck Todd, like the rest of the mainstream media, came to the defense of the intelligence “community.”

“Why did the president not force the attorney general to consult with the DNI and the head of the CIA? Here he’s giving him unilateral authority not to do it. Only saying he should do it but he doesn’t have to. Why?” Todd asked. Sanders began to respond, saying that Trump has “total confidence” in Barr, but she was cut off by Todd, who quipped: “But not the intelligence community?”

Asked by Todd if President Trump expects Comey to be arrested, Sanders said that the White House would leave that decision up to the attorney general. “We already know that there was an outrageous amount of corruption that took place at the F.B.I. They leaked information. They lied. They were specifically working trying to take down the president, trying to hurt the president,” she said.

Todd pushed back, accusing the White House of pre-judging the outcome of Barr’s investigation. “It doesn’t sound like you want him to do his job,” Todd said, referring to Barr.

But Sanders fired back, noting the “rich” irony of Todd’s point, given that the Democrats accused Trump of treason every day for two years, without evidence. But now that Trump wants to get to the bottom of the malicious Russia hoax, all of sudden it’s a “big deal.”

“Literally for day after day after day the media and Democrats in Congress called the president a traitor to his own country and said that he cheated to become president,” Sanders said. “I mean the idea of that is absolutely outrageous that he had to endure that for two years. And now he wants to know where and why it started. And all of a sudden that’s a big deal? That is insane.”

WATCH: Does Trump expect Comey to be arrested? #MTP #IfitsSunday@PressSec: “The people that were responsible and that were part of this unprecedented obstruction and corruption at the F.B.I., those people should certainly be held responsible.” pic.twitter.com/Cgt1H77wag

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 26, 2019

Pressure on Comey, Brennan

With the conclusion of Robert Mueller’s investigation, the Justice Department has gradually shifted from probing collusion to investigating misconduct within the intelligence community. With scrutiny of the FBI and other agencies intensifying, Comey has strenuously defended the FBI’s spying on the Trump campaign, insisting that it was by-the-book “investigation” while attacking his enemies with urgency in op-eds and media appearances.

Despite Comey’s insistence that the FBI did nothing wrong, storm clouds have been massing visibly, with the FBI and CIA trading accusations over whether Comey or Brennan pushed the infamous Russia dossier. Barr has indicated that he is looking into Comey’s January 2017 briefing with Trump, which the FBI reportedly was concerned would look like an attempt at blackmail.

Critics have laid the blame at Comey’s feet for destroying the bureau’s reputation with his unusual and unilateral conduct as head of the FBI, which included leaking private memos of conversations with Trump to the press to spark a special counsel appointment.

Liberals rush to smear Barr probe

Todd’s talking points were in keeping with the response of much of the media to Trump’s FISA declassification order last week. The same media that frothed about collusion for two years — with no evidence — predictably rushed to characterize Barr’s investigation as an attempt by Trump to punish his political enemies with false accusations of a spying conspiracy.

The media’s blitz to smear the Barr probe follows weeks of attacks on Barr’s integrity. The attorney general set off firestorm last month when he told Congress that “spying did occur,” prompting Democrats, the media, and intelligence officials including Comey to challenge use of the term “spying” to describe the FBI’s activities.

In unison with Democrats like Russia hoaxer Adam Schiff (CA), who declared the declassification part of a “cover-up” by Trump, and Brennan, who called it “outrageous,” the media has sought to paint Trump’s order as an unusual and “dangerous” step that could expose sensitive intelligence — but their reaction isn’t surprising. Barr’s investigation is not only putting Comey under the microscope; it also threatens to expose the media’s dishonesty in the Russia collusion hoax, and the Dems are desperate to sweep any appearance of impropriety in the Russia probe under the rug.

For his part, Barr has indicated that he takes the FBI’s spying on the Trump campaign seriously, and that he finds the circumstances of the FBI’s counter-intelligence investigation into the Trump campaign unusual. Barr told Fox recently that he has more questions than answers after starting his review.

Besides Barr’s review, an investigation by the DOJ’s inspector general Michael Horowitz is expected to finish up in May or June.

“We’ll leave the final call up to the attorney general and he’ll get to the bottom of it,” Sanders said. “But we think Americans deserve the truth.”