Former FBI Director James Comey wrote in a Washington Post column that President Donald Trump's attacks on the FBI amount to nothing but malicious lies. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images legal ‘Dumb lies’: Comey hits at Trump’s FBI claims

James Comey, the former FBI director and frequent presidential punching bag, derided President Donald Trump on Tuesday for perpetuating what he called “dumb lies” about the bureau and the origins of the Russia investigation.

“There was no corruption. There was no treason. There was no attempted coup,” Comey wrote in a Washington Post op-ed . “Those are lies, and dumb lies at that. There were just good people trying to figure out what was true, under unprecedented circumstances.”


The op-ed comes after Trump accused the FBI of spying on his 2016 campaign as part of a conspiracy to sabotage his candidacy. Attorney General William Barr told Congress during a hearing in April that he believes “spying did occur” by U.S. intelligence figures against Trump in the lead-up to Election Day.

Trump escalated his accusation with numerous calls for an investigation into the FBI, granting Barr the authority to declassify intelligence regarding the investigation in a move that garnered fierce criticism from Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, accused the two of conspiring to “weaponize law enforcement and classified information against their political enemies.”

Comey said that the 2016 investigation into the Trump campaign came after a legitimate tip and was the nature of the FBI’s work.

“We didn’t know what was true,” he wrote. “Maybe there was nothing to it, or maybe Americans were actively conspiring with the Russians. To find out, the FBI would live up to its name and investigate.”

Comey also pushed back against Trump’s claim that FBI agents were sympathetic to Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee for president. Trump has repeatedly pointed to former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who exchanged messages disparaging Trump, as evidence that the agency was out to get him. But Comey responded in the op-ed that Strzok drafted the letter Comey sent to Congress in which he wrote the agency had reopened an investigation into Clinton’s emails during the twilight of the campaign — a move Clinton largely blames for her defeat.

Comey echoed his familiar criticisms of the president, calling him a liar who doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions. Trump fired Comey in May 2017 in the hopes of stymieing investigations into his ties with Russia. That dismissal led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller — himself a former FBI director — to look into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, as well as possible obstruction of justice by the president.

“We must call out his lies that the FBI was corrupt and committed treason, that we spied on the Trump campaign, and tried to defeat Donald Trump,” Comey wrote. “We must constantly return to the stubborn facts.”