In a pre-book release interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, fired FBI Director James Comey made a startling admission: He told his interviewer that he made the conscious, intentional decision not to inform then-President-elect Donald J. Trump that the infamous dossier containing salacious accusations was paid for by his presidential opponent and her party.

This is monumental for a number of reasons. 

According to a video clip of the interview (which is below), when asked by the host why he didn’t, Comey said he didn’t believe it was necessary.

“Did you tell him the Steele dossier had been financed by his political opponents?” Stephanopoulos asked in an interview set to air on Sunday night.

“No, I don’t even think I used the words ‘Steele Dossier,’” Comey responded. “I just talked about additional material.”

‘Steele’ is a reference to former British spy Christopher Steele, who was hired by opposition research firm Fusion GPS to compile the dossier. Steele used a number of Russian sources in gathering his alleged information, none of which has ever been verified.

“Did he have a right to know that?” Stephanopoulos asked as a follow-up.

“That it had been financed by his political opponents? I don’t know the answer to that,” Comey conceded. “It wasn’t necessary for my goal, which was to alert him that we had this information.”

Yes, you do, Mr. Former Director. You do know the answer to that: You were trying to protect your decision to protect Hillary Clinton, whom you believed was going to win the election.

And you were also trying to protect the integrity of the scandal you were helping set in motion.

It’s not clear yet whether Stephanopoulos asked Comey why the FBI didn’t vet the document before briefing him about it. It’s also not clear whether Trump asked Comey where the information came from, though that seems likely.

What is crystal clear, however, is the role the bogus dossier played in making life hard on POTUS Trump and making it exceedingly difficult for him to govern and to maintain legitimacy. 

Let’s recall, shall we? 

— We know that the dossier — paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign — was used by the Obama FBI to obtain surveillance warrants against at least one former Trump campaign figure, Carter Page, who of course intermingled with the then-GOP nominee and his staff while under surveillance. A once-secret memo written by the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee detailing massive abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court fabricated “evidence” to obtain FISA warrants. The fabricated evidence was the dossier. No way Comey didn’t know the dossier wasn’t real and that it was nevertheless being used by agents he supervised to get the warrants.

— We know that Comey intentionally made decisions before the election to protect Hillary’s legitimacy as president, but did not bother to do the same for Trump, because he believed she was going to win. “It is entirely possible that, because I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president, my concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation bore greater weight than it would have if the election appeared closer or if Donald Trump were ahead in all polls. But I don’t know,” he has said, according to a book excerpt.

Oh yes, he does know. He knows everything about all of this. He was, after all, the one who set in motion special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein with a mandate to essentially harass Trump and his former campaign team relentlessly until he can either convict some of them or break them financially, as he has done to former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn.

James Comey still has a lot to answer for in all of this, but it’s a sure bet he won’t allow himself to be booked on any media venue where he will be asked much tougher questions about his role as FBI “fixer.”

See more at JamesComey.news.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

TownHall.com

NewsTarget.com