The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Many Who Weaponized US Intelligence Got Off Scot-Free, Will Comey?

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

“For far too long, previous corrupt leadership and their enablers weaponized federal law enforcement, damaging once proud institutions and severely eroding public trust,” said FBI Director Kash Patel following the Justice Department’s charging of former FBI Director James Comey with perjury and obstruction of Congress. Comey’s right-hand man, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, was not charged by the Department of Justice in 2020 after the DOJ’s inspector general found that he had “authorized an aide to talk with The Wall Street Journal about the FBI's probe into the Clinton Foundation,” according to NPR. James Clapper lied to Congress about the nature and scope of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance operations. Former CIA Director John Brennan lied two times under oath to Congress. Until James Comey’s recent indictment, many of the individuals who played an integral role in weaponizing America’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies to target political enemies like Donald Trump got off scot-free, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words”: (00:00) Introduction and Overview (00:59) Details of Comey's Indictment (02:01) Comparisons and Legal Context (06:05) Conclusion and Final Thoughts 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1  👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273  👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. I would like to talk about the legal aspects of the recent indictment of James Comey. The great question, is this delayed justice or is this retribution? When they look at the career of Andrew McCabe and they see that he admittedly lied four times under oath, John Renard, when he lied twice, when James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, admitted that he lied once under oath, when we see James Comey admit that he misled the president, not filing that report in FBI files, but putting it in his private safe and leaking it. Then we get a larger picture that our bureaucrats had weaponized the CIA, weaponize the FBI,

weaponize the directory of national intelligence, lied on numerous occasions, and got off. People are very angry. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. I would like to talk about the legal aspects of the recent indictment. of James Comey, he's been indicted on two counts. One, lying to Congress about authorizing his subordinates to leak to the press. He says he didn't. The indictment says he did authorize that. And second, obstructing a congressional investigation by so lying. He says because he didn't lie, he obviously couldn't obstruct an investigation. But what I'm interested in legally is we're

getting the same type of atmosphere that we saw with the Mueller investigation. Before anything had really transpired, we were told that this was a hunter-killer team of professional prosecutors. They were all-stars. They were pros, and they were going to make short work of Donald Trump's legal team and find Donald Trump guilty of colluding with the Russians. Twenty-two months later, and $40 million, they found no actionable offense. But what are you? What are you? What are you? am I getting out. Right now, the press is going wild that Comey has been unjustly indicted because they say or they argue that the prosecutor in the DOJ, Mr. Eric Siebert, decided that he didn't want to prosecute the case because he felt there was insufficient evidence. So he was let go by

Pam Bondi, the Attorney General wink nod, maybe with the encouragement of Donald Trump, maybe not. And Lisa Halligan, the replacement has very little experience. She's going to be chewed up in court, and Comey is going to walk. I don't know if that's true or not, but remember what the indictment says that he did not authorize anybody to leak. That doesn't mean that he's going to find somebody who says that, because Andrew McCabe, who was his deputy director had already testified to the Inspector General that he was authorized, or at least he thought he was authorized by James Comey. Michael Horowitz felt that maybe Comey had the better of the argument when he denied it, but

these were two close people, both at the center of the Russian collusion hoax that were blaming each other or contradicting each other, who leaked and who didn't leak. At the end, Andrew McCabe was found actionable for lying on. on four occasions, which he admitted to, under oath in the majority, three of the four, that he had denied falsely leaking to the Wall Street Journal about an FBI investigation. I don't know why Bill Barr, the Attorney General at the time, did not prosecute Andrew McCabe. Maybe he felt he couldn't convince a Washington or a New York jury, but Andrew McCabe basically got off Scott Free after admitting that he lied in the same fashion that,

John Brennan had lied two times under oath to Congress, one about a predator drone program where he said there was no collateral damage, one about spying on Senate staffers' computers, which he is the director of the CIA knew about and probably ordered. And remember James Clapper lied and said that the NSA did not spy on Americans. He admitted that that was a lie, too. So we're in a climate where all of these people have been on record of line. And now the question is, will there be a subordinate who comes forward and says, yes, I did leak to the press, and I did it on the authorization of James Comey, and will there be written evidence? Now, the legal community, given their expertise of the lawyers involved, said that this is very hard to prove, and that the prosecuting federal attorney has no experience, and this is political. And I don't know whether that is true or not, but I can tell you that in the great question,

is this delayed justice or is this retribution? People are very angry at the Washington legal community and the bureaucracy, because when they look at the career of Andrew McCabe and they see that he admittedly lied four times under oath, when they look at this former CIA director, John Greenett, when he lied twice, when James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, admitted that he lied once under oath. When we see James Comey admit that he misled the president on whether he was the object of an FBI investigation, and when he was sharply criticized by the Inspector General for not filing that report in FBI files, but putting it in his private safe and leaking it,

then we get a larger picture that our bureaucrats in this effort had weaponized the CIA, weaponize the FBI, weaponize the directory of national intelligence, lied on numerous occasions and got off. So I have no idea whether these two indictments will result in a conviction of James Comey, but as I said earlier, I have no doubt also that morally and ethically, he abused his office and did great harm to the United States.

Thank you very much, Victor Davis-Hansson, for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.