Former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) on Tuesday night suggested a “politically corrupt team” of Justice Department officials drove him out of office on tax evasion charges, and are now driving the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Grimm applauded the House Intelligence Committee’s decision to release a classified memo that purports to show that the FBI abused a surveillance program, saying the document will “[rein] in the politicization of our justice system.”
He blamed former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI Director James Comey and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch for his ouster in 2014, and ongoing investigations. Lynch was the U.S. District Attorney for Eastern New York at the time.
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Grimm claimed those three “have had their hands in every politically driven investigation conducted by federal law enforcement in recent years — from sabotaging President Trump with the Russiagate conspiracy theory, to letting Hillary Clinton off the hook in 2016, and as far back as leveraging a civil business violation to drive me out of office in 2014.”
Grimm pleaded guilty in December 2014 to tax fraud related to his Manhattan health food business. He resigned from Congress less than a month later and was sentenced to eight months in prison. He was released in 2016.
Grimm last fall launched a campaign to win back his old House seat in New York’s 11th Congressional District, which includes Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.
Rep. Dan Donovan (R-N.Y.) currently holds the seat. Donovan replaced Grimm after his resignation.
McCabe stepped down from his post on Monday, and will formally retire in March, as planned. President Trump fired Comey last summer.