Former White House special counsel on Comey indictment

(CBS, KYMA) - Ty Cobb, former White House Special Counsel to the President, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.

According to Brennan, Comey was indicted "on two charges specific to his September 2020 testimony to Congress about Russian election meddling in 2016, so-called Crossfire Hurricane," prompting her to ask Cobb if he thinks it has "enough substance to actually head to trial," to which he said:

"I don't, really...the grand jury rejected one of the counts, the top count, actually, in the indictment, approved two, but by a very slim margin, 14 out of 23 in a process where there's no defense attorney in the room, and the standard is merely probable cause. The next courtroom that this will be assessed in, if it gets to trial, requires unanimity from 12 people, and there will be a vigorous defense. I don't see any way in the world that, you know, Comey will be convicted. And I think there's a good chance, because of, you know, the wholly unconstitutional, authoritarian way that this was done, that the case may get tossed out well before trial."

Brennan followed by asking what makes him now characterize President Donald Trump's actions that way, and Cobb said:

"I used to work at the White House as as a lawyer, you know, interacting with the Justice Department in the Mueller investigation and other matters, and I was not Trump's personal lawyer. So, my role was really, you know, as a- as a government employee, and not personal to the president. He did have personal lawyers, but, you know, at the time, you know, I was trying to perform the duties that were assigned to me. In this circumstance, you know, I'm eight years removed from that. I don't have any allegiances or reasons to, you know, say anything other than balls and strikes. And former Attorney General Jackson, Justice Jackson, Nuremberg Prosecutor, himself, highlighted in 1940 that the most important thing at the Justice Department when he was Attorney General was that people not target individuals, that they merely pursue crimes. Griffin Bell, years later, 1978 said essentially the same thing. Emphasized how political...politics and favor have no business at the Justice Department. It's all about even-handedness. And I think we talked about the misrepresentations that Attorney General Bondi made about how she would proceed even-handedly, and, you know, she's wholly abandoned that and is now merely doing the President's bidding when he says, prosecute my enemies, now."

During the interview, Brennan and Cobb talked about a New York Times report saying half-a-dozen U.S. Attorney's Offices are being "ordered to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, who is a Democratic donor."

In addition, Brennan said there is a list of names President Trump said "he wants specifically wants to be prosecuted or investigated, like former Special Counsel Jack Smith, leading her to ask Cobb what pattern is he seeing, and Cobb said:

"I think if you go to 30,000 feet, what you see is a lot of moving parts, but simple themes. The simple themes are rewriting history. Trump wants to rewrite history so that, you know, the next generation may not know that he incited a violent insurrection, refused to peacefully transfer the power of the presidency after losing an election, stole classified documents and showed them to friends and guests at Mar-a-Lago, you know, and that he was a criminal. I mean, he's a convicted felon. All anybody involved in those events that offended him, they're in real danger. So, you have the rewriting history stuff. You know, the U.S. attorney that he appointed, his personal lawyer, Lindsay Halligan. You know her, her role previously in the administration was, you know, trying to eliminate the theory that, you know, America had slaves at the Smithsonian. She was there to, you know, whitewash the Smithsonian and paint America is something that it isn't. I mean, America needs to learn from the mistakes and lessons that we've had, and one of the biggest mistakes that America ever had was re-electing President Trump."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Cobb, click here.