Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a co-founder of the Freedom Caucus and a potential candidate to replace Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as Speaker of the House, offered an odd defense of former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Tuesday.
Flynn’s false statement to the FBI was not as big of a deal as other people’s misdeeds, Jordan suggested, because Flynn was not under oath at the time.
Though a poll this week found that 69 percent of Americans support Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russia government, and 64 percent approve of his investigating Trump’s business activities, Jordan told Fox News on Tuesday that the American people are being driven crazy by a “double standard” against Team Trump.
“When you look at this the thing that bothers Americans so much, bothers the president, bothers me is the double standard,” Jordan said. “Mike Flynn, while not under oath, makes a false statement to the FBI and gets indicted. Andy McCabe lies four times to the FBI, twice under oath to [Justice Department Inspector General] Michael Horowitz, nothing happens to him. That kind of stuff drives Americans crazy.”
Jordan, who graduated from law school, might want to re-read 18 U.S. Code § 1001, which makes it a federal crime to knowingly make a false statement to federal law enforcement. There is no exception for those who don’t take an oath before making the statement, nor is there one for those who cross their fingers while lying.
Moreover, Jordan’s claim that “nothing happen[ed]” to former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is odd, seeing as McCabe was fired from his job last month because, in the words of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he “lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
Jordan then made a similar claim of a double standard for Michael Cohen, the Trump Organization’s executive vice president and special counsel whose office was raided last week by the FBI, as compared to a former Clinton aide, who cooperated with the Bureau after receiving partial immunity.
On @foxandfriends, Rep @Jim_Jordan makes a case that Comey did a bad job because he was too hard on Clinton — but then in the next breath starts talking about how he thinks the DOJ was biased in her favor 🤔 pic.twitter.com/kSA2Aw7aGg
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 17, 2018
In the same Fox and Friends interview, Jordan attacked former FBI Director James Comey for having mistreated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign — while moments late complaining that the investigation was biased in her favor.