Comey Says Trump `Morally Unfit’ in First Interview

political polls that showed her winning the election. It's the latest swap of Twitter allegations between the two following Comey's first television interview to promote his book last night on ABC Comy seemed to hold nothing back in the interview. I don't think he's medically unfit to be president. I think he's morally unfit to be president. Joining me is Bill Gavin, former assistant director of the FBI. Bill, what part of the interview surprised you most or concerned you most? June.

I think that anybody that makes those kinds of statements on the moral fitness of an individual, that kind of concerns me a bit more than anything I think, and the moral sitness of a sitting president does his public assault sometimes crosses into the salacious. Does that undermine the status of the FBI. I think that what both individuals are doing on both sides of the fence, throwing rocks at each other and and and making statements that to

me a kind of unprofessional. The bottom line is it tends to when when the comments made against the director of the FBI and they made from the President, they tend to be believed by the American public and in the cast an aspersion upon all FBI employees. And I can guarantee June that that of the bureau people, men and women go to work every single day and do an outstanding job and give their lives and limbs for for the organization of the country. This uh is uh,

It's not. It's more than just static in the background. It is a diversion from what the FBI is all about. And I really believe that maybe this auto stop, and we saw the stop, both sides auto start acting as adults rather than the kids in a school yard. Does this book Weekend call me his credibility as a potential witness against the president in the Muller investigation or elsewhere. I haven't read the book, and um, Um, no doubt will,

But I don't know whether or not it will. It'll uh diminish his ability to be a witness any place. It all depends upon what he has to say in how the facts support what he has to say, and whether or not the facts that he talks about are classified or not. And I think that's being looked at in great depth right now looking at his interview and at the excerpts from his book, since we haven't had

a chance to read it yet. Um, do you see a concern, a growing concern or uh sort of underpinning of a concern that the president might be open to different kinds of risks because of his connections that were described in the book. Then all remains to be seen. I know that with Bob Mueller's investigation, we have to wait to see how that how that unfolds. I know that everybody wants it to end immediately. The President wanted

to end months ago. Uh. It's something that's going to go on until Bob Mueller arrives at a conclusion and addresses all effects that are presented to him. The other important thing, Joan, is going to be the report of the Inspector General and I think that will be a real um in the event that will be on the forefront for quite a while and present some difficulties for both the for both the Bureau and in the Department

of Justice. Bill. How does the timing of this book tour and the publication of the book play here with Muller's investigation and with that Inspector General report you just mentioned. It seems to be coming at at a really sort of critical time. Sometimes we release a book like that in our own interest rather than the overall interest, and I think that's probably what's happened in this particular case to June Um. It's it's it's a very difficult set

of circumstances right now. And I think the other two things the i S report in the Bob Mullin's report will be important reports. Comy stood by his handling of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server, and you know the way he he brought it out on several occasions, one right before the election. Did you agree with his explanation for his rather unusual actions for an FBI director. One thing that I totally disagreed with Bob when when

the director came out with the conclusion that he reached. UM. Jim Comey said that, Uh, he really painted a picture of Hillary Clinton, UM, getting ready to be indicted and then said, you know, there's no way he could do that.

My biggest concern and and the biggest fault that I find, is the Jim Comey rendered a prosecutive opinion when he was the head of the arguably the best investigative organization in the world, and being the head of the investigation investigative organization does not permit you to render a prosecutive opinion. I think that's where he crossed the line, and he does not to this day. He doesn't think that he crossed the line at that point. I happened to think

that he did. Should have put that whole thing right back into the Department of Justice and let the Attorney General handle whatever it is that ensued from that. If she didn't want to handle it, Uh, it's on her, It's not on the Bureau. And this is what really started this whole catastrophe that's going on right now. Bill, we have about forty five seconds here. Could you just explain what impact all this has had in your opinion

on the standing and credibility of the FBI. I well, June, I think it all depends when how you how you look at it. My own personal opinion is that there are a number of people six seven people who betrayed the trust that was given to them in the FBI. That's my own opinion, and I just based it on what I know, as the rest of the public knows of the men and women in the FBI do an outstanding job every single day, go to work. Their badges

are not tarnished by this event. The only badges that are tarnished are the individuals who betrayed their trust in in what they were supposed to do. Thank you, Bill, We have to leave it there. Everyone certainly agrees with that. Thanks Bill Gavin. That's he's a former assistant director of the FBI. The Supreme Court is back in session today. The Justice has rejected an appeal from former Illinois Governor Rod Bloyevitch, who went to prison in twelve joining us

as Bloomberg New Supreme Court reporter Greg's store. Greg tell us about the latest Blogoyevitch appeal and the Justice is refusal to take it. Hi June, Yes, Former Illinois Governor Rob Bligoyevitch for the second time, tried to get his conviction, his corruption conviction overturned by the Supreme Court. Uh. Both

times the court rejected Bolgoievitch. His argument was essentially that so he was convicted of of things like um promising a Senate seat in exchange for campaign contributions, and he argued that the jury in his case wasn't required to find that he explicitly promised the Senate seat in exchange for those campaign contributions. The Justice Department told the court not to hear the case and and they said, look,

there's nothing magical about the word explicit. Here. The jury found there really was a quid pro quo one thing, the contributions in exchange for the Senate seat. And that's enough. And the Supreme Court decided it didn't need to interview in the case and did need to reconsider his conviction. Alright, So let's turn to something that a lot of people are watching, and that's arguments tomorrow. What's at stake billions of dollars in the Supreme Court case with a battle

over online sales tax. Tell us more about that. Yeah, this this is something that's familiar to almost anybody who shops online. Which is that if you buy something online, depending on where you are and who you're buying it from, you might have to pay sales taxes and you might

not have to pay pay sales taxes. And the reason is that back in the Supreme Court, dealing with a case involving catalog Sales said, Sales said that, Uh, if the retailer does not have a physical presence in the state, so in other words, doesn't have a store, doesn't have a warehouse, doesn't have an office, they can't be forced

to collect sales taxes. So a retailer like Overstock, for example, doesn't have any physical presence in the state of Maryland, Uh, they're for Overstock doesn't have to And if I'm in Maryland buying something to be for shipment to Maryland, Overstock doesn't Overstock doesn't have to charge me the six percent sales tax that would otherwise we do. So, Greg, this is a really unusual case because the state of South Dakota enacted the law that's that issue here so that

it would be challenged at the Supreme Court. Explain a little bit more about that. Yeah, in fact, the state of South Dakota knew that its law, which which imposes taxes on any retailer that are requires and neglect sales taxes if they meet a certain threshold of sales. H South Dakota knew that that law would be struck down under that Supreme Court decision, which is called quill, So they actually um passed the law and and said to the lower courts, look, we know you're gonna have to

strike down our law. Go ahead and do it because we want to get up to the Supreme Court and we want to ask them to overturn that decisions so we can tax all these out of state retailers. And that's exactly where we're are right now. So the states are trying to overturn a twenty six year old Supreme Court ruling. What is the response of the retailers? So the um depends on which retailers you're talking because it's you know, the online it's it's a totally different world

than it was six years ago as far as online. Yes, so, so traditional retailers, UM, the ones that are have brick and mortar stores are saying, look, it is time to overturn that could decision because it's an unfair advantage to the wayfarers and the overstocks of the world that they don't have to charge taxes, but the department store down the street has to. And for that matter, although this is kind of complicated, a company like Amazon sometimes has

to collect taxes and generally generally does um. And they say that distinction in this day and age where economic presence in the state is really what matters, not whether they have you know, a physical building there. Uh, And that's why they say that in this modern age it should be overturned. And what about the online retailers, that's I should have I should have narrowed the focus there. Yeah, the online retailers say, look, we have set up this world.

Everybody has come to rely on this notion that if you don't have a physical presence, you don't have to collect the sales taxes. And they say that the burden on them, and particular very small retailers could be immense. They talk about their being more than twelve thousand taxing jurisdictions out there, and you have to figure out the taxes for each of those, and sometimes it's hard to figure out what your product actually is with a particular

jurisdictions tax code. So you know, is uh, you know, a piece of clothing you create, is it is it a coat or is it a shirt? Maybe it's not clear, and maybe those are tax differently in a particular particular state. So they are basically saying to the court, Um, you don't you should be the ones to put this burden on us. If anymoy is going to do it, Congress

ought to be the one to do it. So Greg, just to conclude, we have less than a minute here, But there are three justices Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, and Neil Gorc a sort of surprising trio who have already expressed doubts about the president. Yeah, and they did it in different contexts. So so, Uh, Justice Kennedy basically convited South the South Dakota to do what it did here in a couple of years ago. In the case he really called into question whether the Quill ruling makes any

sense in this modern age. Uh. Justice course has said something similar when he was an Appeals Court judge, and Justice Thomas essentially thanks this entire constitutional doctrine, which is known as they don't fall asleep here the dormant commerce clause. He thinks that's an entirely illegitimate doctrine, and the Court shouldn't be in the business of striking down state laws on those grounds. Well, I'm sure a lot of law students would be happy to see the dormant clad commerce

clause go away. Thanks so much, Greg, and of course you'll be reporting on this tomorrow from the Supreme Court. That's Bloomberg New Supreme Court reporter Greg's store. Thanks for Lizz listening to the Bloomberg Law podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg