Jay Sekulow: Comey statement is 'a total and complete vindication' of Trump

Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice said that former FBI Director James Comey's statement released Wednesday was a "total and complete vindication of the president," and that pursuing the matter was a "waste of money."

"Well, let me tell you what you've got here," Sekulow said to Sean Hannity Wednesday on Fox News, "a total and complete vindication of the president of the United States on any of these allegations of obstruction of anything and the fact that the president was clearly not under investigation, not a target.

"So all of the left's talking points are completely incorrect by James Comey's own testimony in his written testimony," he explained. "This now is bad for the country to continue spending resources distracting everyone, including the Congress, from really getting into the people's business. This is a waste of money."

"But I'm gonna tell you what this is," he said. "This document right here? Case closed! There is no case. And by the way, couple that Sean, with all of the statements from Sally Yates, from all of the other, besides all of the intelligence individuals you, the heads of intelligence agencies, James Clapper, all of them saying no evidence, Mark Warner, no evidence, no evidence of collusion."

"Clapper, Comey, [former CIA Director John] Brennan, [Sen. Mark] Warner (D-Va.), [Sen. Dianne] Feinstein (D-Calif.), [Rep.] Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), all of them, no evidence of collusion," Hannity interrupted, with a list of names.

"So here's what you've, what you got is, case should be closed, complete vindication, total vindication," Sekulow continued, "but let me add one other thing here, Sean. President [Barack] Obama, people are going to forget this but I want to remember because I handled this case in court."

"In the middle of a criminal investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative organizations," he explained, "in the middle of that investigation, the president of the United States said there was not even a smidgen of corruption, while the investigation was open and pending. Did James Comey write a memo about that? No! Suffers from selective disclosure disorder. I've been saying that for weeks."

Sara Carter of Circa News agreed with Sekulow and Hannity that Comey's statement was a "total vindication" of President Trump. Fox News anchor and attorney Gregg Jarrett then said that Comey would be admitting to having committed a felony if he testifies that Trump obstructed justice in previous conversations.

"The crime is called misprision of felony," Jarrett explained to Hannity. "If a federal government official knows of a felony-like obstruction, he must under the law, report it to his superiors at the Department of Justice in the case of Comey. Failure to do so is a crime punishable by three years behind bars."

Professor emeritus at Harvard Law School Alan Dershowitz told the Business Insider that this theory was "total nonsense."

University of Texas School of Law Professor Robert Chesney agreed, saying "the argument is completely uninformed" because "misprision of felony requires an affirmative act of concealment and because in this case, the person said to know of the crime is himself the leader of the agency to whom such agency should be given."

According to Chesney then, Comey would have had to actively conceal the act instead of simply neglect to report it.

"And there's no law, let alone a criminal law, requiring the FBI director to specifically inform others in the Justice Department of investigative leads," he clarified. "Really, it's quite silly."

Comey is set to give his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.