James Comey Says Trump Administration ‘Could Almost Start Their Own Crime Family’ After Steve Bannon Arrest

James Comey, the former director of the FBI, says that he thinks Donald Trump and those working for him have been convicted or accused of so many crimes that they could “almost start their own crime family.”

While speaking with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation, Comey weighed in on the news that Steve Bannon had been arrested for fraud.

Bannon, the former campaign chair for Trump and who worked with the president in the White House as chief strategist, is the sixth individual who has worked closely with Trump to be arrested and criminally charged by the Department of Justice.

“Well, it’s another reminder of the kind of people this president surrounds himself with. At this point, they could almost start their own crime family. It’s a very serious case. The Southern District of New York has laid it out in a very detailed indictment called a speaking indictment. And he’s in a world of trouble,” Comey said when asked to weigh in on the matter.

Bannon is accused of being a part of a scheme to use thousands of dollars donated to a campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Along with two other individuals, he is said to have used the donated money for personal expenses.

“Well, it’s a very serious fraud case with a huge amount of money stolen from innocent victims, Americans who thought they were giving money to support the president’s wall on the Mexican border and instead it was stolen,” Comey said.

As a result, Bannon could be facing an increased punishment, Comey said, adding that if he was Bannon or part of his legal team, he’d be saying “I’m going down here” to himself.

Brennan pointed out that Bannon has also been accused of lying to Congress, as the Senate Intelligence Committee recently revealed.

When asked to say what he thought the biggest threat to the rule of law in the U.S. was, Comey said that the Justice Department under William Barr has become partisan.

Comey also pushed against the idea that Trump might use law enforcement to threaten or intimidate people attempting to turn out to vote in the 2020 election, as some news reports have suggested. Trump has been intensely critical of mail-in voting, suggesting that it is rife with fraud and that it’s necessary for him to deploy law enforcement to ensure that the process is protected.

Comey said that armed poll intimidation doesn’t happen in this country any longer, but did for African Americans when he was a child.