Tanden: Comey Wasn’t Leaking; He Was Whistleblowing

TANDEN: "Can I just — can I just say here — you mentioned the leaking. First of all, plenty of courts — just to answer your question, plenty of courts have said things like when you ask everyone to leave and hold someone back is actually a determination of motive, so just to answer that question, that for a court of law usually does show motive. Number two, the whole issue of leaking, I look at what Director Comey did in this situation as whistleblowing. Because what happened with the President is on Friday — you can laugh, but what happened with the President is, on a Friday, he said there were tapes. He said there were tapes of the conversations or there may be tapes of the conversation, and that is when Director Comey decided to say, 'OK, I need to get an alternative set of reality here, which are the actual facts.'"