Check out this wikipedia entry for James Comey this morning before it’s taken down:
Here is the first paragraph in case it’s edited before you see it:
James Brien Comey, Jr. (born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer. He is the seventh and current Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is well known for shielding powerful politicians from the law. American justice system is known to be unfair and Comey’s contribution in this regard is immense as he protected one of the nation’s most powerful and dishonest politicians who accumulated immense wealth after entering politics. Comey’s sense of fairness ranks below those of world leaders such as Saddam Hussein and Gaddhafi.
This situation is just a teeny, tiny bit different than most investigations. Democrats should be happy that a lifelong Republican acted with professionalism in handling the investigation.
Yes, they are already using “trustworthiness” as their dagger to influence voters. Remember how people “trusted” GWBush, so much that they would like to have a beer with him? So how did that work out? One of the worst Presidents ever. HRC can run circles around any of these Bozos and survive.
So last week the House Republicans hold their presser to say they found nothing on Hillary Clinton to charge her with, yet ran to the cameras and kept repeating the worn out charges that were disproved. Comey did the same thing here and provided R’s with talking points through the election. He says “no evidence” to prove in court that Clinton was guilty, but I’ll just trash her any way. Talk about being unprofessional if you want, but it was egregious. He was a Republican appointee and just paid his dues.
Except he spent quite a bit of time accusing her of things she did wrong in his opinion, while downplaying the fact that those “things” are not actual crimes. All positioned in a presser talking about whether they would press criminal charges or not.
He clearly was trying to score some brownie points with the GOP, while giving talking points to keep the email bullshit alive and kicking on the campaign trail.
And…he is doing so because he has actually has the cover that the GOP is accusing Hillary. He knows he can’t be touched on this…precisely because it would look like the nefarious Clinton machine was seeking retribution. Something he is perfectly aware of, which is why he did it this way.
i think the point is that had Comey treated this like any other investigation that did not result in indictment, he wouldn’t have said anything publicly, and all the “she was horrifically irresponsible” stuff would never have been uttered. the FBI would have made its recommendation, and the DOJ would have declined to indict. and that would have been it, without all the juicy sound bites about irresponsibility, etc.
He may not be FBI head long after Hillary becomes president. If she was careless with her emails, he was careless with his mixing of politics and justice.
Wow…that’s one hell of a screengrab. Someone at Wikipedia must’ve been on this as it appears to have already been changed, but I see no evidence of that under current changes anywhere related to his page…which also seems odd. But then again, I don’t know how they deal with unauthorized changes like that.
Never forget, when Comey looking to get back into government after a stint in private practice, Comey signed on as deputy special counsel to the Senate Whitewater Committee. The witch hunt that was also a bust. But his biased opinion in the joke of a presser fits right in with his history trying to make Whitewater into Watergate as revenge.
No doubt trying salvage something for himself in private practice which he will be forced back into when Clinton is elected. Maybe he can go back to working for Republicans in their fake-scandal Senate Committees… though if the Senate flips, he may have to go over to the house not find work.
Personally, respectfully, I think the point is that he would have treated it like any other politically charged investigation and delivered his remarks quietly, then tattled about it to the press. The difference in this case is that the AG basically shoved him into the spotlight, which she had to do because of Big Dog.
Even the best case scenario, which was precluded by an unfortunate own-goal, wouldn’t have deprived Republicans of their talking points. I think arguing over the manner in which Comey delivered his remarks is an invitation to them to air their tarmac conspiracy again and get one more news cycle out of a story that should have died months ago. One more tangle in the hairball. Just my opinion.
Wait, I might have to change my mind on this issue because I’m listening to Rudy Giuliani on MSNBC tell us that this is a HUGE mistake, and if he was in charge Hillary would have been indicted. This is the man who said he would appoint Bernie Kerik as head of Homeland Security. Really, what part of “not indicted” don’t they understand?
Comey isn’t going to have any problems finding himself work after he’s done in this position. The boutique law firms will be fighting for him hand over fist. He’s made in the shade. One of the assistant directors from the Bush admin, Chris Swecker, went to work as head of security for Bank of America at a healthy $750,000 a year in base salary. He’s now some sort of fraud expert/consultant.
The DoJ couldn’t make the announcement because Lynch and Bill Clinton got together last week. Not only were the optics terrible, but it made Lynch have to step aside and let this happen.
That’s simply not true. Lynch has not stepped aside, nor was she made to. She should have been given the final report by Comey and decided herself when to disseminate it. It says so right in the FBI’s own internal rules regarding such matters. You’d think the Director of the FBI would know this. The only thing Lynch said when recently interviewed is that she would accept the findings as it relates to the investigation as is. She did not say she would offer baseless opinions or accusations as Comey has done without substantiation of the facts within his press conference. He merely threw out his opinion with the report to be passed on to Lynch as originally planned. He did not have to say anything beyond what he was tasked to investigate as a matter of law. Carelessness is not a legal offense. And let’s remember…she also was not found to have committed gross negligence which the Goopers are now claiming. That never happened in his findings either.
Actually we really don’t know if it’s true or not. I think if Comey did this on his own, Lynch will have to publicly handle it. He was so far out of line, she’ll have to make an example of him. I expect, however, that’s not the case and it was decided in coordination with her. Comey isn’t stupid. He’s played the game well enough to remain FBI director under a Democrat. He’s not going to blow all of that over a hissy fit type of news conference that gives no new information.
