{"id":10165,"date":"2017-05-10T12:58:14","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T19:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=10165"},"modified":"2017-05-10T12:58:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T19:58:14","slug":"comeys-overdue-departure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/comeys-overdue-departure\/","title":{"rendered":"Comey\u2019s Overdue Departure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The Corner<\/div>\n<div>The one and only.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ <em>National Review<\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>If a FBI director is doing his job, we probably should neither see nor hear of him much on television.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The FBI director by his very office holds enormous power. And like the IRS director, by definition he or she must show restraint given the vast resources at his discretion and thus the potential for abuse. In other words, we want a FBI director to exude coolness, stay dispassionate, and remain professional. I don\u2019t think that has ever been a description that fit Director James Comey.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Comey\u2019s nadir came in the summer of 2016 when, confused over the investigatory role of the FBI and the prosecutorial prerogatives of the Justice Department, he de facto turned the FBI into investigator, prosecutor, judge, and jury in presenting damning evidence against Hillary Clinton, then nullifying it, then reopening the case, then re-reopening it and backing off \u2014 all in front of television cameras in the midst of a heated presidential campaign.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>And then after doing all that, Comey confused the act with its intent, and as a veritable legislator reinvented statutes about communicating classified information by suggesting that even if one likely committed a felony, but did not intend to (not a proven assertion), then it wasn\u2019t really a felony.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Comey\u2019s behavior was never properly addressed. His recent performance in front of Congress likely sealed his fate. We do not expect our FBI director to whine, in teenager fashion, about being treated unfairly, as he alleged when Loretta Lynch dumped the Clinton e-mail scandal in his lap. (A good FBI director, of course, would simply have run the investigation, presented the findings to the Justice Department, and then have let them deal with it (if not Lynch, then someone else). Comey misrepresented the volume of Huma Abedin\u2019s improper e-mails; and in general always fell back on loud assertions of FBI integrity rather than displaying it through his behavior and statements.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Nor did Comey have a reservoir of good will. Long ago, he acted bizarrely in the John Ashcroft hospitalization melodrama; he was responsible for the career of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who miscarried justice in the case of Scooter Libby (not to mention Fitzgerald\u2019s own subsequent Conrad Black prosecution). His legacy is that Hillary Clinton paid no price for illegally setting up an improper e-mail server, destroying evidence, and communicating classified material in an insecure fashion.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Comey seems to think that he could freely discuss the charges of Russian collusion, but not so transparently the far stronger evidence of unlawful unmasking of Americans caught up in (or in fact targeted by) government surveillance \u2014 apparently in understandable fear that the Democrats and media posed the greater danger to his career.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Politically,Comey\u2019s thirst for celebrity rankled his own bureau and, finally, achieved the difficult result of alienating both Republicans (who thought he was an Obama operative in service to Hillary) and Democrats (who thought he was a tool of the FBI, freelancing to sink Hillary). Usually being roundly distrusted would be a sign of disinterested non-partisanship. But in Comey\u2019s case, the universal disdain was more likely rare unity that Comey lacked the temperament to run the FBI and had created a climate of fear that at any given moment a Comey press conference would destroy someone\u2019s career without commensurate investigation and evidence.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Democrats, who despised Comey (see Hillary\u2019s latest whine) and blamed him for Trump\u2019s election, are already calling the firing cruel, mean spirited, and proof of a Trump conspiracy (why would Trump fire and set loose on the media the man who supposedly had handed him the election?); Republicans will shrug that long ago Comey should have been fired (the entire Clinton investigations, including the quid pro quo Clinton Foundation matters, were sloppy and amateurish), but the timing and methods of his firing seemed momentarily messy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The proper analysis is probably twofold: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein \u2014 roundly praised in bipartisan fashion (please read his detailed memo critiquing Comey\u2019s performance) \u2014 wanted to start out with a clean slate and not have a damaged-goods FBI-director albatross around his neck for the next four years \u2014 in the contexts of the past recusals of Lynch and then Jeff Sessions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Second, the surveillance\/unmasking scandal remains a potential bombshell and it was probably felt that Comey (who was loquacious about the collusion charge, but suddenly silent about likely felonious unmasking) could not be trusted to conduct a timely, fair, and prompt investigation. (Would he have had another press conference announcing that surveillance statutes had been violated by unmasking, but that \u201cno reasonable prosecutor\u201d would pursue such a case, supposedly given its lack of criminal intent?)<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The hysteria will subside, because in the end Comey has no supporters left, and lots of critics \u2014 he will be missed by very few.<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/447471\/james-comey-overdue-departure<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Corner The one and only. \u00a0by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review If a FBI director is doing his job, we probably should neither see nor hear of him much on television. The FBI director by his very office holds enormous power. And like the IRS director, by definition he or she must show restraint [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1110,1092,31,495,187,185,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2DX","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11809,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-fright-of-james-comey\/","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":0},"title":"The Fright of James Comey","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness In a\u00a0recent op-ed, fired FBI Director James Comey was back again preaching to the nation about the dangers of Donald Trump and his capacity to corrupt any top-ranking federal official of lower character than Comey\u2019s own. Comey seems to have become utterly unhinged by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;James Comey&quot;","block_context":{"text":"James Comey","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/james-comey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11580,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/comey-continues-to-display-his-lack-of-credibility\/","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":1},"title":"Comey Continues to Display His Lack of Credibility","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness Fired former FBI director James Comey is at it again. Last week, Comey testified before members of the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In a single appearance, Comey, on 245 separate occasions, while under oath, stonewalled questions with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;James Comey&quot;","block_context":{"text":"James Comey","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/james-comey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11181,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/5-09-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":2},"title":"5-09-18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Wow. You are a moron. How is it, that Comey\u2019s memos, which were his that he wrote, as an FBI agent, which were still his, once he was fired from his FBI job, by an obstructing president, \u201cleaking of classified material\u201d?? How can the man\u2019s own\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10592,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/beware-of-narratives-and-misinformation\/","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":3},"title":"Beware of Narratives and Misinformation","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 Narratives surrounding the DNC hack & Antifa reveal media bias and government bureaucracy at their worst. \u00a0 U.S. intelligence agencies said Russia was responsible for hacking Democratic National Committee e-mail accounts, leading to the publication of about 20,000 stolen e-mails on WikiLeaks. \u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comey&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comey","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/comey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10921,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hillarys-sure-victory-explains-most-everything\/","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":4},"title":"Hillary\u2019s \u2018Sure\u2019 Victory Explains Most Everything","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/\u00a0National Review \u00a0 What exactly were top officials in the FBI and DOJ doing during the election of 2016? The Page-Strzok text exchanges might offer a few answers. Or, as Lisa Page warned her paramour as early as February 2016, at the beginning of the campaign and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;FBI&quot;","block_context":{"text":"FBI","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/fbi\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11749,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-tables-turn-in-russian-collusion-hunt\/","url_meta":{"origin":10165,"position":5},"title":"The Tables Turn in Russian Collusion Hunt","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness The irony of the entire Russian collusion hoax is that accusers who cried the loudest about leaking, collusion, lying, and obstruction are themselves soon very likely to be accused of just those crimes. Now that Robert Mueller\u2019s 674-day, $30 million investigation is over and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Donald Trump&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10166,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10165\/revisions\/10166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}