The senior FBI official who single-handedly precipitated a 23-month sweeping investigation of President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia is now saying that he doesn’t care if the president is convicted of criminal misconduct as a result of the probe.
Then again, former FBI Director James Comey also said he isn’t “rooting for [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller to ‘clear’ the president.”
“I have no idea whether the special counsel will conclude that Mr. Trump knowingly conspired with the Russians in connection with the 2016 election or that he obstructed justice with the required corrupt intent,” Comey wrote in a Thursday op-ed for the New York Times. “I also don’t care.”
The innocent bystander
“I care only that the work be done, well and completely. If it is, justice will have prevailed and core American values will have been protected at a time when so much of our national leadership has abandoned its commitment to truth and the rule of law,” Comey continued.
The former FBI chief also believes that impeaching the president could further divide a polarized nation. “Because if Mr. Trump were removed from office by Congress, a significant portion of this country would see this as a coup, and it would drive those people farther from the common center of American life, more deeply fracturing our country,” Comey said.
However, Comey isn’t fooling anyone by pretending to be a dispassionate, third-party observer completely disconnected from the special counsel’s investigation. After all, it was Comey who prompted the establishment of the special counsel by leaking a series of memos to the press detailing his private conversations with the president.
Comey later told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he leaked the memos because he “thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.” Yet, now he wants everyone to believe that he is completely divested of any interest in the outcome of the investigation that he risked his reputation and freedom to start.
A self-righteous crusade
Although Comey says he doesn’t care what Mueller concludes in his report, he still peppered his opinion piece with anti-Trump insults, ensuring that none of his newfound progressive fans mistake him for a Trump supporter. He still thinks “Mr. Trump is morally unfit to be president of the United States,” accusing the president of “torching the institutions of justice.”
Comey, who has provoked rare bipartisan consensus regarding his incompetence, summoned all of his self-righteous resolve to lecture Americans about the “rule of law” and the “fair administration of justice.”
“I care only that the work be done, well and completely,” Comey wrote. “If it is, justice will have prevailed and core American values will have been protected at a time when so much of our national leadership has abandoned its commitment to truth and the rule of law.”
Somewhere, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is shaking his head in disgust at Comey’s sanctimonious prattle. The former chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence drafted a memo in 2018 showing that Comey’s FBI used unverified political opposition research — paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and supplied by Russian operatives — to obtain multiple secret warrants to spy on a Trump campaign official.
“I am rooting for a demonstration to the world — and maybe most of all to our president and his enablers — that the United States has a justice system that works because there are people who believe in it and rise above personal interest and tribalism,” wrote Comey, who administered a federal agency that was steeped in a culture of self-interests and partisanship.
Peter Strzok, whom Comey trusted to not only lead the investigation into the Clinton emails scandal, but to start the whole Trump-Russia probe in 2016, was eventually exposed for sharing disparaging text messages with his adulterous FBI lover about Trump. Strzok authored thousands of text messages demonstrating his political bias towards Trump, calling him “awful” and “an idiot,” and promising to “stop” him from getting elected.
“I don’t know all the considerations that will go into deciding precisely what to say about the completion of that work and when to say it,” Comey wrote, referring to Mueller’s final report.
The final report
Throughout his career, Comey struggled with wrapping up and presenting his own investigative conclusions. In the Clinton emails investigtion, he prepared a draft exonerating Clinton of any wrongdoing — four months before actually interviewing the secretary of State and more than a dozen other key witnesses.
When it came time to present that report, Comey broke with standard procedure and personally held a press conference announcing Clinton’s innocence. On the advice of Strzok, Comey called Clinton’s mishandling of classified information “extremely careless,” instead of “grossly negligent.”
As Mueller puts the final touches on his report, the ex-FBI chief is taking the opportunity to enjoy one last moment as a symbol of the anti-Trump resistance. However, Comey’s feigned indifference to the special counsel’s findings is rooted in the fact that, like most Americans, he realizes that Mueller failed to find any evidence of collusion.
To save face, though, Comey has convinced himself that he maintains a “higher loyalty” to justice. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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