Random thoughts on Comey:
- One shouldn't have to say this, but apparently we do -- disagreeing with James Comey on the state of the FBI does not make Donald Trump a liar. Trump's relationship with the truth is episodic, but not in this instance. If Trump felt the FBI was in disarray, he's certainly entitled to that opinion, no matter how much it hurts Comey's feelings.
- It's ludicrous for Comey to assert that his firing was designed to stop any investigations, because the investigations haven't stopped. He knows that, of course, but his immediate career goal is amour propre.
- Comey admitted he's a leaker. That's important, because it helps to establish a pattern that needs to be addressed. As I'm writing this, Trump is tweeting the same point:
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| Epistemology, again |
- Comey's leak did accomplish what he wanted, since he did get a special counsel named. Now that we know the provenance of all this, it makes Robert Mueller's next moves especially interesting. Mueller could take the usual approach and go all Inspector Javert on Trump, or he might conclude that the pretext for the investigation is based on vapor and close up shop quickly. I would expect Mueller to take the Javert approach, because he's going to respond to incentives like anyone else and leading the charge against Trump is far more likely to get you praised in the Washington Post, but we'll see.
- In many respects, the underlying narrative took on a lot of water yesterday. It's going to be difficult to go after anyone concerning Russian spying, because it's not really much of a story. We're now in the process crime phase, which was the point of this exercise in the first place. It's obstruction of justice, apparently, because Comey himself is Justice, and you can't fire Justice. Nice racket, actually -- it's every bureaucrat's dream!
- The next move, quite clearly, is to bring Comey back to the Hill, but this time in front of the Judiciary Committee. Comey finally started to throw Loretta Lynch under the bus yesterday and we need to know more about that. He'd clearly rather not talk about those matters, but it's time he did.
3 comments:
Was he under oath? He made a clear lie when he claimed that a Trump tweet the day after his leaks prompted them. Looks like perjury to me!
The timing you’re referring to is murky. It depends on whether you believe that Comey was responsible for the leak on May 11, as well as the leak he admitted to that’s from May 16. Until we figure out who the “associates of Comey” referenced are, it’s going to be difficult to say he perjured himself. I do hope Trump is investigating Comey, but he’s dealing with such a nest of vipers he’ll be hard-pressed to do so without someone tipping Comey that it’s happening.
we now have more evidence of Justice Dept collusion to sway our democracy than Russian collusion. we need a special prosecutor.
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