Comey's Self-Destruction

Sam Crandall: Good luck. I hope the fish are biting.
Chip Hardesty: I was kinda hoping they wouldn't be.
--The FBI Story

Judge Nap observes what the mainstream media fails to grasp (or admit) about the firing of FBI director James Comey by President Donald Trump. Comey dug his own grave.

As the Judge recounts, Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal was highly unprofessional and violated policies that have been in place in the DOJ and FBI for decades. One rule says that if the FBI chooses not to indict someone, then it passes the determination on to the DOJ silently. Procedure does not permit the Bureau to publicly announce that a person is not going to be indicted, and then present evidence against the person.

This is, of course, precisely what Comey did last July 5. By doing so then and on subsequent dates (here, here), Comey politicized the FBI, and injected himself and the institution into a presidential election.

Once an institution becomes politicized, then it is like tossing bleeding fish into water inhabited by sharks. Politicians circle the bait and then attack, thrashing about and sinking their teeth into their institutional prey for political gain.

Comey's also damaged the culture of the Bureau. By breaking off an investigation that appeared to many agents as headed toward indictment, Comey fostered conditions of internal mutiny that motivated further disjointed actions by the Bureau chief.

There is no doubt that James Comey's mismanagement of this case, and perhaps others, constituted grounds for dismissal. The important question that few seem to be seriously asking is what took so long? Why didn't Trump fire Comey on his first day in office? Why didn't Barack Obama fire Comey last summer?

By postponing the proper course of executive action, both presidents permitted the situation to escalate into something worse.