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Home Front: Politix

Jim Comey's damaging legacy at the FBI must be undone

2019-12-25

[THEHILL] Fired FBI director JamesThe spine of the FBI is the rule of law Comey
James<q>The spine of the FBI is the rule of law</q> Comey

The disgraced, except in his own mind, former head of the FBI...
, the gift that keeps on spinning, went on TV yet again ‐ this time following the two worst weeks in the FBI’s history ‐ in an attempt to cover the mess he made.

His messaging now goes something like this: Those terrible mistakes that happened are simply the result of sloppiness by minions several layers below him. And he was a busy man and, therefore, not accountable for what happened several layers below him. Oh, and any attack on him is an attack on the fine men and women of the FBI.

Mr. Comey, who lectures on ethical leadership, has launched an imaginative strategy to run from his underlings while hiding behind them. In his world, the buck stops near, not here with him. Also ‐ somehow ‐ there is supposed vindication in two Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general’s reports that savaged him, but only he can squint to see it.

There are two reasons for this. First, he has a business to protect. He has quite effectively monetized his misadventures in the FBI via a rapidly released book, paid gigs with cable news and newspapers, and lucrative lectures. He marveled in a recent New York Times

...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
interview about how much money he was making. "It’s a lot," he gushed. "Seriously, it’s crazy."

The second reason is found in the relentless posse of Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham that is tracking behind him. They could present a significant threat to Comey personally. To what extent we will see, but it is serious and he knows it.

Barr rightly went on TV after Comey’s absurd commentary and calmly, lucidly exposed its nonsense. Barr knows the FBI is worth fighting for and that the inspector general’s latest findings are more a reflection on Comey and his handpicked team than on the FBI.

This merits clarity and emphasis: When James Comey downplays the litany of sins articulated in the IG report as "sloppiness" at lower levels, he is misleading America. Moreover, he is insulting every dedicated FBI employee, present and past.

As someone who ran a large counterintelligence squad in a city with a Russian consulate, and who oversaw significant counterintelligence and counterterrorism warrants with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, I can confidently assert that the breathtaking abuses cited in the IG report do not occur in the normal course of FBI conduct, apart from the Comey-led effort. There are too many institutional safeguards that would normally apply the brakes if these were mere mistakes. They couldn’t possibly happen on such a scale ‐ unless the safeguards were disregarded on purpose.

There is little room for alternative explanations. These extensive bad behaviors ‐ the repeated withholding of exculpatory evidence, the purposeful altering of documents, the casual failure of confidential source validation ‐ all were done with a precision of purpose. These weren’t mistakes or sloppiness; they weren’t one-offs. They were the execution of a plan, a plan led from the top.

Posted by:Fred

#10 Righteous rant Lex. Enjoyed that immensely.

Posted by: JohnQC 2019-12-25 18:11

#9 :-) merry Christmas to you too, Raj

Posted by: Lex 2019-12-25 10:48

#8 He's gonna need that money if his cellmate is named Bubba.

Posted by: Pheremp Untervehr9044 2019-12-25 09:57

#7 Attaboy, Lex - putting the RANT into Rantburg!

Oh, and fuck KPMG with a Christmas tree - they turned me down for a job about thirty years ago, f'n stuffed shirt snob CPA's...

Posted by: Raj 2019-12-25 07:17

#6 *Gore's payola from GOOG and Kleiner Perkins, not KPMG. Apologies to the bean-counters.

Posted by: Lex 2019-12-25 06:09

#5 For comparison's sake look at the wealth of our current crop of incompetent, corrupt Washington buffoons and compare them with ex-presidents from the second half of the 20th century.

Neither Clinton nor Gore has ever created a patent, launched a product, or discovered a blockbuster drug or major oil reserve, yet each had accumulated a post-Washington fortune that is far north of $100 million.

Let that sink in: 100 MILLION DOLLARS. For doing nothing.

Zero's close behind. 68 million for this no-talent bum -- an obvious, in-your-face, f-you, bitches! payout for all those years of prevailing on the FCC to shield a crap company from real competition.

And in their train is a long parade of Grifters, grabbing 7-figure payouts from publicly-traded large companies which they should have been regulating but never did when they were in power in Washington: Google, UnitedHealth, Uber, Facebook...

Now compare these shameless whores to their predecessors.
Did any president from Truman through Reagan go for the gold post-office? I can't think of one.

LBJ was the closest to these clowns, but he's already made his fortune in radio stations BEFORE he acceded to the presidency. Eisenhower served as president of Columbia University. Nixon wrote his memoirs. Ford played golf. Carter built houses for the poor. Reagan hung out at his ranch.

No age in memory is as corrupt as ours.

End this Shitshow.

Posted by: Lex 2019-12-25 06:03

#4 More corrupt than J. Edgar.

$6 million a year: corruption hidden in plain sight.

Like Zero's payola from NFLX.

Gore's payola from GOOG and KPMG.

Kerry's Sept 2008 insider-trading payola.

Ex-HHS chief Donna Shalala's pay-shalala from United Health.

Billary's Global Grifter payola from nearly everyone.

La Familia Biden's baksheesh from Iraq reconstruction,
ChiComs, Ukraine and Lord-knows-where-else.

Our age is the most corrupt era since the late 19c.

Posted by: Lex 2019-12-25 05:48

#3 ...notice that comrades Warren and Sanders never seem to be interested in how critters of the swamp suddenly make so much money way above the average working citizen. Must be 'professional courtesy'.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2019-12-25 04:03

#2 He marveled in a recent New York Times interview about how much money he was making. "It’s a lot," he gushed. "Seriously, it’s crazy."

If $6 million/year is not crazy, then one has to wonder just how much crazy goes for these days.

Posted by: Ulineng Jones2382 2019-12-25 03:38

#1 Like it started with Comey?

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-25 00:58

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