What to Do with Comey Now?

The name of former FBI Director James Comey is on, oh, so many news programs these days as he runs around the country peddling his book, called ... oh, I forgot.  It was some pompous title like "Above the Fray", or "Nannie Nannie Boo Boo" or something that was supposed to portray that he is wonderful and non-partisan and the rest of us are, well, not.

The left doesn't quite know what to do with Comey.

He is one of the 4,266 (and growing number of) reasons, according to Hillary Clinton, that she lost the 2016 election.  By the way, #4,266 was a "right-wing media ecosystem", according to a speech she gave at Cooper Union over the weekend (presumably for a fee about a tenth of what the Russians paid her).  I'll have to get to that pretty soon, along with the smirky grin she gave while saying those words.

So the former FBI Director is now in the headlines, although not all of them are what he might want to see on a book tour.  You see, someone is lying now, and/or has been, among the interesting trio of former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and the formerly respected James Comey.  The lies are implicit in contradictions among their public statements and sworn testimony before a congressional committee.

We know that at least one of those lying is Comey, since he has testified both to never asking anyone to leak classified or sensitive material (all material created at the FBI is at least sensitive, in that employees are sworn not to release any of it without permission), and then to having given such information to a professor to leak it to the media.

We know that Lynch is strongly suspect, since if you are to believe Comey, she asked him to refer to the Hillary Clinton investigation as a "matter", meaning that she wanted it not to rise to a more scrutinized level (so that, we assume, Lynch would still have a job in a Hillary administration).  We also know that McCabe was part of some as-yet-unclear conspiracy at the FBI with Peter Strzok and Lisa Page to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president and, more particularly, to do something to him if he were to be elected.

So among the three of them, along with Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General to whom Comey actually reported and who ultimately fired him, there is a lot of lying going on, specifically as regards that leaking of classified material, not to mention potentially conspiring to bring down a presidency.

What, indeed, should become of Comey?

We, of course, are a nation of laws.  And the answer is simply that Mr. Comey needs to be (as he is) the subject of a criminal referral for the confessed leaking of classified or sensitive material in violation of his agreement with the United States of America not to do that, and the laws governing the handling of such material.  If he wants to go out and sell books about his life, well, he is free to do that.  He may need a lot of cash for the legal fees to keep him out of jail, so he'd better hope a lot of Democrats buy his book.

Oh wait, they hate him too, and wanted him fired right before the election.  Of course they probably think he is a hero now, because President Trump had him fired, and as we see with the promising news on North Korea that the leftist outlets are pooh-poohing, "good" is defined as "anything against President Trump."  So they might buy the book.  I won't be, and please don't give me a copy.  I am allergic to sanctimony.

At any rate, since I mentioned that we are a nation of laws, Comey should be properly investigated for the leaks and for possible perjury, and be properly punished if indeed he is charged and convicted.  But we do wonder if today's Justice Department could even summon the collective will to punish one of "its own" swamp denizens.  Peter Strzok, incredibly, still works there, as does Lisa Page.  Not only are they not being investigated, they're still working there.

I do think that the Comey book will serve the good legal purpose of keeping his name out in front for long enough to where the discussion of his possible perjury and passing of classified material will practically force a criminal case to be pressed.

Last week on the news, some Democrat commenter noted that he had just been to the FBI for a few minutes (or words to the effect that he had not been over there for very long) and that "Comey was a legend over there."  Now, I've been to the FBI many times in my time, and the next time that someone mentions the name of the current director in the course of normal conversation will, I assure you, be the first.

So I picked up the phone and called a friend of mine who worked there and is regularly in the know.  Let's just say the word "legend" was accurate, but not in the positive way that the Democrat was suggesting he picked up in "a few minutes" of being there.  FBI agents respect the law and are very contemptuous of those who violate their sacred trust.

Let it go to court, and Comey can make his case there, again under oath, that he did no wrong.  We're all waiting.

Copyright 2018 by Robert Sutton
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