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Jim Comey's damaging legacy at the FBI must be undone
[THEHILL] Fired FBI director JamesThe spine of the FBI is the rule of law 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 2019-12-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=559298