Former FBI Director James Comey. Official FBI photo.
In a surprise move, President Donald Trump has fired embattled FBI Director James Comey. Washington Post. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recommended the firing due to Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton investigation. The memos claim that Comey was negligent when he not only commented on an investigation that was being closed, but when he also did it without approval from Justice Department officials. The firing also comes after the FBI sent a letter to congress that Comey had misled congress about the Clinton investigation.
My Comment:
Not a whole lot of impartial sources out there that were unbiased so I was forced to use the Washington Post again. Not something I am too happy with, but these are difficult times. Pretty much all of the sources focused on the irrelevant and misleading investigation into former National Security Director Michael Flynn's accused ties to Russia and how this firing is some conspiracy theory to cover that up. As far as I am concerned that's irrelevant and stupid since the Flynn investigation is still going on and won't end with Comey being gone. And there are no connections with Russia for Trump himself. Even James Clapper says so.
That being said, I am not surprised that Comey is gone. The public reason was outlined in the memo by Rosenstein, which can be found here. Whatever the actual motivations for the firing, you have to admit that what Comey did in the Clinton investigation was baffling and unprecedented. The FBI hasn't and shouldn't comment on investigations they are closing.
When FBI Director Comey announced that he was recommending to not charge Hillary Clinton he was already breaking with good practices. Comey essentially laid out the case for the prosecution of Hillary Clinton over her email server and then, at the last moment, said that he wasn't charging her. I remember being utterly shocked that he would release all the evidence of malpractice and then not charge her, especially when it wasn't his job to charge anyone in the first place. It was never his job to bring charges up in the first place, it was the Justice Department.
In the end this pissed everyone off. The Republicans were furious that the FBI Director had convincingly laid out the case to prosecute Hillary Clinton and then decided to not recommend charges for her. Comey somehow argued that since Hillary Clinton didn't appear to break the law on purpose when the law states that intent does not matter at all. That isn't how the law reads and he was obviously trying to play politics with the charges.
Democrats were also angry with Comey. Though they generally more approving of Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation, they weren't happy that all of Clinton's dirty laundry into public. Still, they praised him until his 2nd announcement saying that the Clinton case was reopened. The Democrats, including Hillary Clinton herself blamed that action for the lose of the election. It's amazing how quickly the left went from liking Comey, to hating him, to liking him again.
I always thought that Comey's stance was cowardly. Instead of doing what was right, he tried to placate both the Democrats and the Republicans. That way he would keep his job no matter if Trump or Clinton won. That just pissed everyone off, and I think that it is likely that if Clinton had been elected Comey would have been fired under her as well. He tried to please everyone and that just isn't something that he could do with the Clinton investigation.
Comey's real problem was that he was angering President Donald Trump. Trump wasn't happy with the way Comey handled the Clinton investigation either, but his real concern was that Comey wasn't doing his job. The Post article said that Trump was angry that Comey wasn't pursuing the leaks that were coming from the White House. My guess is that Comey knew who the leaker was (since everyone knows who it is, Sally Yates) and did nothing to investigate her. That and the whole "lying to congress" thing. That probably didn't help things.
With Comey out of the way what happens next? I am thinking not much. The acting director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, is just as bad as Comey was and isn't likely to solve the problems that Comey was causing. For example, I don't see him investigating the White House leaks. It's possible that he understands that his head is the next on the chopping block and will get on the same page as President Trump, but I doubt it.
Sooner or later though, Comey is going to be replaced and I am guessing it will be someone who will investigate the Clinton's, the Obama administration and the White House leakers. Because of that, I expect the Democrats to oppose that person in anyway that they can. I also think they will continue to make hysterical claims about the supposed connections of Trump and his inner circle with Russia. It's literally the only thing they have left, even thought the claims have completely fallen apart.
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