James Comey
April 13, 2018 — John Hinderaker
It is a sign of the times that former FBI Director James Comey is on a book tour, the apparent purposes of which are to 1) smear the President, and 2) make Comey wealthy. Comey, having refused to speak to Congress, is now giving interviews to hack journalists. Comey no doubt intended his book to be self-justifying, but this passage is getting a lot of attention: It is entirely possible
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March 17, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
As I understand it, the core accusation that led to the firing of Andrew McCabe is that McCabe misled investigators about giving information to a former Wall Street Journal reporter regarding the investigation of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton family’s charitable foundation. In his post-firing statement, McCabe asserted that he not only had authority to “share” that information with the media, but did so with the knowledge of “the director.”
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March 5, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The current issue of Imprimis gives us Joseph diGenova’s “The politicization of the FBI.” Adapted from a speech diGenova gave at Hillsdale College in late January, a far better title would be “The case against James Comey,” for that is what it is. It lays out the case against Comey’s handling of the fake Hillary Clinton email investigation and Comey’s handling of the counterintelligence investigation of alleged Trump-Russia collusion. Comey
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February 9, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Scott says James Comey may be the least self-aware man in America. I agree. Comey is a legend in his own mind. Comey is also a legend in the mind of Josh Campbell, his former special assistant at the FBI. In an op-ed for USA Today, Campbell called his former boss “a giant of a man with an even bigger heart, whose focus was always on trying to understand and
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February 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Despite the best efforts of the shiftless Adam Schiff to keep the lid on the source of the dodgy Steele dossier, we know now that the Clinton presidential campaign paid for the Kremlin-aided smear job on Donald Trump before the election. Thanks to the reporting of Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes we also know that the Clinton campaign continued to extract value from the dossier after the election. Clinton and
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February 3, 2018 — Scott Johnson
CNN, USA Today, the Daily Caller, Judicial Watch and other outlets brought a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI to obtain copies of the memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote to document his conversations with President Trump. Comey, you may recall, strategically leaked a memo or two to his friend Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School, under orders to leak the contents to the New
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February 1, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Among those who are preparing for the release of the Nunes memo tomorrow is former FBI Director James Comey (via Twitter below). Comey pretends to a sort of Olympian detachment, as though his conduct in office is not in issue. He certainly conceives of himself as an Olympian figure, perhaps sprung like Athena from Zeus’s brow. By my lights he is the least self-aware man in the United States. Move
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January 25, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The College of William & Mary announced last week that former FBI Director James Comey will teach a course on “ethical leadership” at the school next fall. By that time his book A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership will be out. The promotional tour will be over. The book will be available for use as a text, or for use by ambitious students seeking extra credit. At William &
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January 16, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Former FBI Director James Comey has been a public figure for a long time, but we are only now really getting to know him. It is difficult to fathom the depth of his self-regard. He is deeply imbued with the sense of his own righteousness. He therefore played the part of a straight-talking G-Man with undiluted conviction. No one would ever mistake him for a man with a sense of
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January 12, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of alleged Trump campaign “collusion” with Russia has now been taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The investigation seems to have involved abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in general and section 702 in particular, under which the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program operates. Under the leadership of James Comey, the FBI appears to have conducted wayward surveillance of the Trump campaign. If
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January 7, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew McCarthy is a natural teacher. In his current NRO column, he gives a short course on the intent element of criminal statutes. All our criminal laws set forth the elements of an offense. The intent element of a given crime (oversimplified, the intent to perform a given act) is to be distinguished from motive (the reason for performing the act). In his July 2016
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January 5, 2018 — Scott Johnson
In collusion news today, the New York Times is in transition. Michael Schmidt reports that Special Counsel Mueller is digging into the evidence of obstruction of justice implicating President Trump. Schmidt does not contemplate the possibility (or report Mueller contemplating the possibility) that Trump wanted to do what he could to end the endless collusion case because he knows he didn’t collude. It’s possible. As recounted by Schmidt, Trump’s firing
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January 1, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Former FBI Director James Comey kicked the new year off in characteristic — insufferable — style yesterday in his Tweet to the world below. Here’s hoping 2018 brings more ethical leadership, focused on the truth and lasting values. Happy New Year, everybody. — James Comey (@Comey) December 31, 2017 It’s a little early to start thinking about the Tweet of the year, but it’s not too early to hazard the
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December 15, 2017 — Scott Johnson
In her weekly Wall Street Journal column today (behind the Journal’s paywall), Kim Strassel draws on the work of Senator Ron Johnson to unearth the role of the FBI in the 2016 presidential election. Kim first discusses the questions raised by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s letter to Senator Johnson earlier this week. She notes that the letter raises the question of when it first learned of FBI
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December 3, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The next time you hear a tall man shouting Bible verses on the sidewalk, take a close look. It might be James Comey. Here is what the former FBI director tweeted following the news about Michael Flynn’s plea: But [let] justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” Amos 5:24. If the subject is Flynn’s plea per se, this strikes me as an overstatement. A guilty plea
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November 11, 2017 — Scott Johnson
In his weekly NRO column Andrew McCarthy compares and contrasts the Obama administration’s investigation of the Hillary Clinton email matter under former FBI Director James Comey with the metastasizing collusion investigation under the auspices of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Reviewing the course of the Mueller investigation so far, my friend Mr. McCarthy catches up and links to newsworthy items we haven’t gotten around to. One such item is the earliest
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October 19, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Former FBI Director James Comey knows how to play the G-Man as a straight arrow on television, but he’s a cynical Washington operator in real life. His orchestration of the appointment of his friend Robert Mueller as special counsel to take down President Trump in the fictitious Russia collusion scandal (and all its penumbras and radiations) represents a striking case in point. Comey’s hand in it should discredit the Mueller
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