Dispelling the Myths of Comey’s Firing

Dispelling the Myths of Comey’s Firing

President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday afternoon, following the recommendations of his Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that he be terminated. Among the several reasons cited by Sessions and Rosenstein was how Comey handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized use of multiple private servers while she was Secretary of State, and the lack of confidence in his ability to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation, going forward.

Almost immediately, Democratic politicians and the associated mix of NeverTrump Republicans, most notably John McCain (R-AZ), along with the anti-Trump mainstream media, voiced outrage and dismay at the firing, stating that the real reason for Trump’s actions was to thwart an ongoing investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to ensure Clinton’s loss in the November 2016 election.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

First, the firing of an FBI Director does not and will not stop the Bureau’s investigation of any matter, including specious claims that Trump and his surrogates were working hand-in-hand with the Russians to cast aspersions on Mrs. Clinton. To date, no single piece of evidence has been brought forth to substantiate such claims but that won’t stop the forces allayed against Trump’s presidency from pursuing the lie that Trump’s victory in the 2016 election was illegitimate.

Second, despite Democrat calls that a special “independent” prosecutor be named to investigate these charges of collusion, the fact that two bi-partisan committees (one in the House and one in the Senate) and a third investigation by the FBI and other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, have yet to find any evidence to support such allegations, the fact of the matter is that a special prosecutor would not be appropriate since there is no evidence of a crime having been committed. Special prosecutors are named as the result of a crime being committed. Since no crime has been committed, naming a special prosecutor would only prove to be a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money and merely serve to propagate division within the legislature as a means to interrupt the president’s legislative agenda.

Claims that the president’s action are “Nixonian” and that Tuesday’s firing of Comey are anything like the “Saturday Night Massacre,” when in 1973 President Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, resulting in the resignations of then-Attorney General Elliot Richardson and then-Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, are complete nonsense. Cox, who was appointed by Richardson to investigate the Nixon Administration’s cover-up of the Watergate break-in, had issued a subpoena on the president requesting tape recordings of conversations in the Oval Office, and Nixon responded by firing him for doing so.

Comparing that to Trump’s firing of Comey, as well as the firing of acting-Attorney General Sally Yates, both of whom were appointed to their positions by President Obama, cannot be compared to Nixon’s firing of Cox forty-four years ago. Comey was fired following many months of his own egregious behavior as head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency, whereby he politicized his position as the head of the FBI. His decision to not proceed with a criminal referral regarding Clinton’s illegal use of multiple servers while she was Secretary of State, her lying to a Congressional committee while under oath (perjury), her obstruction of justice in the destruction of evidence related to 33,000 e-mails and her illegal handling of classified documents, was well outside his bounds as an investigator who is charged with the gathering of evidence. Essentially, he usurped the role of the Attorney General in his decision and in his televised announcement on July 5, 2016. In his testimony to Congress on several occasions, Comey increasingly appeared emotional and erratic, and in his testimony took on the persona of dramatic effect- something that is not commensurate with being an FBI Director. As for Mrs. Yates, she was fired for insubordination when she took it upon herself to refuse to enforce Trump’s first executive order concerning travel from seven countries, despite the fact that the order had been judged legal and within the constitutional powers of the president by the Justice Department of which she was a part.

The FBI Director serves at the will of the President of the United States and it is certainly within the purview of the president to fire the director anytime that the president feels that the director cannot effectively lead that agency. It has been charged that Trump’s timing in doing this was not good. Well, there is never a “good” time to fire anyone at any time, because forced terminations are never a “good” thing- in business and in government, as well.

The Democrats who today are appalled at the firing of James Comey are the same Democrats that were demanding his ouster when on October 27, 2016 he announced he was re-opening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail two weeks prior to the 2016 election. Mrs. Clinton has consistently blamed Comey (along with WikiLeaks and the Russians) for her loss but, as we have come to learn over a quarter-century, the rules of conduct and the law that applies to the rest of us, never seem to apply to the Clintons, and that might explain why no indictments have ever been pursued on the Clintons nor on their surrogates, including Huma Abedin, who illegally and habitually transferred classified documents to her one-time husband, Anthony Wiener. One would think that Democrats would be rejoicing the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey, but then again…

In a word…hypocrisy.

 

-Drew Nickell, 10 May 2017

© 2017 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.

author of “Bending Your Ear- a Collection of Essays on the Issues of Our Times”

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