“Vengeance is Mine,” sayeth the Leaker

“Vengeance is Mine,” sayeth the Leaker

In the same week that a 25-year old Air Force veteran, one Reality Leigh Winner, was arrested for leaking classified documents to a news organization called Intercept, we have now learned that former FBI director James Comey has recently leaked notes from his own private conversation(s) with President Trump, to a Columbia law professor in order to conceal his real intent to leak details of this conversation(s) to the New York Times.

Both Winner and Comey did so for the same reason- to cause damage to and exact revenge upon the presidency of Donald Trump.

Winner, expertized as a translator in three languages and a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter, left behind a long trail of her posts on social media expressing her utter disdain for the president, his election and her intent to join the resist movement by helping to take him down. Winner, who was under the employ of a defense and intelligence contractor, Pluribus International, released classified documents concerning Russian hacks into the manufacturer of election software in the United States, thereby subjecting herself up to ten years in federal prison.

Comey, in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, admitted to Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) that he released his notes to the press via a third party, one Professor Daniel Richman of Columbia University’s Law School, so as to conceal the source of the leak to the public. In these notes concerning the conversation he had with the president on February 14th, 2017, Comey indicated that the president said he “hope(d)” that the FBI Director would see his way to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn, stressing that the recently fired National Security Advisor was a “good guy,” after all. Though the request from the president “deeply bothered” Comey at the time, he decided not to inform his superiors at the Justice Department of any potential attempt to obstruct justice, choosing instead to “keep it in a box” for later use. Essentially, Comey was double-dealing with the president and his Attorney General by denying them access to information he later decided to leak to the press. If this is the “honest loyalty” Comey assured the President he would have, then it is no wonder that, retrospectively, James Comey was fired by the president.

Indicating that he made the decision to release the notes, in the wake of what Comey alleges were lies concerning his firing by President Trump last month, he wanted to get his side of the February 14th 2017 conversation out. In doing so, Comey knew that it would result in the appointment of a special prosecutor, which was then realized in the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Mueller, incidentally, just happened to be the one-time mentor of James Comey, when Comey worked for him at the Justice Department. It was Mueller who cleared the way for Comey to testify before the senate committee which, on its own face, seems to indicate that the special prosecutor sees no evidence of obstruction of justice on the part of the president.

Comey also revealed that he was directed by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to refer to the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server as a “matter” rather than an “investigation,” using the same language as the Clinton campaign. Regardless, Comey indicated he was forced to announce his decision not to proceed with a criminal referral, when it was revealed that Lynch met secretly with former President Bill Clinton on a tarmac in Arizona, all in an effort “to save the reputation of the FBI.”

So despite the clear violations of law by Hillary Clinton, which he enumerated on July 5th, 2016, Comey chose not to proceed with a criminal referral. Yet, in the instance of Donald Trump who to date, has broken no law, he is more than happy to see the new president pilloried in the press and persecuted by the senate and a special prosecutor, in separate investigations going on at this time.  Comey knows well that there was no obstruction of justice on the part of the president, and yet he cannot admit it, leaving that to Mueller to determine, instead. This is the same James Comey who so stubbornly refused Trump’s request to state publically that the president was not under any investigation, despite the fact that his notes indicated that he assured the president of this on three separate occasions, between January 6th and April 15th of this year.  So quick to exonerate Mrs. Clinton, yet so reticent to clear the name of Donald Trump… such is the subjective service of the now-departed FBI Director, who would purport prevarication on the part of the president…

Two leakers- one, a pathetic pawn of the political left, facing prison time for and of her own making, and another, a disgruntled and disingenuous former FBI Director who takes it upon himself to decide what is, and what is not, a crime according to the dictates of his own personal feelings. Comey also exonerated the Clintons in the Whitewater investigation a quarter-century ago, so whatever Mrs. Clinton wants to lay at the feet of Comey, for her 2016 loss to Donald Trump, the fact of the matter is that he has managed to save her hide twice in twenty-five years.

To think that either Reality Winner or James Comey is a patriot, for having leaked classified (Winner) and confidential (Comey) information to the media, is to delude oneself to the proposition that it’s okay to bring down a duly-elected president, based upon one’s own personal disdain rather than a larger patriotic pursuit. These two are but a few of the hundreds of leakers, both high and low, that threaten not only a president but, in the end, the nation he was elected to serve. Continued unchecked, those who would continue to leak- illegally or not- will only result in national disaster and personal destruction, which serves not the nation but rather their own selfish vengeance, when all is finally said and done.

-Drew Nickell, 8 June 2017

© 2017 by Drew Nickell, all rights reserved.

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

now available at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Bending-Your-Ear-Collection-Essays/dp/1633932907?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

Signed and personalized editions now available at my website:

http://www.drewnickell.com

Follow my postings on the RSS feed: http://www.drewnickell.com/?feed=rss2