So, ignore former FBI Director James Comey’s Twitter post about how the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report showed he didn’t do anything wrong and that he was smeared or something. He wasn’t. He was taken to the woodshed the IG office, who said the memos he leaked to The New York Times that spurred the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel for the Russia investigation was improper and violated long-standing GBI department policies. Our own Katie Pavlich wrote about the report this morning and took the disgraced former FBI official to task for his self-righteous reaction to the 83-page report: [bold text indicates passages from IG report]:
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz released an 83-page long report Thursday morning about misconduct by fired FBI Director James Comey. It thoroughly berates Comey for leaking memos about conversations with President Trump for personal and political gain. Most importantly, the report concludes Comey improperly released FBI material in order to launch the Special Counsel investigation into the 2016 presidential election. This report is separate from the highly anticipated IG report about the origins of the Russia investigation and FISA abuse.
[…]
The responsibility to protect sensitive law enforcement information falls in large part to the employees of the FBI who have access to it through their daily duties. On occasion, some of these employees may disagree with decisions by prosecutors, judges, or higher ranking FBI and Department officials about the actions to take or not take in criminal and counterintelligence matters. They may even, in some situations, distrust the legitimacy of those supervisory, prosecutorial, or judicial decisions. But even when these employees believe that their most strongly-held personal convictions might be served by an unauthorized disclosure, the FBI depends on them not to disclose sensitive information.
Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility. By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment, and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees—and the many thousands more former FBI employees—who similarly have access to or knowledge of non-public information. Comey said he was compelled to take these actions “if I love this country…and I love the Department of Justice, and I love the FBI.” However, were current or former FBI employees to follow the former Director's example and disclose sensitive information in service of their own strongly held personal convictions, the FBI would be unable to dispatch its law enforcement duties properly, as Comey himself noted in his March 20, 2017 congressional testimony. Comey expressed a similar concern to President Trump, according to Memo 4, in discussing leaks of FBI information, telling Trump that the FBI's ability to conduct its work is compromised “if people run around telling the press what we do.” This is no doubt part of the reason why Comey’s closest advisors used the words “surprised,” “stunned,” “shocked,” and “disappointment” to describe their reactions to learning what Comey had done.
In a country built on the rule of law, it is of utmost importance that all FBI employees adhere to Department and FBI policies, particularly when confronted by what appear to be extraordinary circumstances or compelling personal convictions. Comey had several other lawful options available to him to advocate for the appointment of a Special Counsel, which he told us was his goal in making the disclosure. What was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information, obtained during the course of FBI employment, in order to achieve a personally desired outcome.
The OIG report on James Comey confirms what many of us have known for years: Comey stole government records, leaked classified information, and repeatedly violated FBI rules and his own employment agreement in order to get revenge on Trump for firing him. https://t.co/CUOlbOGsFS pic.twitter.com/0PZExFVdbL
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 29, 2019
"Former Director Comey failed to live up to this responsibility. By not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his FBI employment and by using it to create public pressure for official action, Comey set a dangerous example" https://t.co/Elaa2CUpK5
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) August 29, 2019
"...Comey had several other lawful options available to him to advocate for the appointment of a Special Counsel, which he told us was his goal in making the disclosure. What was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive investigative information..." https://t.co/Elaa2CUpK5
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) August 29, 2019
Perhaps never in the history of our Country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than James Comey in the just released Inspector General’s Report. He should be ashamed of himself!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 29, 2019
Yeah, if this is just an appetizer to the full-course meal we’re about to be served regarding FISA and the origins of the Russia collusion, we’re about to have a hell of a Fall concerning Deep State antics—and it could be scorching for Democrats. The dirty laundry is about to be aired. Will there be any accountability? It remains to be seen. I doubt it. But it will give the Trump White House and conservative America reassurances in their feelings about the elites, the intelligence community, and the notion that there were actors acting not in accordance with established department policy in an effort to tilt the 2016 election. And the fish rots from the head.
Oh yeah, where was Trump when this news broke? Well, he took to Twitter to take his turn slamming Comey for his conduct as head of the FBI.
"Perhaps never in the history of our Country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than James Comey in the just released Inspector General’s Report. He should be ashamed of himself!," he wrote.
It all shows that the baseless charges of obstruction that were lobbed at Trump by the Democrats was yet another example of Trump Derangement Syndrome. We all knew that, but we have an Obama-appointed IG saying that Comey was fired for cause. Sorry, James—you’re no savior. Just a biased, selfish government official who thought he knew better.
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