The right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board hit former FBI Director James Comey for having a “false and dangerous view” of how the agency is expected to function in a democracy.
In an editorial published Wednesday night, just hours ahead of Comey’s highly anticipated testimony before Congress, the Journal said that his testimony, released earlier in the day, suggests he believes the FBI should act as an unchecked authority in law enforcement, and that Comey didn’t seem interested in discussing any of the issues before him with any elected or appointed officials.
“The most troubling part of Mr. Comey’s statement is his belief in what he calls ‘the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch,’ which he invokes more than once,” the paper said. “Independent? This is a false and dangerous view of law enforcement in the American system. Mr. Comey is describing an FBI director who essentially answers to no one. But the police powers of the government are awesome and often abused, and the only way to prevent or correct abuses is to report to elected officials who are accountable to voters.”
Comey was fired in May by President Trump after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recommended his dismissal and after Trump, by his own account, grew frustrated with the FBI’s investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia.
In his written testimony, Comey recounts a dinner meeting he had with Trump in late January, during which he said he grew uncomfortable by the president’s questions about “loyalty” to him.
“My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting, and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship,” the testimony reads. “That concerned me greatly, given the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch.”
Comey’s testimony is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m.
