On July 26, the FBI will celebrate its 110th anniversary. Throughout the course of its history, only eight men have held the top position as director of what is widely considered the premier law enforcement agency in the world.
Two of those men, James Comey and J. Edgar Hoover, couldn’t be more different, especially when it comes to their effects on the ever-important culture of the FBI.
Hoover was only 29 when appointed in 1924 to head the bureau’s predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation. He stewarded the agency through massive transition and growth until his death of natural causes in 1972, a staggering 48 years at the helm. While divisive politics currently roil our country, what truly divides us is the efforts by some to conduct “politically correct” purges of our nation’s historical figures. Lost in the well-intentioned but misguided fervor is any pretense of “historical context.”
Hoover has been one of those “indicted” in the decades following his passing. Along with the unsupported tales of feather boas comes a revisionist view of his actions as director. And while there is much to justifiably criticize the former director for (COINTELPRO, warrantless eavesdropping, and keeping personal files on presidential administrations) his detractors purposely ignore the fact that he was born in 1895. Social mores and our system of justice were a bit different in the early 20th century than they are now. But this matters little to proponents of the purge.
Lost in the pious condemnation of Hoover are his lengthy list of accomplishments, the most important being his establishment of “culture” at the FBI.
Culture goes beyond the customs, attitudes, and beliefs of an organization. It is a top-down established ethos that permeates the entire agency. The modern FBI has some 35,000 employees and 12,000 special agents. And even 46 years after Hoover’s death, it steadfastly remains a reflection of his ethos and demand for excellence. A leader communicates and is measured by his body language, tone, and word choice. Hoover communicated wordlessly. A look or a glance spoke volumes and commanded respect.
In his just-released memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, the FBI’s seventh director, Comey, attempts to set the record straight regarding his firing and preaches about “ethical leadership.”
His tenure as director, he believes, led to necessary changes in the bureau. He is harshly critical of Hoover in his book, for some of the reasons I mentioned above, and refers to his use of an “iron hand to drive the agency.”
While Comey has cast himself as the hero in every anecdote in his book, he comes off as a sophist and a beta male. He only exhibits courage when he recounts a tale no one else has told, like the captivating Stellar Wind bedside standoff with the George W. Bush administration.
Comey may have purposely distanced himself from the tales of Hoover’s excesses and failings. But many of us who cut our teeth at the FBI under men who served under Hoover, and were also around long enough to endure the Comey era, wish he had sensed the utility in building upon the foundation that Hoover constructed, instead of running away from it.
Comey was certainly affable and approachable, with an easygoing demeanor that was taken as weakness in Washington. It allowed him to be bullied and emasculated by the president who ultimately fired him.
He lacked the necessary courage in a position that demanded it.
Testifying before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on June 8, 2017, he was asked what made him “uneasy” in nine separate encounters with the president and why he had not acted more forcefully. He shamefully recounted, “Maybe other people would be stronger in that circumstance but that — that was — that’s how I conducted myself.”
Hoover is rolling over in his grave.
Comey double downed in the pathetic adjective department by feeling “queasy” when Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who headed a politicized Obama Justice Department, inappropriately directed him to refer to the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server as a “matter.”
Desperate to move the bureau out from under Hoover’s vast shadow, Comey failed to hold firm to the bureau’s sacrosanct motto of “Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity.”
I do not doubt for a moment that Comey honored his pledge of fealty to the Constitution. I disagree with many of his actions and inactions as director. That said, I do not doubt his integrity.
But Comey was a feckless leader who simply did not possess the strength of character or bravery to confront either of the two presidents he served under. He should have confronted former President Barack Obama for his inappropriate comments about the Clinton case. And if the nine separate inappropriate interactions with President Trump occurred as Comey recalls them, he should have objected immediately, in every single instance. He did not. For that, there is no excuse.
While the book tour has revealed how hubris and smug assuredness can result in a steady diminution of character and stature, the book itself should serve as a cautionary tale. Absence of moral courage leads to a vacuum, and in that empty space exists the perfect storm that became the seventh floor at FBI headquarters during the Comey era.
Comey is damn proud of the cultural changes he had on the FBI.
Comey fails to realize he harmed FBI culture in far more deleterious ways than his choice of shirt color. Along with the crisp, starched white shirts that Hoover, Mueller, and other FBI directors wore, they also possessed moral courage and strength of character in abundance.
The FBI ran away from its culture during the Comey era.
Here’s hoping that white shirts and spines make a comeback.
James A. Gagliano (@JamesAGagliano) worked in the FBI for 25 years. He is a law enforcement analyst for CNN and an adjunct assistant professor in homeland security and criminal justice at St. John’s University.
