Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham recently declared that “James Comey has done more damage to the FBI than anyone since J. Edgar Hoover.” This might be an understatement: Hoover had a full half-century to accumulate the string of abuses that tarnish his legacy, but Comey managed to do his damage in just a few short years as FBI director.
He’s now finally being forced to defend his record. In Comey’s self-serving reaction to the harsh critique offered by the recent inspector general report, he again describes the sole origin of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign as being former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos’s conversations in London about Russian “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. He piously huffs that it would have been “dereliction” not to proceed with a counterintelligence investigation based on that information. But to proceed with such an intrusive investigation on so little was the real abuse.
One conversation, relating a secondhand rumor, should never be enough to justify opening a counterintelligence investigation of any American, much less a presidential candidate. That is the concern held by many of us who served in and loved the FBI. Like directors before him, Comey should have said, “We need more.”
But Comey tries to deflect from that concern by saying that this all happened “seven levels below” him. In this instance, that is simply not true.
It was Comey himself who signed three of the four applications for FISA coverage on Carter Page. And it was he alone who set the tone through his actions, such as not briefing Congress on such an important investigation. Comey now chooses to use the inspector general’s findings to attack a few critics who called the bureau treasonous or corrupt. Yes, the FBI is neither. But under Comey, it was certainly poorly led.
Naming Attorney General William Barr, Comey attacks those who legitimately question the FISA justification, as well as the initial opening of the case. Comey lately seems particularly indignant that the attorney general is continuing an investigation into the origins of both. Comey expresses surprise that an attorney general would criticize the Department of Justice or the FBI, two institutions which are the attorney general’s responsibility. Yet, perhaps if Comey’s management style had been a bit more hands-on and critical, the FBI would not be in this mess in the first place.
Comey also piously expresses outrage at the verbiage of the president of the United States. But President Trump should not be the main concern here. Our main concern should be the lack of any substantial predicate in opening a counterintelligence investigation of an American — much less a presidential campaign.
When Comey served as FBI director, he led the investigation of one or more American citizens without sufficient predicate. The semantics of spying, treason, and corruption that Comey chooses to distract us with are not the real issue at hand. The lack of justification for initiating the investigation is what truly matters.
Comey’s indignant complaints about Trump and Barr are merely an effort to distract us from a legitimate investigation into the dangerous and faulty decisions made on his watch. History will judge who the worst FBI director was, but surely Comey’s initiation of the counterintelligence investigation was the single-most damaging decision in the history of the FBI.
Tom Baker spent 33 years serving in the FBI and is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.
