Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Because the Past Matters

From a NY Times commenter today:

J. T. Stasiak Hanford, CA 3 hours ago
James Comey has an extensive reputation as an honest, intelligent, competent and strong career prosecutor who stands up to power. This was well demonstrated in 2004 when as deputy AG he successfully resisted White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and President George W. Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr's efforts to steamroll then AG John Ashcroft into reauthorizing Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice Department determined was illegal. This circus was occurring while Ashcroft was seriously ill in a hospital ICU.

Comey was well respected by FBI rank and file as a strong and effective leader--there was no clamoring from the FBI for his dismissal. By all accounts, he was handling the Russian hacking of the Presidential election investigation well--he was the right guy for the job. One suspects that he was getting too close to the truth for Mr. Trump's comfort.

There is no new information regarding Comey's handling of the Clinton e-mails that would justify such an abrupt and unexpected dismissal. If Comey truly needed to be fired--debatable if not doubtful--this should have been done on the basis of the evidence at hand when Mr. Trump took office.

This dismissal reeks of obstruction of justice and could very well be an impeachable offense. The real tragedy is that The NY Times and its opinion writers squandered their credibility by their constant high decibel caviling about Trump's minor offenses. That wasted credibility is badly needed now.

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