I'll be honest, usually in writing an article, one collects the information, researches, verifies, then categorizes the points by priority in order to build the article, but in this case, there is so much happening, all at once, I truly couldn't figure out where to start...... so, let's start at the beginning.
JAMES COMEY, the former FBI Director, terminated by President Trump in May 2017, who is under active investigation by the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG) for allegations of misconduct and violating FBI policies and procedures in relation to his public announcement on July 5, 2016 exonerating Hillary Clinton of federal crimes, his letter to Congress on October 28, stating the FBI had obtained more emails that may have been relevant to the case, and his November 6 letter to Congress stating new information had not been found, and exonerating Clinton again.
The OIG has released their first report into the actions, lack of candor (Lies) under oath, and improper leaking of information to the press by Comey's Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who claims that those leaks were done with the full knowledge of Comey, which Comey denies. (That IG report is embedded at the bottom of a previous ANP article -here)
In a subsequent announcement by the IG, Comey is also part of a group being investigated over allegations of wrong-doing on the part of the FBI, while he was Director, in regards to their "compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) relating to a certain U.S. person. As part of this examination, the OIG also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source. Additionally, the OIG will review the DOJ’s and FBI’s relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISC applications."
In the midst of being the target of multiple investigations, personally and as the Director of the FBI because actions undertaken by members within the agency run by him, often referred to as deep state members, James Comey decided it would be a good idea to write a book, to explain "his side" of everything, and to publish said book before the IG report has been released, before the appropriate agencies have determined what, if any, criminal federal charges might be leveled against him. He also decides to conduct interviews to promote said book, while allowing small excerpts to be released beforehand.
All caught up? Good, because reactions are already coming out fast and furiously over the interview published on April 15, 2018, and things have taken a very ugly turn for Comey. Former colleagues are berating him, former Obama officials are lambasting him, Clinton supporters are outraged and deep state members are tripping all over themselves to throw him under the bus as he does the same to them.
The spectacle is truly popcorn worthy.
COLLEAGUE REACTIONS: COMEY IS 'SCUMBAG' AND 'SELF-CENTERED JACKASS'
We'll begin over at The Daily Beast which claims that they were 'deluged" with reactions by FBI insiders throughout and after Comey's interview was aired, where their opinions were expressed with "emojis—featuring the thumbs-down, frowny face, middle finger, and a whole lot of green vomit faces."
Some key quotes from The Daily Beast piece:
“Hoover is spinning in his grave,” said a former FBI official. “Making money from total failure.”
When a promo aired between segments announcing Comey’s upcoming interview with The View, the official grew angrier.
“Good lord, what a self-serving self-centered jackass,” the official said. “True to form he thinks he’s the smartest guy around.”
[....]
Another former FBI official not historically known for their use of emojis, sent a bowing emjoi which—they explained in a follow up message—they believed to mean “slamming my head into something, obviously.”
An additional source, who works frequently with the FBI, said they had refused to watch the extended cut of the interview altogether. “Didn’t watch it—I don’t care, he’s basically a scumbag. I don’t know how they’re letting him write a book in the middle of an investigation that he’s part of. I wonder if he had his book cleared by the intelligence community? He’s supposed to but I bet he didn’t.”
CLINTON SUPPORTERS LAMBASTING COMEY
Lanny Davis, former White House special counsel for Bill Clinton is on a rant, calling Comey a 'lying' 'renegade narcissist," as he continues to bitterly blame Comey for costing Hillary Clinton the 2016 election.
Comey acknowledged in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that his belief that Clinton was going to win the election factored into his decision to release the Oct. 28 letter to Congress.
“Wasn’t the decision to reveal influenced by your assumption that Hillary Clinton was going to win, and your concern that, she wins, this comes out several weeks later and then that’s taken by her opponents as a sign that she’s an illegitimate president?,” Stephanopoulos asks Comey.
“It must have been,” Comey replied.
“I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been. I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump. I’m sure that it was a factor.”
“That she’s going to be elected president, and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out,” he added.
Davis asserted that Comey’s actions show he was a “renegade narcissist” who thought that he was “above the law.”
Unhinged liberal Clinton supporters have consistently railed at Comey for his actions taken during the Clinton investigation, despite the fact that Comey had drafted his exoneration letter weeks before he even interviewed Hillary Clinton, which indicates he had decided the outcome of the Clinton investigation before the full fact pattern was even established. Those same liberals ignore the obvious fact that Comey's statements stemmed from Clinton's own misconduct which was originally listed as "grossly negligent," but was later changed to "extremely careless," in order to prevent her from being charged with a federal crime.
In fact, before President Trump fired Comey, liberals were demanding he either be fired or resign..... until Trump fired him, and then he became the poster boy for liberals to defend. Until now, when Comey, akin to pouring gasoline on the fire, decided to publish a book and promote it, which has angered the liberal base all over again.
DEEP STATE STARTS THROWING EACH OTHER UNDER THE BUS
Another result of Comey's book, excerpt releases and interview, is how he attempts to throw others under the bus, including the highly ironic assertion that anti-Trump DOJ officials used "terrible judgement," and that "bad-mouthing candidates using FBI [phones] is terrible."
As a reminder, those "employees" were part of Comey's team, namely Chief of the Counterespionage Section Peter Strzok, who played key roles in both the Clinton investigation and the initiation of the Russia probe, which via text, Strzok referred to as an "insurance policy," in the event that Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Those texts were exchanged with another FBI employee, Lisa Page, and were revealed as a result of the OIG investigation, showing thousands of text exchanges with massive anti-Trump biases.
But inside the Justice Department last year, the two men, who had run the bureau as a team before both were fired nearly a year apart, were locked in a bitter dispute over who was telling the truth. They provided “starkly conflicting accounts” about a pivotal private meeting that helped lead to Mr. McCabe’s firing, an investigation has found.
Mr. McCabe’s attorney basically accused Mr. Comey of lying, or at least of lacking credibility, in testifying about a conversation the two had over a leak to The Wall Street Journal. The attorney said the Justice Department inspector general was anointing Mr. Comey as a “white knight carefully guarding FBI information while overlooking that Mr. McCabe’s account is more credible.”
Mr. McCabe accused Mr. Comey of denying the deputy’s version as a way to distance himself politically from the Journal leak.
Mr. Comey strenuously disputed Mr. McCabe’s testimony that he, the director, thought the leak was a good idea, according to a Justice Department inspector general’s report released Friday.
During Comey's ABC interview he also managed to boot kick Obama's Attorney General Loretta Lynch, claiming that she " ordered Comey to describe the FBI’s inquiry into Clinton’s handling of classified information as a “matter” rather than an “investigation,” he told Stephanopoulos, as described by ABC News.
He went on to claim it "worried," him, further stating "It gave me an uncomfortable feeling because the Clinton campaign, since the matter had come in, the investigation had started in July, had been trying to come up with other words to describe it… And it did worry me that the attorney general's direction was tracking that effort to avoid using the word ‘investigation."
Well, Lynch issued her own statement, showing she was not about to go under the tires of the bus without a fight, saying "I have known James Comey almost 30 years. Throughout his time as Director we spoke regularly about some of the most sensitive issues in law enforcement and national security. If he had any concerns regarding the email investigation, classified or not, he had ample opportunities to raise them with me both privately and in meetings. He never did."
Furthermore, Lynch claims, in regards to the Clinton investigation, "Throughout the process I did what I always do: rise above politics and uphold the law. At no time did I ever discuss any aspect of the investigation with anyone from the Clinton campaign or the DNC."
Note the careful wording there. Lynch was subject to heavy criticism for a "tarmac" meeting with Bill Clinton in the midst of the Hillary Clinton investigation, and technically Bill was not a formal member of the Clinton campaign, nor the DNC, at the time.
Lynch had previously claimed the meeting with Bill Clinton included talk of "innocuous things," such as Clinton's grandchildren, and "issues of the day," including Brexit.
It is extremely noteworthy that according to Comey, there is still-classified information about Lynch that would "cast serious doubts" on her ability to investigate Hillary Clinton, which he describes as a "development still unknown to the American public to this day."
Comey added that “the unverified material would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation” — but provides no clues to the nature of his tantalizing revelation.
The former top G-man also bristled when Lynch ordered him to call the probe into Clinton’s emails “a matter” rather than “an investigation.”
“Call it ‘a matter,’” Comey quotes Lynch as telling him during a 2016 meeting.
“Why would I do that?” he said he replied.
“Just call it ‘a matter,’” she snapped back.
He said he believed she was parroting the Clinton campaign’s efforts to dismiss the significance of the probe.
“The attorney general seemed to be directing me to align me with the Clinton campaign strategy,” he wrote, adding caustically that “The FBI didn’t do ‘matters.’”
Lynch's full statement below: (Click image to enlarge for easier reading, it will open in a new tab/window)
The above fallout is just the beginning, less than a full day after Comey's first interview and before the full release of his book, so it is likely that further interviews and the book release will heighten tensions considerably. This is especially true considering Comey hopes Hillary Clinton, who has spent the last year lambasting Comey (and everything else under the sun) for her loss of the 2016 election, will read his book so she will better understand why he conducted himself as he did. Comey even joked 'that 'nobody gets out alive' of her email probe, according to the Daily Mail.
Her reaction should be highly entertaining to see.
BOTTOM LINE
Despite the lingering bitterness on the part of liberals, Democrats and Clinton supporters over Comey's actions during the course of the Clinton email/private server investigation, once President Trump fired Comey, most did a 180 degree turn and started defending him, because... #Resistance," or something, leaving others to maintain that Comey should have been fired.
With Comey's attempt to grandstand and offer his own version of "what happened," he has managed to once again unite the country in criticism against Comey himself, while causing deep state members to turn on each other to save their own butts.
I can say with reasonable confidence, it is very doubtful this is the result he was aiming for.
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