The last two paragraphs stand out .
The horror of Trump is now with us.Sometimes doing what is “right” Turns over all the Apple carts.He did.
He also exposed the rot in our democracy,for that I thank
Him and wish him well.
4
By seeing Comey's behavior as hubris, I think that Mr. Leonhardt is giving James Comey too much credit. I thought it was a neurotic act that was self-destructive and had amazingly destructive consequences in the outer world.
Is it understandable? Yes. Comey had a critical role in the political process that was unfolding around him. But he choked and did the wrong thing - in spite of well-established guidelines and good advice from professional colleagues. Unfortunately, it cannot be undone. And we have an incompetent and psychologically questionable misfit doing his best to destroy the political architecture and rule of law of this country - to the acclaim of a remarkably ignorant supporting chorus.
8
Amen.
2
The real tragedy is that despite Hillary winning the popular vote by nearly 3 million, despite Comey's deliberate and highly partisan unprofessionlism, the Russians hacking in myriads of voter records, GOP gerrymandering, GOP voter suppression with long, long lines in poor neighborhoods, there still many who actually believe that Trump is our president. Amazing, and Sad!!
Folks, the 2016 fake election is called a right wing coup by any standard.
29
Mr. Comey surely paid a price for his hubris. Had he not issued that statement about Hillary Clinton a week before the election, there is an unquantifiable possibility that she would be president today. And Mr. Comey would still be leading the FBI.
17
I prefer to call this "The Treachery of James Comey".
He deliberately called for more investigation into Clinton's e-mails even when he knew there was no new evidence to be reviewed, and he knew it would tank her numbers 11 days before the election, and it did. The renewal of that controversy kept enough voters away from the polls to make a difference.
He has no claim to innocence in this, because at the very same time, he knew about the Republican campaign managers' secret meetings with Russian operatives, and said nothing.
I think a hostile foreign power's attempt to steer our elections is a far more dangerous threat to the US than a few e-mails where the Democrats talked trash about the Republicans. I think millions of voters feel the same way. Why didn't Comey think we needed to know?
Comey is a Republican, and like many of them, was willing to damage our democracy to get himself a seat at the table of power. Too bad for him that Trump did not remain grateful and wound up firing him. There is no honor among thieves.
30
Well said.
17
Comey and the Russian chaos trolls gave us the most deplorable president...he didn't win and we are all losers.
26
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. "
Sigh, this is beginning to look like the birther thing. No matter what or how the facts are presented the Socialists still think that the Electoral College outcome was due to a conspiracy or combination of the same. President Trump did not win. Mrs Clinton lost because she could not present herself as a better alternative to a rude, crude, socially unacceptable rich old white man. That show's how low the thresh hold was in the 2016 election.
13
Excellent article--articulates exactly what many of us HRC supporters feel. I hope Comey has a role in bringing down the corrupt illegitimate moronic tyrant now in power, since that's the only way he'll be able to possibly redeem himself and set right the disastrous results of his hubris. Why didn't he feel the same compulsion to announce to the American voters right before the election the investigation into Trump's collusion with Russia? This whole calamity is indeed tragic--not so much for Comey but for all Americans and the values we hold dear. Our democracy is under daily assault by the corrupt GOP, the racist/sexist Right, and the fascist Trump administration. Comey played a big role in ushering in this dangerous mess.
27
Mr. Leonhardt's opinion is consistent with what the WSJ editors have been saying. Comey's actions were driven too much by his concern for his image.
Comey may also have been the victim of fake Russian “intelligence” referring to a nonexistent email between liberal operatives concerning Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch. This fake, Russia-planted email was reportedly a key factor in James Comey’s decision to intervene in the Hillary Clinton server matter in the run-up to Election Day.
13
FBI Director Comey failed in his job IMHO by not investigating the threats to our nation before and during the election. Where was he in regards to Wikileaks, the Russian hacks, the Republicans and the Clinton emails, and the voting scandals? The FBI is the major investigation agency in the USA that is supposed to find out the truth and act accordingly. Instead, for all practical purposes, he caused the election of the world's greatest conman as the 45 th US President. His book will not save him.
14
He can say what he wants in his book, but the fact is that he overstepped and handed the election to this madman in the White House
Just another Republican hack trying to look reasonable after being caught in the big lie
19
Luke Skywalker learned that there were times to put away your light saber even when confronted by the evil Darth Vader. In flailing around at the time of the election he did his nation and the world a great disservice, we are wallowing in the Trumpland swamp. I will never forgive him for that. So go sell your book Mr. Comey, retire in comfort and pray there is no hell.
22
Before we put too much blame on Comey for blabbing, and then blabbing again, about Hillary's email adventures, we should remember that 99% of the blame for the 2016 election nightmare was Hillary herself: who decided to have the at-home server; who, at the end, neglected to visit Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania; and who hired a staffer who was married to a notorious e-sex nut and didn't, apparently, ever ask, "BTW, Huma, you don't share that laptop with the hubby, do you"? It occurs to me that Hillary was brought low by one porn star and Trump, perhaps, by another.
19
Comey is not credible. He failed to follow the rules that were established for all law enforcement officials and he especially because of his position. It's laws and rules that we should be holding to in our daily enterprise.
His substandard practices tainted an already unpalatable field of presidential candidates. Hillary is so far out of the mainstream of this country. Every post-election graphic shows that her major epicenters of ardent followers were tiny bastions of liberalism-most major cities. Already leeches on the wallets of hard working people.
Trump. That brash, egotistical, hurricane of might and destruction appealed most to those that are so sick of Washington, the Comeys, Obama's, Clinton's and electric cars, that they would do ANYTHING to keep Hillary from gaining the throne.
The electorate is comprised of extremely polarized factions. Compromise, unity and thoughtfulness are no longer factors considered in the development of policy. We will never experienced a unified vision for our country in the future.
Comey was the catalyst in making that chemical reaction broil over and cause those polarized extremes to move further away from each other.
6
It's not just the letter - it's also the deliberate suppression of evidence that implicated her opponent, and the leaks from his team to this paper that fraudulently claimed such evidence didn't exist.
Narrowly focusing on "the letter" is a convenient copout that Comey & Trump apologists cling to when confronted with the realities of the "investigations".
12
I see several tragedies going on in our country - Trump's presidency, first and foremost - but I don't think Comey has his own.
4
I am totally amazed that no one seems to remember that the Attorney General needed to recuse herself from the Clinton prosecution decision due to her extended chat with Bill Clinton on an airport runway.
It is that that forced Comey to decide whether to do more than an investigator ordinarily would do.
Ordinarily no one confirms or denies a criminal investigation. In Clinton's case, the whole world knew she was being investigated. Would it have been fair or appropriate to not announce the investigation had been ended before the election?
I believe some announcement was needed. It is a separate question whether Comey went too far in providing info as to why charges were not brought
10
This is wrong.
Yates took over for Lynch.
There's no justification for the FBI Director to decide he's all of a sudden be DOJ too.
None.
Where did you get this ridiculous premise from ?
3
Despite his other accomplishments, Comey's great mistake is so horrendous that it erases all else in his career. It's difficult to escape the conclusion that Comey was thinking of himself and only himself when he chose to go public about Clinton.
I won't read Comey's book -- I would never contribute a dime to help make Jim Comey rich, since that wealth will be based on one of the worst, most self-serving, and damaging acts of hubris in American history.
No matter what Comey does now, even if he is instrumental in bringing down Trump, his disastrous acts in 2016 should earn him neverending condemnation for the rest of his life.
17
Yes, there is a tragic element to Comey's Clinton pronouncement. Again, the Trump element abides within it. And again and again, I'll state it: Trump shows ample behavioral features of a dangerous mental disorder. Such disorders, untreated, are toxic. On top of it, the disorder that has such features is very difficult to treat, or take the behavioral form of a highly contagious, deadly virus and may only be managed through quarantine. Anybody getting close to such a person, without ample protection, will be harmed. Unsuspecting and opportunistic people, as well as apparently unscrupulous ones, will in the long run find out about this situation. Some may gain financially from it anyway, while losing their own souls.
1
Comey invented a standard of "intent" in the statute which allowed him to excuse Sec Clinton. There is NO mention of intent in the statute she violated. This was on his part no "mistake".
5
This is Sessions mistake now.
You don't seem too concerned for some reason.
3
Whatever his sins, Comey gets to cash in, having been paid millions of dollars for his book. Had he done the right thing and not recklessly disclosed the investigation into Hillary Clinton days before the election, it's likely she would have won the presidency.
Comey meanwhile would have continued as a moderately well paid government employee, with a pension to look forward to. Instead, he's now sitting on a pile of money (for a book he no doubt got tons of help writing). What a world.
13
Comey didn't think Trump would win the electorate, just like almost everyone else. If he had stayed silent, and HRC had won, wouldn't that also throw shade on her legitimacy?
However Comey acted, it was out of Clinton's control. How unfair to scapegoat Comey when acts that were in Clinton's control could have secured her win.
8
This commentary is inappropriately harsh toward Comey. What you see as excessive hubris was dictated by the fact that he was fielding sharp criticism from both sides in the 2016 election. He had to try to defend his honesty, integrity, and transparency because those elements were crucial to maintaining the image of fairness on the part of his agency and his position. He had the courage to try to do this in what was clearly a lose-lose situation for him.
4
David Leonhardt writes that he thinks that most of the criticisms of Comey are unfair and then stabs Comey with the most fatal criticism of all. Comey's hubris has brought us or at least help to bring us to paraphrase Leonhardt the most unfit President of the ages--Can anyone top that critique? Steven Ellman, Professor Emeritus CUNY
7
Hubris all the way. A sanctimonious piety of a preacher. And he gave us Trump, unwittingly.
9
I will remember your line: "... piety of a preacher." Thank you-- that sums him up, no need for all today's column inches.
4
"Unringing the Bell"
The James Comey putting the toothpaste back in the tube book tour.
16
Re: my post, "come" should have been "came", and "serious" should have been "series".
I may not have agreed with James Comey's decisions to reveal matters the way he did but I have no doubt about his honesty and sincerity. I do, however, doubt the honesty and sincerity of all the other actors in these events. Mrs. Clinton could not be careful enough no matter what choices she made. She would have won any election without the interference this one got. I would believe anyone before I believe anything Donald Trump said. He holds us all in contempt every time he tells a bald faced lie to gain some advantage he seeks.
8
There are some who want to blame Comey for the loss of Clinton, but Clinton lost a "sure thing" because of her misguided policies that caused both white married women and working class women to vote for Trump. Moreover, her misguided policies led to typically pro-labor Democratic states in the Midwest to vote Trump. Married white women of course voted to help their family -- the men they are married to.
Instead of fixing her misguided policies, Clinton chose to call Trump supporters "deplorables."
Only 16% of this nation's counties voted for Clinton, the remainder voted for Trump. A Democratic candidate must be more inclusive.
9
And nobody decided not to vote for her because of a 20 month long investigation that falsely suggested it was only a matter of time before the goods on her would turn up.
I hope you realize how ridiculous that sounds.
Investigations are the number one campaign killer by far - so what do you call a phony leaky investigation ?
6
"counties" do not represent either the number of votes or people. we have some enormous CA counties with scarcely anyone living there. Sorry-- they just do not and should not have the same weight as counties with large numbers of We the People.
6
@Marion:
The married white women, the working class white women voted against Clinton and Trump because of her misguided policies, not because of any investigation. The pro-labor Democratic industrial Midwest (as well as Pennsylvania) voted against Clinton because of her misguided policies. Meanwhile, Trump's policies appealed to these married white women, the working class white women, and the Midwesterners from industrial states.
Instead of changing her policies, Clinton chose to call Trump supporters "deplorables", thus losing "certain victory."
Do you honestly think Comey's investigation had anything to do with these groups voting for Trump?
Instead of blaming Comey, we should investigate why the Democrats nominated a candidate with such flawed policies against typically Democratic voters.
@keren: Counties speaks to the fact that Clinton's messages were not regionally diverse. The nation is more than urban centers. If Clinton had a more inclusive message that spoke to more than 16% of our counties, say 30% she probably would have won.
One thing Comey is not is an idiot. His actions were well considered and deliberate. To claim he could not foresee the consequences of his actions is ludicrous and a paragon of hypocrisy. Like all those who subverted the electoral process to place the ignorant, incompetent racist Donald Trump in the White House, Comey will go down in history stained by his lack of decency and patriotism.
16
"He and his team decided that she (Clinton) had not done anything that warranted criminal charges.... He then doubled down, releasing a public update on the investigation 11 days before the election..."
Shortly before the election his FBI discovered, in an unrelated investigation, around 30,000 emails on the laptop of Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin.
It never occurred to Comey, in his roughly three year investigation, to look at the laptop of Clinton's top aide?
That's FBI 101 kind of stuff. Only an idiot wouldn't look at Abedin's laptop. She was a sender and receiver of tens of thousands of the same emails they had been investigating for years.
Imagine if, after the election, the FBI discovered a "smoking gun" or seriously incriminating evidence that proved Clinton was not only obstructing justice but had committed treasonous acts while Secretary of State, and now she was President of the United States.
Comey would be a bigger laughing stock than he already is. He had to go public 11 days before the election. He might have even been criminally liable.
If he's a tragedy of anything it's a tragedy of incompetence.
9
And notice that there turned out to be plenty of time to go through the laptop and render it clean without anyone knowing before election day.
But for some reason he just HAD to tell everyone about it instead of keeping it under wraps.
7
It was Wiener’s laptop...
5
Comey was mildly nauseated when he testified in Congress about his firing by Trump and Trump's inappropriate behavior towards him.
I am more than nauseated by Comey's testimony to Congress about Hillary's emails. Oh Hillary was extremely careless in her handling of emails really.
His opinion was inappropriate and totally political and partisan for an FBI director and then his public intervention 10 days before the election to reopen the investigation.
Not only did it violate again professional norms it allowed Trump to squeeze out his electoral college victory.
Without it Hillary would be President and a competent admirable and brave stateswoman would be leading the world and attempting to create policies that would further democracy and equality.
Comey is a villain in history just because his self righteousness and political instincts were abominable.
He should look deep into his conscience and plead forgiveness for the irreparable harm he did to his country.
And he knew that Trump was working with Russia to subvert our elections and he kept quiet about that.
Just a tragic character at best, a misguided narcissistic fool at worst.
24
I never met a Federal Prosecutor who did not think she knew better than anyone else.
2
His tragic mistake matters because of the giant consequences for the country. He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. No matter how brave Comey has since been, no matter how honorable his full career, he can never undo that damage.
20
The tragedy of James Comey is that he happened to be the director of the FBI when Donald Trump was running for president against Hilary Clinton. The other tragedy is that all of this happened because the media allowed it to and gave the emails far more importance than they deserved and Trump's digs too much oxygen.
27
A combination of reasons got Trump elected.
James Comey’s decision 11 days before the election reopening the investigation on Clinton which was clearly in violation of campaign norm was the main reason. A man in his position should have exercised better judgment. Also his failure to disclose that there was an ongoing investigation against Trump raises question about his impartiality.
The impact of Cambridge Analytica in influencing public minds by propaganda was another major factor. The impact of this is difficult to quantify. But remember, that Clinton lost the electoral majority in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan for only seventy thousand total votes.
Russia’s direct meddling by using trolls and bots might have significantly influenced voters’ minds.
In my mind, the inaction on the part of Mark Zukerberg to take preventive measures from use of the data that was his responsibility to protect from a hostile foreign power in influencing our election and irresponsible and self righteous decision on the part of James Comey along with direct Russian meddling gave us Trump.
10
Nice job blaming everyone but Hillary, her uninspiring campaign, her entitled behavior.
8
I think Comey sold out. Perhaps not for money, but for power, ego, something. Maybe Trump has pictures? Comey's actions are inexplicable otherwise. (To this watcher.)
7
He had been chasing the Clintons around like Ahab for 25 years - that's all you really need to know about him.
5
No fan of Comey here, but have you ever met one person, only one, that changed her or his vote based on Comey’s Oct Surprise? Just one?
13
I've heard from hundreds who didn't vote for her as a result of the investigation. The entire phony, leaky 20 month arc of it, not "just" the letter.
And if the letter made no difference, tell me why did the Trump campaign, the GOP, and his Super PACs spend millions on ads referencing the letter in WI, PA, and MI ?
And why was it the central theme of his campaign rallies in WI, MI, and PA in the last week ? The ones that Republicans have insisted is "why he won" ?
11
Correct. And it certainly had no effect on the Electoral College results. That was curtesy of Mrs Clinton.
2
I am willing to give Comey the benefit of the doubt that he came forward with that patent non-story, on Wiener's device having a login to Abedin's email acct w/ access to Hillary's email, not through hubris, but to get in front of a leak Giuliani was orchestrating from the FBI's NYC office. I think we were in for the same outcome no matter what.
8
Comey can explain in his book, in appearances or elsewhere, why he chose to publicize his investigation of Mrs. Clinton, but he cannot undo the harm he did this country by doing so. If he had just gone about business as usual, no announcements, Mrs. Clinton would be president today, the country would be stable and less divided and we would not be seeing the rise of racism and anti-Semitism that is present now. All the good he may have done in his career was wiped out by his poor judgment on this one matter.
20
“committed to getting it right, and to doing the right thing, whatever the price.”
It may have been the total destruction of our country by Donald trump helped James Comey
3
Right on for all Mr. Leonhardt, except for one important item. For the first time in my life I didn't vote at all as so many others I personally know didn't either. We thought both candidates odious. And if Hillary Clinton had been elected we might all be by now ignorantly thinking anything (even Trump) would have been better. It was a terrible choice!
7
If you couldn't tell the difference between Clinton and Trump, if you really thought they would be equivalent - well that's on you since there were mountains of evidence showing a trump presidency would be the one we have today.
11
Comey CHOSE to keep the FBI's investigation of Russian tampering with our elections from the American public; Chomey CHOSE to bring up the specter of Clinton's emails 3 days before the election. I stopped reading this after the author's assertion that Comey was non-partisan. There is no tragedy of James Comey - his elevation to sainthood should be considered the Tragedy of the American People.
12
Comey swung the election away from a seasoned, smart, level headed, diplomatic, moderate to a narcissistic right wing extremist. That is what he will be remembered for.
25
I would not spare a penny for his book. He made this nation, the law and order institutions, the citizenry and perhaps the future generations paid a steep price for his arrogance.
10
You don't own a fireplace, do you?
“Tragedy,” as you have presented the idea, could describe most human beings.
2
Very interesting take on James Comey. However, his righteous ego got in the way of honest neutrality when he critiqued Sec Clinton's non crime.
11
I’m sure the dead animals and plants along all the newly approved oil pipelines will forgive Comey in time.
As will the residents of S. Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii, and Southern California, should T-Rump steer us into a nuclear war.
As will all the people with Latin or Muslim sounding last names whose lives and families are being destroyed by our current “Justice” department.
And the list goes on and on, but you get it.
10
Comey helped to elect Trump. Then Trump fired Comey for not being pliant enough. Then Rosenstein named Mueller as Special Council to investigate Trump. A sad story from start to finish. Especially for the USA.
8
Mr. Leonhart. Thanks for singing the praises of James Comey and I believe in the integrity of the man and your assesment of him. However, you transition to the NYT mantra of blaming someone else for HRC defeat.
You left out the Loretta Lynch chapter which put James Comey in a place he didn't belong. Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton forced Comey's hand into becoming the Justice Dept. It was not in his purview whether to bring charges or not, that is the Justice Dept. which was politically poisoned by Lynch. If she had half the integrity of James Comey, she would have cleared or charged HRC.
IMHO bring up the Wiener emails was a swing at Lynch and justice who politicized his decision and put him in an untenable situation. It wasn't Comey that decided "he knew better" but the Obama/Lynch/Clinton team who thought they knew better. However, those with less integrity never now how those with more integrity will respond.
4
Perhaps Comey's actions on Hillary and Donald were all in hopes of garnering enough attention to one day write a blockbuster #1 NYT's bestseller. In that case, well done, Mr. Comey.
5
If there was interference by the NY FBI office that should be investigated by Bob Mueller along with Russia. Both were attacks on our democracy.
4
There is no question Comey's blatant disregard for longstanding FBI practices and protocols cost Hillary the election. Remember, Comey is a Republican; he thought he could put his finger on the election scales and nobody would notice. After all, he's "James Comey". He stopped Bush and Cheney from subverting the Constitution. Nobody will notice.
His place in history will be the same as Putin's. Both intentionally sought to subvert the American election process. He says if that was the case he'd be "sick to his stomach". We're the ones who are sick to our stomach now that we see what he did.
10
Enough already -- Hillary Clinton lost the election all by herself! Had she resisted the temptation to become Bernie Lite, she had a good chance to become Madame President. Instead, she now wails about white women who voted according to the directives of their men; while the rest of the frustrated Dems blame her loss on Comey, the Russians, etc., etc.
Comey didn't win or lose the election for anyone; the only thing he lost was his own self-respect by wanting to so desperately demonstrate his self-righteousness.
4
I don't think Comey was "doubling down" re Hillary's emails. It was more of a case of "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't." Because you can bet that if he hadn't, that additional trove would have been revealed later, and he'd have been accused of being partisan for that, too.
I was hopping mad at him for doing that, but realize now how much of a jam he was in.
4
Wrong. Once he seized the computer of the ding-dong Hillary employed, he HAD to examine it. But he did not have to TELL us he was doing so. Cops in my little town don't tell us who they are speaking with when investigating a crime. Once he examined the computer and found NOTHING, he legitimately should and could have said NOTHING, as was appropriate.
10
Add my favor to the chorus. I thought you had partaken of the Kool-aid at first but you hit the right note at the end. I should have trusted you to get it just about right.
6
I still think he is an idiot. He pitched in his 2c against Hillary, for Donald. Now he is ousted by Donny, he wants revenge? Idiot. He is as bad as Russian bots, Facebook's Zuckerberg, Cambridge Analytica's Mercer and Bannon. I don't care what this idiot says now. He should have kept his mouth shut in 2016.
8
Not one but three Greek strategies...
Comey's sad story may indeed be the stuff of a Greek Tragedy --a once honest, decent man devoted to doing right becomes enamored of his reputation for decency and his hubris results in flawed judgments with truly tragic consequences.
But there is another much greater tragedy --America's own Greek tragedy. A people that considers itself virtuous and well informed embraces a false prophet who extols their virtues and falsely attributes their failings to the evils of others different from them. It is a recurring tragedy as old as power and wealth.
There are goats and scapegoats grazing among the millenium old ruins of the once glorious Greek states.
And despite their bleatings, history will repeat itself for those who do not bother to learn it, for those who hear only what they they want to hear and those who know better but do not act. And that is the third and most damning of the Greek tragedies, a human tragedy told over and over again to the archipelago's ancient stones and barren hills --because humanity seems incapable of hearing it and learning from it.
2
Comey, not MY homey. Go away, spoiler.
5
Based on his actions, Comey may be a double agent
5
Trump was going down like a stone after his groping video was aired (women like it he said). Comey chnged the headlines with the implication (false) that new evidence was found against Hillary. If he says he did not make these bogus claims with full knowledge of their potential impact on the election then he thinks we are all fools and he is just as dishonest as Trump himself. Shame!!
10
...and worse, in testimony before Congress, Comey said something to the effect of "when we found the emails on Weiner's computer, we we're excited - thinking we would finally find the messages at the heart of the matter". In other words, we we're so convinced there was something nefarious somewhere in Clinton's email trail that it was worth potentially throwing the election in the hope of finding it "in time". Except that plainly there wasn't. But he threw the election anyway. Some non-partisan hero.
11
Whether he's a partisan or not in his heart of hearts, or simply a bungler, he's more responsible than any other person in the world for electing Donald Trump. Comey's legacy is tremendous, incalculable and maybe irreversible damage to American democracy. And, ironically, the politicization of the FBI.
If the GOP stays in charge, the FBI is going to be converted into some kind of right-wing Stasi, and everything they do will be in service of an authoritarian dictatorship. Comey made all that possible.
10
There's a very good chance he tipped the election to Trump by being afraid of Republican criticism if he failed to go public with what later turned out to be a nothing burger. He obviously had no similar fear of Dems. His earlier inappropriate and self-righteous criticism of Clinton did not help either.
8
Those of us who supported Clinton albeit reluctanly realize the basic fact that Trump's base are comprised of folks wanting to believe pie in the sky and a chicken in every pot, etc. Clinton the realist never promised that coal is the fuel of the future and that China would bend under economic pressure by us. That train is long gone since we consumers are willing to sell the other guys and gals jobs for cheap. It is hard to compare Comey with Zuckerberg if only that had they thought about the result of their decisions, Fox News would be boring and MSNBC would have to manufacture a crisis to report on. The reality is that Americans on the right have gone back to the future with it's anti everything that is not like them. Build higher fences, give the masses a stipend tax relief.
Republicans are dismissive about the looming gazillion dollar debt and the generations that follow me will have little to show for their indebtedness, except the hope that at the next election, reason may yet prevail and we may be able to relive the expectation of life before November 2017.
5
UBIQUITOUS /
Comey is ubiquitous /
Some say iniquitous /
Insufficiently litigious /
A giant Sisyphus
3
I think it’s time we stop re-litigating the 2016 election and get to know the candidates who are going to run in 2020. I would like to make sure Trump is a one-term President and harping on 2016 won’t do this, let’s look forward. Trump is on the campaign trail, he has money in bank, where are the Dems? I hope not talking about 2016!
11
Excellent analysis by Mr. Leonhardt. I am reminded of the distinction made by Thomas More in Sir Robert Bolt's play "A Man For All Seasons." More recognized the primacy of God's law over Man's, yet understood his limitations.
When Roper, More's future son in law, implores More to arrest Rich because he is a "bad man who has broken God's law," More refuses.
Had Comey not allowed his self righteousness and zeal to cloud his judgement, he may have recognized the distinction made by Thomas More when he explained to Roper why he would not arrest Rich.
"The currents and the eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can't navigate," ...but in the thickets of the law, oh, there I'm a forester."
Comey ignored Justice Department policy because --as Mr. Leonhardt points out--he was convinced he knew better.
6
Well said.
3
Though I think Comey played a role in Hillary's defeat, I can't help but think that had Hillary been more willing to discuss the mistake of using a private server for her emails more openly, the reopening of the investigation would not have mattered. I voted for Hillary not just for her idea's she had during her recent presidential campaign but for her record over all. She did much as a first lady, and accomplished much as a US senator, and she would have made an excellent President. Was she perfect? NO, but of the two, she was the most open book between the two candidates, having been under the microscope of the GOP for more than 20 years, with not one thing to show for all their effort. Yet Donald Trump was elected and is a total unknown; even now we know less about him than we do about Hillary, and what we do know about Trump, what he tells us daily in his tweets is he is a crybaby, an egotistical man-child who has temper tantrums and is in way over his head in leading this country, but doing a fine job of screwing every middle-class taxpayer while milking the system for enlarge his coffer. That is what the GOP minority thought made a good president.
11
although I strongly disagree with what Comey did before the election, as hard as it is to admit, I don't think that lost her the election. It didn't help, but anyone who was of a mind to believe that there was a big issue with her email was not voting for her anyway, and anyone intelligent enough to believe what he was explaining would have voted for her if that was her plan. We have to face that fact that The Donald won, even after the tapes of grabbing parts came out, no explanation of Hillarys conduct was going to change that. Sad, but true.
5
So, you think that James Comey had more influence on public opinion than the 3 or 4 times weekly headlines in the NYT that Hillary had an insurmountable and inexplicably large polling advantage prior to election?
Yet, after the election, it can be explained.
And in both instances, the NYT seems a bit too smug.
I live and swear by the NYT. Almost always, but not in this case.
You have a legitimate criticism of Comey, but you are a long way away from writing tragedy of any type.
8
Per aspera ad astra: There is many a slip between cup and lip.
2
What kind of absolute nonesense is this! Mr. Comey is a first class liar, and no matter what he does on his only left leaning book tour, no matter what is written in the book, the duplicitous actions he engaged in have and will hunt him down. Why was Mrs. Clinton not put under oath when she was interviewed by the FBI? Why was her exoneration letter drafted by Mr. Comey way before Mrs. Clinton and other key witnesses were even interviewed? Why did Mr. Comey portray the unvarified (pack of lies) dossier to the new President Trump as unvarified --- but then pursue using it as real evidence to gain a warrant of surveillance of the Trump Campaign. Yes, I know, I know. They were only spying on Carter Page. Yeah. Sure. Mr. Comey will soon have some significant legal problems, that is, unless like some others, he is above the law.
4
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
5
Reported then: "FBI director James Comey was told by top Justice Department officials not to make any public statement about renewing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, because it violated DOJ policy on commenting on ongoing investigations". Why, why, why, why, why did he? If there was nothing there, how could he? It wasn't like there were not wiser heads around, not only wiser, but his own bosses. If he spent the rest of his life working in every way possible to redeem himself, I don't thing he can. We could have had a civil society with the first woman president, a woman eminently qualified by experience and intelligence, who worked all her life for families and children. Instead, we have a crackpot moron who's only mission is to keep his name in the papers, frightening everyone every day, and takes direction from clowns on the TV like a Manchurian candidate. No Comey, I want to like you, but I can't.
13
For better or worse, it sounds like Mr. Comey failed to take his own advice and joined the Chicken Excrement Club. Whether there was more to the story than meets the eye, we will likely never know.
5
As others have commented, it is not just the US that suffers the consequences of the 2016 election. The whole world will suffer as a result. And yes, the US may suffer most of all as it assumes its new status as a failed state.
7
Anyone who's ever stood up to the inherent biases in our political system usually has the scars to prove it. I'd like to see him on the talk show circuit. I think the American people would like to hear his opinion.
2
He had a difficult choice and he may have been mistaken. That he helped elect Trump is as speculative as that the Russians did. My memory of the incident is that it convinced those who already disliked Clinton and mobilized many democrats who might not have voted. it was preaching to the choir and I am neither a Republican nor a Clinton fan.
4
Why do you think so many seemingly patriotic Americans can not see that few in history, singlehandedly, have ever done such harm to the nation and the world as Comey did with his "October surprise" that changed the 2016 election and made Trump President? What's even worse is that some of these people cannot admit the truth and have to lie to themselves and others that somehow Putin, not Comey, defeated Hilary Clinton. Comey, dedicated to the reputation of the FBI and its power and prestige, made it his top priority over fairness, responsibility and the good of his fellow Americans. The idea that somehow the Russian government determined the outcome is a myth that won't stand up to unbiased scrutiny. The FBI had a 100 times more influence on Hillary's loss than Putin. Rationally, apologizing for election-decider Comey is like apologizing for Benedict Arnold (though infinitely worse).
5
Jeez I dunno. Wasn't Comey going to be vilified no matter what he did before the election? He didn't single handedly give whatshisname the Presidency. It was way more complicated than that. I for one, am interested in hearing from him and not happy that his talk here sold out too quickly for me to get tickets.
4
Comey is a great American.
Comey is one of us, small, simple, and devoted to his myth.
5
Pretty spot on. Comey isn't the only reason we have a president Trump: a weak opponent, Obama-era insensitivity to conservatives, the jobless recovery, and a goofy electoral system that allows the winner of the popular vote to lose the election all contributed. However, Comey's ego and grandstanding certainly make the short list. Publishing a book about his tragic (Greek or otherwise) error just demonstrates his motives all over again. I hope he's satisfied.
3
Comey's first press conference about the emails deserves more scrutiny than is provided here. David Leonhardt devotes one sentence to it - "So he decided to go public with his explanation for not charging Clinton and to criticize her harshly."
Not only did Comey harshly criticize Clinton, but he also made statements that both left out important pieces of information and allowed a listener to make different assumptions about what he presented.
Example - when Comey talked about Clinton's mishandling of classified emails he said it was a "very small number." It was a small number. Exactly 3 of them. Why didn't he just say that? A cynical person might think he purposefully left it open for interpretation. Additionally, during his press conference he neglected to say that these three emails were sent (to Clinton) without the proper classified markings (a "c" in the header) which are required federal guidelines.
The public only found these things during subsequent congressional hearings. All the while Clinton's opponents used Comey's press conference language to savage Clinton in interviews and through television ads.
Comey should not get a free pass on this conduct regardless of any good he has accomplished before, or after, that disastrous press conference.
6
And may I add that Comey's inferences cast further aspersions on HRC. As Bill's wife, there were already many doubters among the electorate, reinforced by decades of right wing smear campaigns and propaganda. And we had a complicit media who not only gave the ignorant and inexperienced reality TV star (admittedly more colorful than HRC) free coverage, they parroted these words over and over:"Hillary, a flawed candidate." Like "flawed" is a new flash about any candidate for any job, about any person in all of human history?
2
My understanding is that Mr. Comey, having previously testified under oath to Congress that the information he had did not justify criminal charges against Clinton for her reckless/feckless treatment of classified information while Secretary of State. When new relevant information became available, he felt he was bound by law to reveal that. There was no equivalent situation related to Trump at the time.
This article is an example of why Trump can get away with his attacks on the press. Leonhardt does not address this aspect at all.
An even more outrageous article by Margaret Sullivan, late the public editor at the Times, and now at the Washington Post, savaged Comey, writing that even his emergency appearance at the side of John Asfhord in ICU, preventing Andrew Card and AG Gonzalez from getting Ashford to approve Bush's attempt to obtain sedated Ashford's signature extending Bush's warrantless wiretaps on Americans, was a self-aggrandizement act on Comey's part, rather than a highly principled, courageous and patriotic act.
Sullivan's and Leonhardt's articles show why America does not gain Presidents of the quality of James Comey and Sally Yates, for example, and has to choose between Trump and Clinton.
6
I will never forget October 28, 2016. When I returned home after voting for Hillary early, my husband informed me about Comey’s announcement. My elation turned immediately into despair. “She’s going to lose” was my response. Nevertheless, I plan to read his book and try to understand why he unwittingly colluded in making tRump our demigod President...
6
I heard the announcement as I was driving to lunch with a friend. I just could not bring it up over lunch, but couldn't wait to get back in my car to hear more. I had your exact reaction-- I knew it was over for HRC-- who should have been our first woman president. I on the other hand will NOT read this man's book.
1
Come is unforgivably discredited in my eyes. His was so vast and inexcusable an error as to cause me to think back recollecting the Hoover era and regard him as a conspiratorially evil secret policeman who with malice aforethought intervened in an American presidential election in service to unrepentant reactionary and oppressive currents.
9
As an instructor of literature, I don't find Comey's actions to be in any way an example of hubris. Scapegoating him for his investigation into HRC reflects more hubris. If anything, Comey is an example of the lack of hubris, in the sense that his actions were faithful to his job to help the system of checks and balances no matter what it cost him vis-a-vis public opinion or, now, vilification by the current administration. His actions prior to the election were fair (and did not cost HRC the election; we know there was far more to it than that). He acted in good faith, and had he not done what he did prior to the election, and had HRC won, I would still have held him liable for not questioning the legality of her actions. I agree with Mr. Schreibman here--this assessment misses the mark, and we all know that at this point it's useless to be rueful.
60
"his actions were faithful to his job to help the system of checks and balances no matter what it cost him vis-a-vis public opinion"
No, his actions were not appropriate or fair, and that is what he is justifiably being criticized, not "scapegoated" for.
This is the key bit from the article:
"Department policy dictates that investigators aren’t supposed to talk publicly about why they are not bringing charges. They especially don’t do so when they could affect an election."
Hubris is defined among other things as excessive confidence or self-importance. Comey thought he was sacrificing his reputation to do what he saw as the right thing. I suppose a better word for his behavior would be "self-righteousness".
50
As the writer reiterates, his public discussion of the case broke all the norms that Comey himself had upheld and were not neccessary to the cause of justice, just to the cause of giving himself cover. His actions were not faithful to the systems of checks and balances. And if you don't think his conduct had an impact on the election, you haven't looked at the poll numbers and other data that are available. There was a marked shift. And let's not forget, the election was decided by 73,000 votes in three states. Was it the only factor? Of course not, no one's saying it is. But when you publicly censure a candidate, even after exonerating her, two weeks before an election, it's going to make a big difference and thinking it didn't is just naive, to be kind about it.
49
It was indeed hubris for Comey to publicly reintroduce the subject of Clinton's emails 11 days before the election. NO ONE would imagine that could have been seen as having a negative effect on the election outcome. His self-righteous public reasoning and after-the-fact rationalizations were, and are, pathetic. NOTE: He did NOT mention the ongoing Trump organization/Russian influence investigation, did he? NO. So much for being "faithful to his job to help the system of checks and balances". Now THAT'S hubris.
41
Is there any doubt that he more than the Russians cost Hillary the election?
What cost that did to our country is still not totaled.
8
As we can't go back in time and quantify how much Comey influenced the election, the best anyone can do is make guesses. Because Comey opened up the investigation into Clinton's email servers again 11 days before the election, and because the election was so close, there's a fair possibility that he influenced the election on Trumps behalf without meaning to do so.
Whenever I see James Comey it is this grim possibility that I see hovering over his head like a shadow. I am curious what he will say about this episode in his book, which is likely to become a best seller. Because of this latter possibility, I don't view Comey's life as a tragedy. After all he probably will make quite a bit of money from the proceeds of his book.
10
That's a fair appraisal of Comey. One thing to note, way too much import was made by the press and the public over Clinton's use of a private server. Comey may have been wrong to publicly exonerate (and berate her actions, as well) but as citizens we have to become better at assessing the conduct of politicians and not try to turn every infraction into a criminal indictment. For those so concerned over the security implications involved there, I wonder how they feel about Trump's use of top level aides performing extended duties without being able to ultimately obtain security clearances? At the end of the day, this election was on us.
12
However decent a man James Comey may be, he clearly suffers from an outsized ego that compelled him to insert himself in the middle of a presidential election with disastrous results for candidate. As has been widely noted, this unprecedented action by an unelected government official was in defiance of sound professional advice from his superiors and strict, established protocol. In hindsight, the result of Mr. Comey's reckless action is clear: James Comey arguably did more to subvert American democracy than even Richard Nixon, while likely altering the course of American history and doing incalculable damage to its institutions and norms.
18
Mr. Leonhardt, your piece today is laugh out loud funny.
This man changed the course of history - he violated a longstanding Department policy dictating how the Department should behave with respect to any matters that may impact an electoral outcome. To use your apt description, he "decided that he knew better than everyone else" and he sent a letter to Congress announcing a new chapter in an old investigation before he/his people even knew if there was any evidence of criminality, which there wasn't. And then he later testified he felt "mildly nauseous" about the outcome.
In my office, we don't celebrate that lack of judgment or behavior. He didn't just cost the Democratic candidate the election - by his hubris he facilitated the diminishment of America in the eyes of the world and before it is over millions of Americans will be the worse for it.
I would never buy his book, nor will I borrow it, it belongs on the trash heap of history.
21
In my opinion what Mr. Leonhardt regards as Mr. Comey's "hubris, I call "ethics." Hubris on Clinton's part caused this entire debacle.
7
Well reasoned and well written, NYT.
7
After serving as an artillery officer in Vietnam and a civil servant at the Library of Congress from 1978 to 1992, I developed a keen sense of identifying true patriots and outstanding and selfless public servants. James Comey like a Greek hero is not perfect, but that’s what happens when you dare to assume a prominent role on the national and now international stage. I am eager to read his book because I recognize his essential truthfulness. His account will surely be validated by other courageous public servants and history. It will depress me to read once again about the despicable and unconstitutional acts our President has committed since taking office. James Comey is just one victim in this ongoing tragedy. We have all been victims since January 20, 2017. Let’s hope that truth will triumph in the end.
11
With respect, we are the victims - we the people of the US, we the people (and the environment!) of the world are suffering because of Comey's hubris. Comey lost his job; sure. And I'm sure many of us know how much that hurts. But others have lost their homes, their families, their places in the world; America has lost allies, power and prestige; the environment may be lost, period.
Comey is rich and famous.
So please.
9
Did the American public not deserve to know that Trump was also under a criminal investigation at the same time?
29
I'm a huge admirer of President Obama but have concluded that he too let us down. Mitch McConnell is absolutely guilty in my opinion of obstructing, if not justice than truth when he refused to go forward with Obama and tell the people about Russia's interference. Ultimately though the buck stopped with President Obama. We had an absolute right to know what was going on, appearances be damned. Now it's too late. We may not recover.
3
Yes we did but the FBI didn't have the GOP breathing down their neck about Trump they way they were about Clinton. I am convinced there was a great deal of pressure brought to bear to smear HRC.
2
The dictionary definition of FECKLESS is IMO, too negative a word to apply to Obama, though it often is. However, there are multiple incidents where Obama backed down, imprudently. You named one. I would add not going to the democrats running for reelection in 2010 and telling them to grow a spine and defend the ACA they voted for. Another is not taking the nomination of Garland to We the People. In short-- Obama often took a paring knife to a bloody gun brawl. And of course came up short. In this case, tragically so.
1
He served his ego not the country.
17
Comey gave us Trump for President and that is what he will be remembered for in the US and the World.
19
Comey criticized Hillary harshly regarding he emails in his report deciding, “that she had not done anything that warranted criminal charges” but releasing it just before the election to please right-wing GOPers was a “tragic mistake (and it) matters because of the giant consequences for the country. He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. No matter how brave Comey has since been, no matter how honorable his full career, he can never undo that damage.”
Need I, or anyone else, say more?
15
Et tu brute?
With these words (penned by Shakespere, most likely not what Caesar actually said) signified the hinge of history that transformed Rome from a republic to an empire ruled by an emperor.
We might recover our republic, and we might not, and this single act by Comey might swing the balance.
Thanks to Barry Schreibman's post below for the phrase "hinge of history."
4
Agree completely. If trump's "victory" was not due to just a handful of votes in a handful of districts in 3 states, most dems would back off of the blame we assign to Comey. Under such shady circumstances and with such a dreadful outcome, hard to concede.
2
I doubt James Comey’s announcement 11 days before the election had such a powerful enough effect to cause Trump’s “win.” Clinton ran a terrible campaign and misread the American public in terms of what they wanted and needed in a president. She sounded like she did when giving college speeches and had too few counters to Trump’s lunatic hits. Knowing his hard-core base with the manners of a badger had probably read fewer books than Trump’s one, she should have spoken quietly and effectively in real people terms. She shot her own foot.
That said, James Comey did not cause a Democratic defeat. The electoral college did.
6
Well said,thank you!
1
Comey unwittingly overthought the FBI's investigation of HRC's emails. He Declared that there were no criminal actions indicated by HRC's emails. Then, although he felt that HRC would be elected POTUS, he proceeded to editorialize HRC's careless handling of the emails, I believe to signal he was a loyal Republican. Yet he tried again before the election to discredit her, and we got who we got. Now he gets rationalize his actions with a book deal. All it will demonstrate is that he was not looking at the big picture.
7
Comey made a selfish well thought out decision and sacrificed the Justice Dep traditions and fair justice for his personal grandstanding. He is paying what he sowed and national interest is collateral damage.
14
The election of Trump is like the 747's colliding at Tenerife in March 1977. A horrendous catastrophe resulting from many different factors coming together in a "perfect storm." No one of those causes is sufficient, some might be individually necessary, but it's very hard to say which those are. What Comey did is certainly one of the most compelling causes of the tragedy (Greek or otherwise) that has gripped this country since 11/9 of 2016. No one can say that it was a necessary condition.
6
The Greek tragedy here isn't Comey. It's Trump. Man runs for high office, not because he wants the office or thinks he can win, but in order to enrich himself and his family. To everyone's shock, including his own, man wins high office and must (pretend to) govern. In the end, it is the downfall of the man, his family, and his associates. The country is the worse off for the whole episode.
22
It is worse than that @Slavic 09. It possesses itself to run for high office out of spite for a black man who held it before him (and held it high over his head) and did a far better job at this leadership position than Trump ever could, or will. I'm not saying it was a great job, but it was a good job, with the intention of trying the best he could for someone else. Meanwhile, the orange one, Trump, is nowhere to be found.
5
Comey was non-partisan politically, but he was only on his on side -what ever was best for him. He was an overzealous prosecutor against Arthur Andersen in the Enron affair. He used the power of the Justice Department to destroy Arthur Anderson, create losses for all the partners. The case was later overturned but the damage was done by his overzealousness.
Voting records have shown he hasn't voted in over thirty years. How can one trust someone who never takes a side except for their own? Comey is a product of Washigton DC - a career bureacrat with no allegiance except to his own self. There are hundreds of thousands of these people in government - we as a nation need to wary of all of them.
5
In my view, James Comey did more to sway the electorate away from Hillary Clinton than any other factor in the national election--far more than the damage Facebook or Russian bots might have done. Those other factors did not persuade Clinton voters to vote for Trump instead.
By announcing that he was re-opening the investigation when he did, he implied that there really was substance to the charges about her email abuse, and caused a lot of left-leaning Democrats who were already primed to "hold their nose and vote" for her to stay home from the polls instead.
That such charges turned out to have no merit only adds to the tragedy. I frankly don't care about the tragedy to Mr. Comey, but I am sickened by the tragedy to the American people and the world. I for one will not be buying his book and do not wish him continued success.
17
The Comey story is Shakespearean in breadth; alas Greek tragedy is the perfect metaphor. The irony is that Comey's view of himself as a good & righteous man, a man with an exemplary moral compass may be in glaring contrast to how he may indeed be remembered. Comey confused being righteous with being right. His intentions were honorable, however he was blinded by self..his arrogance did not permit him an honest view into his inner workings, his motivations and the possibility that what he was doing was not right..but very wrong. When being right is THE THING.truth is muddied...even good men can go astray..lose their balance.. I think when Comey speaks of being nauseous it is because somewhere on the spectrum he knew that his interference in the election was not the 'right' thing to do,but he had staked his territory..he was part of history..What history will afford Comey may be Shakespearean as well, "The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred in their bones." Comey is anything but evil, he is a good man, who unwittingly, with ego at the fore, helped pave a path for evil.
10
it's also tragic because he was helping a guy, even unwittingly, who in turn stab him from behind.
Just pray this tragic does not turn into a calamity now that the guy he help has the biggest button to send humanity to oblivion.
5
Arrogance, pure and simple, that's what Mr. Comey displayed when he ran in with his file of paperwork on Mrs. Clinton. I voted for Mrs. Clinton, even though I wasn't enthusiastic about her, but as one wise man said, "she's sane and competent". If Mr. Comey felt the need to tell the world that the investigation of Mrs. Clinton was being re-opened why did he not feel it was in the interests of the electorate to tell the world that he was beginning an investigation of Donald Trump? If he felt his conscience was clear in this, he wouldn't have to write a book to explain his blatant act of egotism, his rashness and his stupidity.
11
While Comey without doubt played a part in Clinton's defeat, a good part of the blame rests with Clinton herself. She didn't campaign hard enough. She failed to visit key swing states prior to the election. I don't think she took Trump as a serious threat and to me that was her undoing.
5
You say she didn't campaign hard enough and Comey didn't effect the outcome.
You seem to forget that Comey's "investigation" was central to Trump's campaign, referred to in every one of his rallies. Every single one.
You're trying to have it both ways. If campaigning works, Comey had an effect. If campaigning doesn't work, she didn't have to campaign harder.
So which is it ?
4
James Comey, influenced the election, and, changed this country, for generations. Without, Comey, Trump, and all the nightmares that he brings with him, would not be happening.
It was true, people voted for Trump, but, those voters who were leaning towards Hillary, were either demoralized or disgusted, after, Comey, 10 days before the election, reopened the alledged accusations against, Hillary. Rather than voting for Hillary, they just decided to stay home.
Hillary, with all her imperfections, was the only figure standing against the apocalypse that Donald Trump, would bring.
Comey, played a substantial role in making sure that , become a reality.
20
The ability of Republicans to steal presidential elections benfits from actions like those of Comey, the Russians, Facebook, Fox Fake News, etc. But the greatest asset to Repub;ican destruction of democracy is voter apathy. Forty million already registered voters stayed home in 2016. Trump was put in office with a mere 29% of the total electorate. Unless and until Americans can be bothered to show up at the polls, it will be relatively easy for GOP election thefts to take place ad nauseum.
14
Clinton would have lost even if Comey had never been born. There are many people more culpable for putting Trump in Office than Comey, I am thinking Bernie Sanders is at the top of that pile.
8
As much as I am disgusted with Berniebuster fans cannibalizing the Democratic party, and circular firing squads on hardworking pragmatists and public servants who actually have to face real opposition and get blamed for losing to the majority, please don't go there.
Bernie injected a refreshing idealism into the campaign, and has electrified progressives across the land.
I left him for Clinton halfway through the primaries, but I would happily have voted for him.
The trolling and conspiracy ideation is the fault of multiple parties, and Bernie continues to work for us all. It's the rockstar crowds and armchair critics who need to wake up and get to work. So far, we Democrats are doing rather well, and shooting at victims (Democrats of any stripe) rather than blaming the real perps (Republicans, the Kochtopus, Mercers, the NRA, trolls, et al.) is not helping.
5
What you call “refreshing idealism” I call deliberately misleading wide-eyed naifs with false promises. Hillary was realistic about what’s possible but people didn’t like that.
3
Even now every Trump troll on social media refers to Secretary Clinton as a “criminal.”
Deplorables at Trump rallies are STILL screaming “Lock her up.” Even three star general Michael Flynn started that chant at the Republican National Convention.
As a veteran and widow of a vet I watched in horror how so many once venerated general officers became pawns of this horrible president. McMaster--STILL active duty and considered to be going for his 4th star has now retired from the Army. Kelly? Well we’ve seen his shining image tarnished forever.
And General “Chaos” Mattis has no business being Sec’y of Defense as that is a civilian position. He’s just a lackey now.
Another “general officer” rear admiral Ronny Jackson has shown his predilection for lying when he told the country that Trump was in excellent health. Trump can barely drink from a bottle of water without shaking as he uses both hands to find his mouth. A man in such bad shape that he needed a golf cart to take him down a 300 yard cobblestone street at the G7 summit in Taormina that the other leaders walked without difficulty. A man who drives his golf cart onto greens and driving tees as he has trouble walking over 100 feet.
FBI agents, military leaders have all shown their inherent weakness when combined with our country’s greatest confidence man..Donald J Trump and we are ALL suffering including our allies.
21
Why didn't Obama fire Comey the same day he announced that Clinton would not be indicted but continued flapping his mouth about her 'carelessness'? Everyone knows a cop can't make a public statement criticizing a suspect that's been found not guilty of a crime. It's too late now, but I hope Obama is paying attention to the way Trump uses the power of the Presidency to further his (disastrous) agenda. Following Bill Clinton, we had an idiot president, then a weak president, and now an evil leader. Doesn't speak well for the future of this country, now does it?
7
I agree and not enough people make this point.
2
We’ll never know how much Comey’s commenting on why no charges against Hilary’s election cost us. Was he reacting to Trump’s repeated childish bullying of Hilary Clinton? It was clearly a bone head move that should have cost him his job.
6
His behavior was just plain odd......trying to understand his motives is difficult at best!
6
Totally overlooked in this article: the tarmac meeting in Phoenix between former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton which triggered so much pressure from Republicans on the FBI that it most probably was the unique reason why Comey decided to go public with the H. Clinton investigation.
3
Ah, but it's all so beautiful! As Anouilh wrote in 'Antigone' - "Tragedy is restful; and the reason is that hope, that foul deceitful thing, has no part in it. There isn't any hope. You're trapped. The whole sky has fallen on you, and all you can do about it is shout. Don't mistake me: I said 'shout': I did not say groan, whimper, complain. That, you cannot do. But you can shout aloud; you can get at all those things said that you never dared say--or never even knew till then. And you don't say these things because it will do any good to say them: you know better than that. You say them for their own sake; you say them because you learn a lot from them."
5
I agree with this article. The FBI rule is - if you are not going to indict - keep quiet. Comey failed to do that. Hillary Clinton was not a good candidate so I don't know how much Comey actually contributed to her defeat; we may never know. But he certainly injured his own reputation.
4
The bigger tragedy was that had Clinton ever admitted that what she did with her email server was wrong, the voters may well have forgiven her for her error. (She may even have claimed ignorance, although it was probably a calculated effort to avoid FOIA scrutiny of her emails--Clinton is a lot of things, but not dumb.) By 2012, no government worker, lawyer, or other person who works for a large organization in a position that requires secrecy would reasonably believe that it was OK to use a private server. Government and defense contractor workers, lawyers, and others were legitimately dismayed that Clinton would claim exemption, when any of these people would have been fired immediately had they engaged in similar behavior.
5
Comey made a lot of procedural mistakes because he tried to bend to the will of the Republicans while still keeping the investigations objective. The Republicans came after him anyway.
7
It really all comes down to his decision to ignore bureau policy and publicly reopen the case into Hillary's emails. Whatever his excuse for doing it, that one arrogant act will follow him wherever he goes and hound him to the end of his days. It taints all he did before and will ever do after. The consequences of it may cost tens of thousands if not millions of lives before we get a full reckoning. He's the architect of his own tragedy, and if his book doesn't admit this it has no value to posterity.
12
Any person with a brain would have realized that making an announcement about an investigation immediately prior to an election would have a dramatic impact. I cannot even call his decision to go public "unfortunate." It was just plain wrong, and he should have known it. His name will now be mud for all time, right along with Benedict Arnold.
10
I was angry with Comey about his interference in the election process and felt that he had damaged Clinton so badly in the last two weeks of the election that he helped Trump to win the Presidential election at the American people's expense. When Comey was fired and humiliated in public by Trump I did sympathize with him because of the vindictiveness of the action. No one deserves to be treated that way. As I watched Comey testify before Congress after the firing I realized that Comey did believe that he had done the right thing. But as Comey said himself, it was to protect the FBI. Comey put the reputation of the FBI ahead of what was in the best interests of this country. I don't believe that it was a vindictive action of his part but I do believe that Comey was both in denial and blind to the consequences.
12
I think the first page in the book of a freshly fired political hack with few other options, write a book - cash before your name falls out of the semi-daily chatter.
3
Coulda, shoulda, woulda
"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)
Hubris, indeed...
5
Most Americans have no idea that many political leaders have used personal email to do public business - before and since Hillary Clinton. Most have no idea that the State department was being repeatedly hacked at the time that Clinton decided to roll her own email server. Most Americans do not have the faintest clue what the actual technical risks and implications were. All they know and knew was that it was permanently on the front page, pounded by the GOP propaganda machine over and over, and repeated by the MSM. The fact is that Comey’s FBI chose to emphasize that propaganda with not one but two press conferences.
In retrospect that decision looks more and more dire. None of the public rationales offered by Comey make any sense compared to the decision to stay silent about an investigation of collusion with a foreign government by the other candidate (who had never held office). Trump, at least in part, won the election by colluding with a foreign enemy - who at the time was actively engaged in cyberattacks on our country. He went on national TV inviting Russia to hack us & saying Putin was a better leader than Obama. The FBI watched those clips and said nothing to the American voter.
We will likely never know the full truth on what went down. But we do know that Comey’s FBI stayed silent while there was still time to warn the country of an ongoing attack on our country.
20
Trump et al, are using personal emails and devices right now.
8
Spare a thought for former AG Loretta Lynch, who, in a fit of the vapors over “Tarmac-gate,” did not merely recuse herself and delegate supervision of Comey to the estimable Sally Yates, but additionally gave Comey carte blanche to dispose of the case, including reporting or not, as he saw fit. She weaponized his hubristic and Machiavellian ego where she could have kept it in check.
6
Comey not partisan? Not true. He purposely helped elect Trump and got the exact thanks from him that he deserved.
9
Interesting it is that in his 2005 "good-bye speech to the Justice Department," James Comey "quotes the 18th-century preacher John Wesley: 'Do all the good that you can.'”
In 2016, part of that "good" was leaning over forward to show that he wasn't going easy on Hillary Clinton -- thereby helping to elect Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton, whose political impulses famously began with that same Wesley "quotation," learned in her Methodist Youth Fellowship: " "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."
2
You ask What, ultimately, are we supposed to make of Comey ?
Answer, he gave the presidency to Donald J. Trump !
9
My, my, my...
It is tempting to lay Spanky on Comey, but that is hardly fair.
HC ran an abysmal campaign that ignored Bill's advice to campaign hard in the "rust belt." Her elitist blind eye to the cares and woes of working Americans cost her the election. It should never have been so close that Comey's shooting his mouth off would have made a difference.
And forget not the rigged primary that kept Mr. Sanders from the presidency.
5
Someday, people will stop lying about the "rigged primary." The fact is millions of primary voters preferred HRC to Bernie and cast their votes accordingly. NOBODY twisted our arms. We thought about it. We voted for HRC because she was way better qualified and for some other, more subtle but compelling reasons, including women's issues and issues confronting people of color.
2
This is a lying smear job. Certainly Leonhardt knows full well that Trump minions through the FBI group called "Trumpland", Rudy Guliani, and others forced his had by threatening to leak false information before the election that would nonetheless amount to a much worse damage to Clinton. Comey had to either allow them to do this or try to take control of the narrative. Either way, the Clinton email investigation would be back in the headlines weeks before the election. Comey concluded that his "re-opening" would cause less damage.
Whether or not he was correct is beside the point. He had to choose. This was not an ego trip. This was blackmail boy dirty cops and a dirty campaign.
Why are people not talking about this?
7
Few have pointed at the possibility that James Comey's actions may have been more politically motivated than many choose to entertain.
Republicans have been attempting to control the executive branch for eons and they have proven over and over that they actually do that very effectively when they control congress.
4
Comey well knew that a majority of those who vote to not decide who to vote for until several weeks before the election. So when he sent the suspicion letter to Congress within 11 days of 11/9, also when early voting was taking place, he not only sealed Hillary's doom, but that of America as well. Further Comey knew of the Russian Cyber war by then, so he is not a tragic hero, but complicit in aiding Putin's Cyber war attack on America's free and fair elections to subvert the outcome.
7
I had the same sick feeling when Comey made his announcement. I'd been reading about Russian interference; had seen real-time examples of "fake news" on Facebook; was aware of Brexit and right wing, white nationalist and Russia collusion there - so when Comey made his announcement I was stunned with the possibility that even the FBI had been corrupted, a conclusion supported by former mayor Giulliani's gossip and also the mysterious FBI twittering about Bill Clinton, from a long dead account, just before the election. Something is rotten in Denmark and I hope Robert Mueller finds it all.
1
If not for Comey's decision to intervene with an announcement that sounded bad but didn't have any substance shortly before the election, Trump wouldn't have been elected.
He therefore gets zero credit for coming around to doing the right thing a year and a half later.
5
Mr. Leonhardt, you are too kind. I like that about you -- your civility and decency. But in this case, you're way off the mark. Greek tragedy, my Aunt Matilida. There's no tragedy here because there is no innocent explanation for what Comey. And what he did cost Hillary Clinton the election. Prosecutors absolutely do not share information about ongoing investigations. Certainly not Justice Department prosecutors who are bound by clear, explicit rules which prohibit doing that. What Comey made public only days before the 2016 election were NOT FACTS but merely an ongoing investigation. And, it is important to note, upon investigation the suspicions Comey made public were proved to be groundless (the Weiner emails were either repetitive of emails already examined or inconsequential). Given the heart-breakingly thin margins which handed victory to a morally depraved psychopath in thrall to a foreign power, there is no forgiving what Comey did. It cost Hillary the election. And cost the nation. And cost us. And will cost succeeding generations. You don't blow off this kind of deep and lasting damage to the very fundaments of our democracy with there, there that's all right. Just a Greek tragedy. Comey deserves to be condemned by us and by history. The history of the fall of this republic (which will be written if current trends continue) will portray what Comey did as the hinge of history.
430
This response is perfect. Comey's October surprise put Trump into power. Now Comey wants forgiveness, which is impossible, unless he finds a way to get his Frankenstein's monster out of office. I doubt he has that kind of resolve.
52
Heartbreakingly true.
36
Righteous anger (who among us hasn't been there?) is useful as catharsis, but self-defeating as a final destination. Herodotus wrote that ancient Persians debated every proposition twice: once drunk, so their deliberations would not lack in energy and passion, then a second time sober, so they would not lack in prudence and reason.
Tragedy does not require innocence. Tragedy is an outcome no one wanted, least of all the protagonist. Comey already admitted to being "mildly nauseous" about possibly affecting the outcome of the election in Congressional testimony. In his perception, he had a lose-lose choice. THAT was his tragedy.
I am not persuaded by the assertion that Comey's chosen course of action led directly to HRC's defeat. It seems to me, the SOBER question to ask is: "Why was the race even so close that the action of one public individual could swing the outcome?" We have to remember, HRC led in some polls by as much as 10 points at times. That's 13.7 million votes. 90 million did not vote at all. I think putting all that on Comey is a stretch.
What about the soccer moms and the trendy hip with their noses buried in their smart phones who couldn't be bothered to vote? Or the general lack of sustained political awareness on the part of those who turn out for a B. Clinton or an Obama, then stop paying attention, thinking that the problem has been solved forevermore, and who conveniently conclude from an apparent large lead in the polls that their votes are not needed?
16
People can't argue that Hillary lost because she didn't campaign in the right places and that Comey's allegations had no effect on the vote.
Comey's allegations were central to the very campaign stops that people claim won the "election".
6
Leonhardt's piece offers a completely fair assessment of Comey, a good man intoxicated by his own reputation for goodness. Or maybe a selfish man driven to do good who in the end couldn't separate his own cause from the country's. Whatever.
What's clear is that the rest of who aren't Comey himself shouldn't be taken in. We can appreciate his honesty and other laudable traits without forgetting that the person who appreciates them the most is Comey himself. Too bad for him and for us.
3
I agree that Mr. Comey should not have made a public statement regarding the Clinton email case. He should've let AG Lynch handle it, which is the normal way DOJ operates. Of course, AG Lynch's "unscheduled" meeting with Bill Clinton destroyed all of her credibility. However, regardless of Comey's error, he did not help elect Trump. Trump tapped a seething undercurrent in the electorate that had nothing to do with Comey's public statements. HRC self-destructed, and Trump capitalized on that.
3
True, "Trump tapped a seething undercurrent in the electorate", but it wasn't enough. Comey's disclosure put him over the top. Both things can be true!
2
You are wrong. Look at the polling results by Nate Silver before and after his statement 11 days before the election to see how much he swayed public opinion.
This article leaves out a key detail. There was a specific precipitating event on 10/27/16 that caused Mr. Comey to write to Congress about the re-opened Clinton investigation on 10/28/16. The event was that Mr. Comey had authorized the FBI to seek a search warrant on 10/27/16 to open the emails from Hillary Clinton that were found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.
On 10/27/16, the FBI team that had investigated and closed the Hillary Clinton server case, asked to meet with James Comey. They told him that had found thousands of emails from the Clinton Domain on Anthony Weiner's Laptop and these were from the first 3 months of Mrs. Clinton's term as Secretary of State, a period from which they had almost no emails and a period they were interested in because it might best show Mrs. Clinton's intent in setting up the server. This FBI team asked Mr. Comey to authorize them to seek a search warrant to open the emails and Mr. Comey gave this authorizatuon. He then felt that he had to write to Congress on 10/28/17 to tell them that he had reopened the case, because he had previously testified under oath that the case was closed.
This was the account that Mr. Comey gave during his 5/3/17 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and I personally find his account credible.
Mr. Comey seems like a responsible rule-follower and that is exactly who should run the FBI.
I'm a Democrat, if that matters.
8
Two problems with this.
There was no mention of the investigations into the Trump campaign, which were on the surface more culpable and treacherous.
There is a standard about not influencing elections, and it was applied to one side but not the other.
3
Hi Susan Anderson: The Clinton Investigation was opened in July 2015, and Mr. Comey announced that there would be no charges, one year later, in July 2016.; The Russian Trump Campaign investigation was opened in July 2016, and was still ongoing at the time of the election. On 10/28/16, Comey announced the reopening of the Clinton Investigation, for the reason stated above. There was no need to make a similar announcement about the Trump investigation as that was still ongoing - and was not a secret. In addition, Mr. Comey had previously testified before Congress that he would tell them if the Clinton Investigaton was re-opened, which he did.
A very messy situation with many players, but, in my opinion, I think Comey did the right thing at every difficult step.
Hi Susan Anderson: The Clinton Investigation was opened in July 2015, and Mr. Comey announced that there would be no charges, one year later, in July 2016; The Russian Trump Campaign investigation was opened in July 2016, and was still ongoing at the time of the election. On 10/28/16, Comey announced the reopening of the Clinton Investigation, for the reason stated above. There was no need to make a similar announcement about the Trump investigation as that was still ongoing - and was not a secret. In addition, Mr. Comey had previously testified before Congress that he would tell them if the Clinton Investigation was re-opened, which he did.
A very messy situation with many irresponsible players, but, in my opinion, I think Comey did the right thing at every difficult step.
The great irony is that while Comey may be responsible for the election of Donald Trump, he may also be responsible for the removal of Donald Trump.
Can he un-ring that bell?
1
It's not credible to me that this guy didn't know exactly what he was doing when he intentionally & without cause or propriety, abused the public trust to throw the election.
If he were careless, or hubristic, or enthralled with attention, whatever personal psychological instability that would prompt him to knowing throw an election of such consequence based on what he must have known was ridiculous evidence, then he should never have been entrusted with any part of genuine justice or authority.
That said, the stunning slip of the Clinton campaign, after all that hype about emails, to not go & clean up Huma's laptop, the selfish sickness of such a smart guy like Weiner, after all that trouble about his uncontrollable perversions, to then let it leave such a trail that could link right back to the embattled Clinton campaign, it all just defies comprehension.
But the patterns are not surprising. Comey is absolutely a partisan, all Republicans are, they all partake in Machiavellianist dirty-tricksterism to sway elections, it's been going on for decades.
None of the undermining of the Clintons since Gingrich's dirty war, would have been possible without republican dirty-tricksterism. They've been laying the groundwork for this coup through decades of propagandistic maneuvers to bring the electorate so close to even, that horrible people get elected by a whisker or technicality, people like Dubby & Trump.
It's not governance, it's war, & Comey won it for the GOP forever.
3
Comey the letter to Congress 11 days before the election may be looked back upon as the historical equivalent to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 in terms of historical significance.
While I currently assign no nefariousness to Comey's action, even in light that he did this against the urging of Justice Department Officials and very well know rules, it was a mistake of unfathomable proportions, and its full impact on history is not yet known. However the outlook so far is not good.
This moment in the history of the United States, and perhaps for the world, may become the poster child of unintended consequences, and the offspring of its marriage with the proverb that no good deed goes unpunished. We shall look up the word hubris in the dictionary, and shall see this action as the words de facto usage example for future generations.
4
Comey, for most of his career, was a team player within the FBI, following the rules and protocols laid out. All of that changed when he was working for Loretta Lynch (a woman). He broke protocol and defied a direct order from Lynch not to release info on an ongoing investigation. Both candidates were drawn into FBI investigations. The only one he chose to disclose was the Clinton investigation. He remained silent on Trump, although many considered that the to be greater risk to the US.
In this context, many woman would nod their head and say that his behavior was driven more by misogyny than by ego.
11
They say you should never meet your heroes. People are complicated, and fallible. Even the best people.
I do fault Comey for the re-opening of the email business 11 days before the election. That was inexcusable; investigate away, but they should not have announced it. Still, HRC was an incredibly polarizing candidate--possibly the only one who could have lost to Trump. I know plenty of moderate Republicans who held there noses and voted for her because they could see what Trump was, but others--and certainly people further to the right--who couldn't bear to and either sat out or voted for a 3rd party candidate. Between this and the Russian influence, I don't think we can fairly blame Clinton's loss on Comey. But he didn't help.
2
James Comey might indeed have "greater strengths than most people." This hardly obviates his Promethean flaw of self-righteous hubris that, arguably, has wreaked more damage on his country than that of any other Justice Department official in American history; certainly more than in the lifetime of anybody reading this.
The gravity of Comey's error is forgivable only in the context of his lifetime of exemplary law enforcement service. We live, however, in unforgiving times. Any doubt about this would be quickly dispelled by very few pointed words from Andrew McCabe.
8
Spot on. He is a good and principled man. But he wrongly thought that he knew better than anyone. Way too sure of his righteousness. And who knows whether he is responsible for Trump; so many other things were afoot. But he certainly did harm. And he destroyed Andy McCabe’s career too.
8
One would have to literally invent reasons not to like and respect Mr. Comey.
However, I agree with the writer in his analysis of Comey's "hubris" in defying Justice Department policies and traditions and overstepping his authority in improperly disclosing information about the Clinton investigation to the public and media.
He does, indeed, bear responsibility for Trump's being elected and that is something that he will have to live with the rest of his life.
Whatever the future holds for Mr. Comey it is a sure bet that his actions will follow him wherever he goes and that the full force of the consequences of his actions are yet to befall him.
7
"...releasing a public update on the investigation 11 days before the election..."
But there, your facts are wrong. As FBI director, Comey was a member of the Executive branch and was enjoined from making public statements that would impact an election. (the Hatch Act) The Director has also testified that he knew his 'private letter' was likely to be leaked.
The GOP congressmen who received Comey's communication are the dirty tricksters who made the election tilting letter public. The timing of that letter and the fact that it was not a pre-election clearing of Clinton of further suspicion - certainly Weiner's laptop had been in custody long enough for the analysis to have been completed rather than begun on 10/28! - implies a level of hanky-panky that most voters would not stomach.
The press (right-leaning propaganda arms and MSM both) ballyhooed the Comey letter as a decision by the Director to call Mrs. Clinton a crook. It wasn't but try and quantify the number of #NeverTrump'ers who were re-engaged and the late-deciders who finally went for Trump. It only takes 6 of them per 1,000 votes cast in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to change the outcome of the race.
The thing to fix is extending Hatch Act restrictions to all branches of government. The GOP will attempt to steal another election, no doubt. They'll just need to find another way.
6
Mueller as FBI Director and James Comey as Deputy Attorney General, both presided over post-9/11 cover-ups and secret abuses of the Constitution, including torture, enabled Bush-Cheney fabrications to launch wrongful wars, and exhibited plain vanilla incompetence.
Both corrupt to the core, nothing tragic about that.
5
46% of eligible voters never bothered to show up for the last general election. 8 million Democratic voters stayed home in 2016 versus 2012. And Clinton losing is Comey's fault? Look in the mirror voters. Look in the mirror.
7
I wonder if there's more to Comey's decision to announce that the F.B.I. was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails 11 days before the election that we don't yet know about.
I'm thinking of Rudy Giuliani's cryptic statement on Fox about "having something up our sleeves" days before Comey made this uncalled for announcement. Was Giuliani and the New York bureau of the F.B.I. threatening to leak the story and make Comey and his people look untrustworthy? Giuliani should be investigated for this possibility.
7
You are right: Comey's grave era was not to stick to the very above the fray rules that he ardently defended yet failed to shield from his own ego.
1
You give Comey too much credit for the outcome of the election. To single out the reopening of Clinton the investigation just before the election as THE cause for her loss is baloney. Of course it didn't help. Neither did RussiaGate or Facebook follies or Bernie, especially Bernie. and especially the blacks sitting out the election in major cities in swing states she needed to win. Combined they all caused her to come up short in the archaic Electoral College. She won the popular vote by 3 million votes. Not bad.
4
In assigning responsibility for an event, it's grossly improper to excuse or minimize one factor by citing several others that are equally responsible.
What counts is the question "But for the event in question, would the outcome have been the same?"
Sure, if any one of a number of factors that hurt Clinton had been different, she probably would have won. But that doesn't change the fact that Comey's blundering was (one such factor) enough to swing the final outcome.
Because the election in the end was so close, and Comey's actions were clearly enough to discourage ambivalent Clinton supporters and severely blunt Clinton momentum (including campaign morale) in the final stretch, it's very obvious that BUT FOR Comey's meddling/blundering, Clinton would have won, even despite her other vulnerabilities and shortcomings.
Russian/Cambridge Analytica/Trump Campaign voter suppression tactics, including Fake News and Facebook propaganda, were certainly effective and played a key role in suppressing the black vote and probably, the young left-leaning vote. Comey though caused her poll numbers to dive. It was horrifyingly obvious in real time. You could watch in on 538, draw a line and see the calamitous intersection of her descent with the deadline: voting day.
Comey's interference was disastrous and determinative.
Comey was in a no-win situation. His integrity and penchant for a little theatrics was taken advantage of.
I blame the folks who used secret email servers, Cambridge Analytica, failed to campaign in tight races, the Giuliani cabal in the FBI, and the voters for the outcome.
5
I find this analysis somewhat melodramatic. Blaming Trump's election on Comey ignores Hillary's profound flaws as a candidate, including a tin ear and a condescending attitude. (I voted for her, by the way, but man, I didn't want to). As for Comey himself. people who are willing to buck authority and speak the truth are rarely the perfectly disinterested Jimmy Stewart types that we might wish for. They might enjoy the feeling that they are doing something important, just a little. They might rise a bit in their own esteem for doing what they think is right. In short, they might be recognizably human. For my money, there is still more integrity in James Comey's little finger than can be found within 100 miles of either major party candidate for President last time around. I have pre-ordered his book and look forward to its arrival.
4
The focus of the criticism should be the two major political parties, both of which succeeded in politicizing an entity that never ought to be politicized: justice.
The Clinton investigation began before the Trump one and finished before the Trump one, which still is in process. I have no doubt that when Roberu Mueller's group ask for the next set of indictments the Republicans will be every bit as criticial of the Department of Justice as were the Democrats during the weeks just before and after the election.
1
The F.B.I. and most state prosecutors have a simple rule: No indictment; no comment. The reason for the rule is obvious. Comey deliberately disregarded this rule with disastrous results and for that he can never be forgiven.
12
I do not entirely agree with Mr. Leonhardt... as USA is the only super-power left, Trump problem is not just for USA but for the WORLD... that's the REAL damage Comey did. HRC could be a bad candidate, DP debacle leaded by Sanders could be catastrofic, but the nail in the coffin was the Comey interference.
167
superpower? of what? only the ability to be destructive now.
Yes, James Comey single-handedly changed the course of the 2016 election; yes, as a result, he changed the course of American (and World?) history and yes, we all have to live through an experience that is unnecessary. However, it is up to us (as we have always done) to try to make the best of a bad situation and DO NOT LET OURSELVES BE CAUGHT UP in what has become a glamorous system. We must let each venue, interviewer or talk-show host know to ask deep and stirring questions all the time. Let them know that we are watching and we expect to hear or receive answers that can steer us to a better understanding of our biases and weaknesses. We all moan and cry how bad politics and government and leadership have become. Well, it is up to us, the very people, to hold somebody's feet to the fire. We have to let our representatives, our leaders and yes, our pundits, know that a people can take only so much. After a while, it's no longer 'sexy' or stylish to move along merrily but to realize that we are playing game with what could have been a good effort by humans and that is the experiment we call America. Thanks
3
Did obsessing about Bush's election over Gore for a decade do you or the Democratic party any good? No, it did not. Neither will obsessing over the causes of Trump's election. Suffice it to say that both Gore and Clinton could have done many things differently that would have won them their election. Constantly looking backwards to try to place a little more weight on the Russians, or Comey, or whichever of the many different contributing causes is counter-product. It will not get Trump impeached, make him resign, or lose him the re-election vote. Four years of obsessing about Bush/Gore resulted in Bush's re-election. Don't forget that. Look forward, solve tomorrow's problems.
6
Democrats, like Charlie Brown and the football, keep expecting the GOP to exercise minimal levels of decency and respect in its conduct of politics and governance. The GOP, like Lucy, keeps pushing the envelope as necessary to remain in power. Obama didn’t learn; maybe the next generation of Dem voters have seen enough, even if some of their “leaders” and the press have not.
7
Tom,
Perhaps people didn't obsess ENOUGH about Gore. Bush sat on the 9/11 intel, Gore probably would not have.
6
Between Comey, the Russian hacking in multiple state voter databases, Facebook abuses via hard right wing Cambridge Analytica, RedMap GOP gerrymandering and systematic voter suppression, Trump's electoral college edge of 70,000 votes spread over 3 states against a popular vote loss of 3 million makes the 2016 election look even more suspect than the 2000 Bush election. Hard to believe that could ever be possible but the facts speak for themselves. Trump is not our president.
9
Although at the time it was strange and seemed unfair to Hillary. It is hard to say if it tipped the election and if this was the one and only reason for the election result going to mr Trump. What do anyone know about what was "fixed in the background"?
So many new pieces of the jigsaw is in place in direction of conspiracy to bend the election.. That there was help from outside to elect the current president may not come as a surprise to anyone.
It will be very interesting to read the book and follow the interviews with Comey.
2
Actually it's very easy to say. It tipped the election.
Name some other candidates who survived a fictitious 20 month long "investigation" campaign against them.
Try to name them.
4
I’m surprised that the role of the press has been completely ignored in both the article and that comments. The content of Comey’s so-called 11th hour announcement seemed rather pointless at the time. The reopening of the investigation was largely offset by the revelation that there were no substantive matters to be revealed. Nevertheless, the media, hungry for hot election news in what promised to be a Clinton landslide, jumped all over it, massaged it, and played it 24/7. Sure Comey’s announcement amounts to an egregious error in judgement, but the media amplified its actual import and hyped it for pubic consumption in service of their own commercial interests.
9
How can the man sleep at night? He really was the last big thing that gave us our current awful president.
7
Excellent opinion piece.
Not least because the word "tragedy" is used correctly, that is, to describe the fate of a good man whose fine qualities are the cause of his downfall.
Fatalities from car crashes and house fires are not tragedies -- sad as they are.
4
If he swayed the election it should be fairly straightforward to measure that with real numbers, unfortunately this is yet another piece that serves to point the finger instead of look at the democratic party and their chosen candidate. The NYT is choosing to attack someone with integrity, just like the party chose to attack Bernie and keep him from possibly winning the nomination. What is the point of yet another column like this? It's been written a thousand times and here we are again...smart losers introspect.
2
I do not agree with the conclusion that Comey is responsible for Clinton's loss. Clinton was a bad pick by the power elite of the Democratic Party. They jammed her down the throat of America and expected that the people would just accept that. She was much too decisive and unpopular. Maybe if the Democratic Party had run out Sanders the results would have been different. Both the Republican and the Democratic Parties are so much alike and so out of touch with America yet they seem to utterly and completely control the system. Game playing and corruption. Who owns the them? Certainly not the American people. Comey is OK. Stop blaming him for Clinton's loss.
4
If Comey is such an honorable man, Mr Leonhardt, why would he let partisan political concerns influence his handling of Mrs Clinton's investigation, not just once, but twice. Who needs Russians when you have partisan toadies in positions of influence?
6
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes.:
Complete nonsense. Comey allowed a sham investigation of Clinton to exonerate a woman who should have been convicted of several felonies.
And before we talk about the "Tragedy of James Comey", let's see whether he is charged for perjury for lying to congress, which he apparently did.
2
...And Comey was *played* by the NY office of the FBI, which was loyal to Guiliani, who advocated for more controversy around Hillary's emails just ahead of the election. Ordinarily, I wouldn't expect a seasoned FBI chief to be so easily manipulated in this way, but as 45 correctly once observed, Comey likes the limelight.
Thankfully, Mueller doesn't share that shortcoming. While I don't know how Mueller's investigation will turnout and whether we will be able to remove the unqualified and unethical would-be autocrat from the Oval Office before his damage to our democracy is irreversible, I do know that we're better off with a serious professional, like Bob Mueller, leading the investigation, than someone who has often demonstrated a surfeit of hubris.
3
"Department policy dictates that investigators aren’t supposed to talk publicly about why they are not bringing charges. They especially don’t do so when they could affect an election.
Comey, however, decided that he knew better than everyone else. He was the righteous Jim Comey, after all. He was going to speak truth to power."
This short passage tells you everything you need to know. 1) What Comey did was wrong and clearly against policy and wisdom. 2) Liberals, once he became the anti-Trump, will excuse and canonize him for it ignoring the real reason he was so wrong.
He wasn't wrong for simply ignoring advise and protocol in his Hillary exoneration. He was wrong because what she did was clearly illegal and actionable. Ask anyone with a security clearance... anyone, what would happen to them and their job if they kept a secret and private server at their house to store work documents (classified or otherwise). And ask them what would happen to them if they stored highly classified documents in an unsecured manner. They will tell you they would be fired, lose their clearance and likely be prosecuted.
So why did Comey go public to exonerate her? Because she was Hillary Clinton. Period. That is all the reason any subsequent president needs to remove him as head of the FBI. He couldn't be trusted to investigate without political bias.
1
Comey came forward since Lynch was compromised by Bill with their off the record meeting on a parked airplane. Still, he had no business saying anything. But, he gave HC a by in spite of overwhelming evidence that should have resulted in an indictment and Biden then would have stepped in to be the Democratic candidate. He then would be President today and not DT. That is how Comey did influence the election.
"He has never been a partisan, for either side."
Wow. Comey obviously knew there was nothing worth prosecuting, and barely anything worth mentioning, in Hillary Clinton's emails. And yet he very effectively handicapped her campaign and ultimately crushed it just 11 days before the 2016 election. Meanwhile the FBI investigation of Russian meddling in favor of Trump was kept under wraps. If that's not partisan ... then NOTHING is partisan.
7
Hubris it was. When he made that statement, a death sentence to Clinton's campaign, the screaming why, why, why, was never explained. Righteousness leads to arrogant and devastating decisions. Hubris is the only answer. Now the world pays when someone decides "I alone" can do this, "I alone" am righteous.
7
What group calls Comey their friend? Not the Hillary voters. Not the Trump voters.
.
Who? And, his too smart by half, by leaking to the NYT, that brought about this Mueller fiasco, will end with McCabe and the love birds being fired.
1
And you STILL think that Hillary was the answer. Too funny.
1
I, and most people I know, buy Comey’s explanation for announcing he was reopening the investigation, despite the light it cast in our candidate. AG Loretta Lynch had already decreed it was to be referred to as a ‘matter’ rather than an investigation, and then Ms. Lynch went on to have a tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton. Comey’s actions are the direct result of the actions of the AG and Bill Clinton and it is deeply irresponsible journalism to not reference those facts. Furthermore, there is no statistical proof that Comey’s announcement swayed an already deeply polarized election and it makes little sense to think it would. People had long who made up their minds whom they were voting for.
Nailed it!
1
The guy is a low-life.
Why, on or about June 27, 2016, did he prohibit the press from photographing Bill Clinton going to attorney General Loretta Lynch's plane on the tarmac of an airport in Arizona?
Why, after reciting a litany of wrong-doing by Hillary Clinton on or about July 5. 2016, right after the aforesaid Bill Clinton-Loretta Lynch meeting, did Comey recommend that Hillary not be prosecuted in regard to what he was instructed by Lynch to call "the matter"?
2
Because nothing Hillary did amounted to a hill of beans let alone a crime, that's why.
2
This man, though trying to do the right thing, did exactly the wrong thing. He certainly drove an important nail into the coffin of Hillary's campaign. But, though angered at his action, I must also admire the way he's stood up to Trump. I think Comey always want to do the right thing, but it is human to err. So I agree with the ambivalent view in this article.
Hindsight can be 20/20 - that is, it can see things at a given distance with the same clarity that a normal pair of human eyes would. We shouldn't confuse having 20/20 hindsight with having perfect vision, however, since - like the opinion piece here, "The Tragedy of James Comey" - it still emanates from a particular point of view. Mr. Leonhardt offers an intriguing interpretation of Mr. Comey's character, but he reminds me of an old professor who has developed an idée fixe about Hamlet's tragic flaw and doesn't want to hear any other opinions. Just as there are a lot of valid ways to interpret Shakespeare's play, there are a lot of valid ways to interpret history, and that multiplicity of sometimes conflicting interpretations enriches us. All of this is a just another way of saying that Mr. Leonhardt's take on the former FBI Director feels to me a bit too pat, a bit reductionary and a bit simplistic.
1
A tragedy indeed. It would help if Comey would acknowledge what he did. He elected Trump. I know it seems almost impossible for one person to have that much influence, and he may have meant well, but his choice to not reveal the Trump scandals has left us all in acute danger.
Acute danger is an understatement. If Trump doesn't manage to exacerbate World War III, he has already done his best to exacerbate climate change, and he is wrecking the economy for his rich friends. His other crimes and treachery are too numerous to mention.
7
The Tragedy of James Comey. Such a great title. But let me offer an alternative direction for its meaning:
In a volatile political moment, a principled man makes a set of extremely complex social, professional, and above all moral decisions. He is then (ironically, sanctimoniously) scapegoated for his "hubris," thereby becoming a means for bearing away the social, systemic hubris that kept the moment volatile (i.e., the election close) in the first place.
The tragedy of James Comey? The tragedy is that some version of this article would have been written regardless of who won the election. The tragedy is how natural it is to render what is instructive about Comey's predicament as another how-the-mighty-have-fallen story, to write him off for self-aggrandizement, grandstanding, etc. But does that strike no one else as too easy, too familiar, too blasé?
The intriguing thing about Comey's book tour is that he seems like the kind of person who might actually field a question about his own hubris with articulate candor. He might, furthermore, be willing to address the idea that his pride was more culpable for our current situation than any other American's. Until then, while he may be guilty of everything the article speculates, he may still be less guilty of hubris than most of us.
3
What made author claim that Trump is the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes? Trump just had his position for less than two years and our life is not ending yet. It is totally bias statement. Trump is the only president dare to do more things than his previous presidents because of political correction.
1
Great piece. I'm normally 180deg out from anything David Leonhardt writes but in this case I'm squarely with him. Comey put his "idea" of the job ahead of what the "actual" job was. He was way too high on his own importance. The worst kind of bureaucrat.
6
Very well said. Thank you.
2
"He and his team decided that she had not done anything that warranted criminal charges. "
Except, you are supposed to wait until you actually interview a witness or two before you decide.
Except, you are not supposed to "decide" under political pressure and for partisan reasons.
His "team" included the nonpartisan Strzok, who so helpfully rewrote Hillary's exoneration for Comey.
Is it only after he is convicted that he is not allowed to profit from his crimes?
1
I don't feel sorry for Comey, not at all. He's a glory hound whose poor judgment in refusing to follow Justice Department guidelines and just keep his mouth shut created these problems.
7
The sad fact is that Hilary, knowing that the jackals of the right would be looking for anything to discredit her, for some reason decided to install that infamous private server. Still, the FBI investigation cleared Hilary. But then "Carlos Danger" resurrected the scrutiny of the emails due to his strange behavior just before the election. And so, the tragedy of Trump. Comey would not have ever been involved without these incredibly dumb moves.
1
By writing a book and going on the entertainment tour, he cheapens sn already tarnished reputation. He did cause the last minute swing to Trump, while claiming he had to make the statement about Hillary because the American people would call him out if he did not disclose. He kept his mouth shut on Trump and Russia. In a way I am glad Hillary did not win. She would be impeached by now and Democratic party would be in taters. Let's acknowledge Trump is a mistake and his agenda is the far right wing of tax cuts for the rich, foreign wars, cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the dismantle of public schools and oh we have to wait on infrastructure because we have no money, because you got your 50 dollar a month tax cut.
3
Comey's original sin was listening to Obama when he told 60 Minutes in the spring of 2016 the FBI investigation into Hillary's quasi-legal activities would lead to nowhere: "There's no there, there." He told America. Then he dutifully yielded to Lynch's request to change the wording from "investigation" to "the matter" so as to coordinate with the DNC's thesis. So it went and he became Mueller to get Trump to expiate his sin. So sad for Comey--trashed and tarnished himself in the name of the Obama greater good.
3
Wow, until the part about Trump. Seems a bit hyperbolic.
1
Actually, that part is understatement.
This reminds me of the joke about the guy who lists all the amazing things he has accomplished, but then bemoans the fact that the only thing anyone remembers is the one time he did something inappropriate with a goat. The consequences of Comey's One Big Mistake will shape the nations' future for decades, if not for a century, and not in a positive way. If he tries to explain away his mistake, we all will know that whatever integrity he once had is well and truly gone.
6
As is tragically manifest, Comey's self-serving partisanship, in breaking the FBI's rule of maintaining media silence regarding any aspect of ongoing criminal investigations, did a hundred times more harm to our 2016 Presidential election than any social media interference by Russia.
3
The wisdom of David Leonhardt is rendered in his analysis of James Comey's tragic mistake. That Comey continues to justify breaking with protocall by harshly attacked Hillary Clinton in public is another aspect of Comey's self-regard morphing into hubris. Leonhard's depiction of how strength of character can turn bad is a worthy lesson for us all.
5
People, have you ever heard of a fixed mindset? It's pervasive in our country. Here is how you know you are suffering from it. You live here.
Can you rise above it? Absolutely. The only barrier is your pride and other other lower ordered thinking, all driven by your emotions.
What works to rise above it is curiosity. Infinite curiosity. Take a meaningful stand for knowing the truth, not what you think, feel or believe. What is actually happening? Move past your labels, your tribal instincts, and those who are quick to emote and persuade. Listen, investigate, check your sources, check your thinking, be willing to be wrong as much as you are willing to be right. Be excited at the possibility you will discern some introductory ideas and influences as false or true. Check your work. A good bookkeeper always checks their work.
These days, we are all so darn thrown. It's a strategy. of war, and the enemy, I am sad to report, is on the inside. They want you to be whupped up and stressed out because it makes it easier to fool you when your are angry and upset and shut down.
What's needed is resilience. POW's build their resilience, so do college students. How is it was are not generating a volunteer based resiliency movement throughout our country so we can stop leaning left and right and learn to just stand up straight and unite. I don't know about you, but when I listen to the masses, I hear we all want the same thing. The dividers have got to go.
3
This tragedy is imbedded within another. It was Bill Clinton's foolishness to board Loretta Lynch's plane and meet with her privately.
1
Let me state at the outset I did not vote for Donald Trump. Let me also state at the outset I did not vote for Hillary Clinton.
I thought that Trump was unqualified and Hillary was a liar. Just a small sample of her lies, she is still dodging bullets on the runway at Kosovo and her trashing of the women who claimed her husband sexually abused them claiming now that all woman who claim sexual abuse at the hands of others should be heard and fairly treated.
Lets be perfectly clear, Mrs. Clinton ran a horrible campaign and to be perfectly blunt, she cost herself the election she should have won hands down.
In the key states of of the rust belt Mrs. Clinton was on the wrong side of history and worse she virtually never set foot in those key states and thereby allowing white union and non-union male voters to turn away from the democratic party. You may call Trump a racist but he knew his audience and how they felt about their inevitable fall from the racial majority and the fears they felt as the racial birth rates turned against them.
She worried more about Bernie and the left wing who lived in California and New York than she worried about the union workers who then to her great dismay turned away from her to vote for Trump.
James Comey made headlines but he was not responsible for Trump becoming President.
If she had listened President Clinton, her husband she might have won and there would be two portraits of Presidents Clinton, not just one.
3
Here's how it looked to me -- the citizen in the street. He knew that information about the new cache of e-mails would get out of the FBI, perhaps already was out. Would he position himself for protection against ineffectual Democratic complaint or ruinous Republican onslaught? He chose the latter, less out of hubris than self-preservation, a choice many others make daily. Few are willing to side with the 90 lb. weakling in a grotesquely lopsided beach fight.
1
Thank you so much for writing this. With Trump around, it seems difficult for many to write anything negative about someone who is perceived as (now) being anti-Trump. There is plenty of talk of Comey as this noble person (and perhaps he is), but the release of the "update" just prior to the election smacked as something totally political, and self serving, just in case a republican was elected, and Comey wanted to have a shot at keeping his job. The entire experience left me feeling dirty, at best, and there are few people I despise more than DJT.
214
I vigorously defended Comey's decisions to go public on Ms. Clinton. What the piece does not recall is the anti-Clinton animus in the New York office of the FBI. I am convinced to this day that the details would have been leaked to the press, anyway, and in the most pernicious way possible. Thus, he decided to take the initiative and framing the issue in the least offensive way.
The question then is not whether Comey cost Hillary the election, rather it is if he chose among two evils the lesser one. Whether or not he did, we will never know.
5
Coney could have been a contender but he threw the fight to please the right.
3
The law is the law. The Democrats were the ones who wanted to promote transparency in gov't. Its not for Comey to decide whether it was broken enough. Clearly corrupt shenanigans were taking place in the Obama Justice Department. Certainly his critique of her behavior he indicated that Clinton clearly was wanting in good judgement. Clinton's using a private server to send secure messages was clearly wrong and could have been vulnerable to compromise. She never got her story straight. The travesty of her campaign and the result of Trump winning shows that Comey failed the public. Comey has been over sold as a straight shooter. He wanted to see Trump harmed.
1
Comey's behavior before the election is a study in why "2 wrongs don't make a right". He was wrong to make public statements about the Clinton investigation, and he then again did the wrong thing again in order to correct the first mistake, compounding his errors, not rectifying them.
5
Funny, Leonhardt doesn't mention that there was also an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign cooperation with the Russian government at the same time that the Weiner email announcement happened. So why didn't Comey feel the urge or obligation to announce that investigation? He got pretty darned confused there, to the nation's great peril.
7
President Obama should have fired Comey after Comey went rogue in June 2016, in direct contradiction with Justice Department policy, and publicly commented on not charging Clinton. Comey's words indicated that he very much wanted to have charged her with something - and therefore left the impression that she was very much guilty of something. Comey put not just his thumb on the election, but the full weight of his position. He thought he knew better than everyone - and we're all paying for it. Hoping Mueller has an advance of the book and can ask for a prior restraining order if there's one word that will compromise his investigation.
President Obama's "tragedy" (though I would have him and his tragedy any day over what we have now) was that he's an incredibly decent, ethical man who seemingly had a hard time believing that McConnell would do everything possible to obstruct Obama, and laugh in his face while doing it. McConnell's recent comments regarding wanting to leave a mark on long-range things like Supreme Court appointments are further evidence that Obama, either through his own judgment or through poor advice, drastically underestimated McConnell. The Obama administration did nothing to make McConnell pay for his scandalous behavior over Merritt Garland. And we'll be paying for decades for that.
7
I did not take Comey's public statements as hubris but as an attempt to protect the Justice Dept and the FBI. He testified that he felt protection was necessary after Bill Clinton's tarmac visit with Loretta Lynch was made public.
Tough to have the title of chief law enforcement officer and make the call Comey made regarding discussing Clinton's "email investigation" and even worse b/c we all know the outcome: the Trump presidency. If Comey was too filled w/pride, he paid the full price. Certainly not a higher price than Hillary paid, nor the rest of us who suffer under the dangerous and foolish reign of the completely unsuitable person at the helm. Good to keep this in mind, even if most of us will never have the real strength of those who hold the highest levels of power. Very much a Greek tragedy, this, or Shakespearean, and it's ongoing.
5
Sadly, Comey probably still thinks he was justified and the mea culpa will have to wait for another book some years from now.
For those who don't know what to make of Rosenstein (for supporting the firing of Comey and yet decidedly not a Trump pushover) this is why; Comey overstepped his bounds by reprimanding Clinton and explaining why there were no charges violated rules, norms and protocol, especially when promising to "update" congress if the Clinton private server investigation would be re-opened, effectively painting himself into a corner. Yes, Comey thinks himself as a tragic Greek figure who defines himself against power and suffers for it. His silly, romanticized need for self-righteousness could cost us a democracy.
4
James Comey created his own tragedy due to his own hubris. While chasing Mrs. Clinton's alleged email violations and/or her private servers, which were par for the course going back to before Senior President Bush, he ignored the real problem. . .the effect of lies spread through Facebook, Twitter, so as influence the outcome of the 2016 election. James Comey belongs on Fox News, where common sense is never part of the equation or a decision to speak on any issue.
3
Thank you for this piece-I enjoyed learning of Comey's gracious side. But the Clinton's reputation flaws begins in Arkansas and followed them to the white house and beyond. I am just a member of 'rank and file', to use Comey's words, or maybe a 'deplorable' to use Clinton's word. In my opinion, our now president got elected because the Democrats ran the wrong candidate, and that's where the blame if there must be some, lies.
2
Slightly nauseous was an understatement, especially for the rest of us.
7
Comey is perhaps the one person MOST responsible for Trump being "president." THAT should his legacy.
Although I tend to admire Comey's later (too late?) willingness to stand up to Trump's tampering with justice and backroom thuggery, the idea that he's playing all this into celebrity (and lots of money!) for himself really grates.
6
What a difference between James Comey and Robert Mueller.
Trump did the country a huge (yuge?) favor by firing Comey.
2
David Leonhardt's analysis is spot-on; great job.
4
Comey committed errors of omission and commission. Not revealing the Trump Russia Investigation was worse than revealing the Clinton investigation just before the election. Comey had no right to make that call.
4
Comey helped to elect Trump and then Trump fired him. Comey can only atone for his huge error by helping to bring down Trump and his crime family and associates.
4
Comey was in an impossible situation. It’s clear he was given direction to make EVERY effort to not indict Hillary for her email issues, as that would have implicated Obama as he was fully aware of her home brew server - he emailed her multiple times using that address. Comey had his statement written weeks before the FBI even interviewed Hillary, not exactly proper behavior.
1
Comey is all about Comey. He knew exactly what he was doing when he put the knife in Clinton's back right before the election. He'd investigated Whitewater as part of the Senate committee; he'd been involved in investigating Bill Clinton's Mark Rich pardon. Maybe he should have recused himself from all things Clinton if he was as proper and upstanding as he wants us to believe. Maybe then I would believe in they myth of himself that he is peddling. His public statement about Hillary's carelessness with her emails was beyond the pale and then he stuck it to her right before the election. I'm no Trump fan. But Comey makes me cringe.
4
Unlike Comey, Trump at least has never pretended to be righteous.
2
However great his career and impressive achievements before his fateful Clinton decision, he will be forever tarred by that horrible mistake. The whole world is paying for it.
4
In addition to Comey's actions regarding Hillary, he did not tell the American public that the Trump campaign was under investigation for possible ties to Russia.
2
It is quite a coincidence that John McCain and James Comey, both honorable men, nonetheless did untold damage to our country by their inexplicable actions. McCain with his choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, opening the door for the radical right and Comey by swinging the election to Trump by twice wounding Hillary Clinton.
4
Comey is no better than Trump. He's a shameless profiteer like the president. He lost all credibility when he did more damage to Hillary than Trump could ever do.
7
Mr. Comey gave the post truth, post fact fascist Trumpophile Republican party the access they needed to destroy American democracy. A fact we may never recover from, at least in our life times if ever.
That's all I need to know about his book.
6
Comey is not stupid. In fact, he is very intelligent, therefore he must have known the effect that his ill-advised disclosure would have on the election. Therefore he is a witting crook and a traitor. His self-serving book is the whining of a loser and belongs in the trash, and his memory should be relegated to the trashbin of history.
6
It is still better to burn in a fire fueled by principle and moral belief than to survive and thrive because you are devoid of principle or moral belief.
You forgot the part where Bill Clinton, dumbly, went onto Loretta Lynch's plane on the tarmac.
If he hadn't done that, she would not have recused herself, and Comey would not have had the opening to take center stage.
As it was, he should have kept his mouth shut — TWICE. First, when he excoriated Clinton in public, and second, when he announced the investigation was still ongoing, just days before the election.
Gee, thanks, Mr. Comey! Between Fox Fake News, the Russians, Facebook, and you, it's hard to tell who had the worst impact, but you managed to do enough damage to put the unhinged, uninformed, racist, insecure, failed businessman, misogynist, and charlatan into the White House.
And, you said nothing and told the electorate nothing about the far more important issue of the Putin-Kushner-Manafort-Russian-Trump nexus!
4
I can’t imagine that this man is stupid, but all indications are that he never thought through many of the actions he took.
1
Icarus flew too close to the sun. His name should never be mentioned without a few disparaging monikers: Useful Idiot, unwitting accomplice, walking accident, moronic boy scout, too good for his own good, etc. For all the good he tried to do in his life he was in fact them bringer of the Trumpocalypse.
4
Hey, you left out October 28th, 2016 James Comey tells Congress he has information outside the Clinton "emails" that smears the campaign with allegations Anthony Weiner who's wife worked with Hillary had been involved in texting with a 15 year old female thus empowering Trump into office.
Thank's Comey, you really did the trick.
2
Comey is not to blame for trump in the white house; the Clintons must share the lame for this horror show. Madam Clinton was too lazy and/or arrogant in her use of emails
which started the whole mess. Billary has always felt that
they were the next "kennedy's" in demo. world.
1
With Comey, "sanctimonious" takes on a whole new meaning. We have him to thank for the traitor in the Oval Office. I will NOT be reading his book.
4
I hold Comey responsible for the theft of the White House from Hillary Clinton. i shall not read his book.
4
Please, please, Mr Leonhardt
Just read The New York Times, will you?
Thanks in advance.
PS. just in case: The November 2016 article by Paul Krugman just after the election of Donald Duck.
The things I have to read just because you don't read this Journal.
1
Comey.......the arrogance of power.
Mr. Leonhardt simply has no grasp of what is really happening inside the Beltway.....I will use an obscure reference........the Woods have arrived at Castle Dunsinane.
1
Well said, Mr. Leonhardt. You've summarized very well the tragedy of Mr. Comey. I especially liked the reference to Greek tragedy. His fall reminded me very much of that from the beginning. That Hilary Clinton was guilty of anything other than bad judgement was always pretty obvious and that making that announcement days befor the election was going to tilt the balance toward a man with a fragile ego, stupendously bad judgement and who was clearly a demagogue with the moral fiber of a diseased alley cat was also pretty clear. Sad!! :-)
1
The op-ed is an unhelpful exercise in mythology. It conjures up an image of the fearless soldier on behalf of justice, waxing poetic to the point of sentimental. I can offer, however, a different and less flattering interpretation of the same facts. It is subjective, but so is the op-ed. Comey emerges as a more realistic figure of an ordinary bureaucrat with extraordinary ambitions. He lets Hillary off the hook. Like many others, he expects Hillary to win. The victory is to bury his malfeasance of justice. However, it can make him unacceptable for any future major political appointments. He make a move that can improve his chances for future nominations. And then came a surprise.
Justice has nothing to do with an affected paternalistic tribute to those who are below you in the command-control hierarchy. The foundation of justice is in recognition of the autonomy and in respect for the intelligence of every individual. Comey’s intricate maneuvers, and now his publicity stunt, indicate that he does not respect our intelligence. He does make clear to all of us what has happened and why. He continues to confuse us and offend our intelligence. And so does this piece. The op-ed makes clear that Comey is falling between two chairs. He will never satisfy those who feel that he has transgressed against justice. However, Comey will not win any favors with those who blame him for Hillary’s loss. The most he can hope for is to get some cash to offset his future legal fees.
2
I so look forward to seeing minute by minute coverage of the email investigation once again spattered on the front page, just in time for the midterms.
1
A fair reading of Coney reveals a political actor with less than stellar results at the FBI. His last year seems to show a man mostly concerned with protecting his own job.
2
"Amen" to the conclusions about Comey and his failure to define the line between strength and hubris well enough. We are all paying a high price for that failure.
4
Leonhardt puts his finger on it: central casting's idea of a lawman. But in the end, an empty suit.
How could a principled public servant in the run-up to the election go public with Clinton's email issues while staying silent about Trumps' Russian connections? A poseur, a fake, a man way over his head. And my nomination for the Ralph Nader 2016 award.
10
"His tragic mistake matters because of the giant consequences for the country. He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. No matter how brave Comey has since been, no matter how honorable his full career, he can never undo that damage."
At the time he wrote his October 28, 2016 letter, the FBI had no idea what emails were present on the laptop.
Comey should have first gotten a search warrant for the emails on the Weiner laptop, and should have immediately assigned as many people as needed to review those emails as fast as possible.
If they had found something of consequence, he could then have made an annnouncement.
If they found nothing (as was the case), he needn't have said a word.
His mistake was "shooting his mouth off" before he even had the right to view any of the emails. As an experienced attorney, professional investigator and prosecutor, he knew that you never comment until you KNOW THE FACTS.
The search warrant was not received until days AFTER his October 28, 2016 letter to Congress, which letter leaked (or "was publicized") immediately. He had to know that the letter would be leaked as soon as Congress received it.
Honor is not easily earned. You can "blow it" in short order. Even if James Comey ends up being a witness who brings down Donald Trump, he can never live down his incredibly foolish mistake writing the letter when he did. We will all pay the price for his mistake.
7
Terrific piece, except that, as other posters have noted, he featured HRC alone, not DJT. If he meant to stay above the political fray, he should have kept quiet. If not, he should have pointed out that the FBI also had received info via the Steele document, that the FBI was looking into the possibility of Russian infiltration. Bottom line: he should have kept quiet.
9
Instead of a book Comey could have sent a tweet saying he's sorry.
7
Interesting to contrast Obama's decision not to highlight Russia's intrusion on the election (brought out even more clearly in 60 Minutes last night) for fear of accusations of his influencing the election with Comey's decision to do so. Both did regrettable damage to our country by boosting Trump to the victory. His governance by FOX News is crazy. Right now Rupert Murdoch has more impact on this gullible, ignorant man than all the members of his cabinet and GOP Congress combined, with the exception of Mattis. Instead of looking into how the Koch brothers benefit financially from Trump's decisions, we should be looking in to the effect on Murdoch's finances.
6
Woulda', shoulda', coulda' jimmy.
No matter how many of these books you write, or talk show host you mug for jimmy, you'll always be a disgrace.
10
Had Bill Clinton not hopped on Loretta Lynch's plane on the tarmac in Phoenix, the air would have been a lot clearer (and Lynch could have remained in control of the email investigation of HRC).
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/us/politics/loretta-lynch-hillary-cli...
6
But they did hop on that plane. One of the smartest, most instinctive politicians in a generation and a very savvy career prosecutor created this much turmoil and jeopardy for Hillary and the country to talk about grand-kids and golf? Not likely. I wonder what they could have talked about, one-on-one... for 25 minutes? Surely nothing that could have had to do with this squeaky clean investigation? Surely there was no collusion between Clinton, Lynch and Comey? Of course not, that would be illegal. So the only explanation is one of the most savvy politicians in our lifetime met with a seasoned prosecutor AG 4 days before his presidential candidate wife was questionably cleared of serious charges... to talk about their grand-kids and golf? Move along... nothing to see here.
1
the FBI should've handed over the findings to Sally Yates.James Comey was showboating for his Republican friends.Gowdy,Goodlatte,Nunes.Chaeffetz (ugh).He knew exactly what he was doing.Integity?not so much
2
Who will buy his book? Who will pay at his book signings?
.
Hillary thinks he cheated her out of her win. Trump thinks he was covering for Hillary.
.
I think this book is a payoff, to keep his mouth shut.
3
I agree with David Leonhardt's characterization of James Comey. However, there is more to that in accounting for his words and actions. There are factions within the FBI. In particular, its New York office was eager to torpedo the election of Hillary Clinton. Recall that Rudy Giuliani, who had close ties with that office, predicted that the FBI would release damning information on Mrs. Clinton.
Unfortunately, the files of the FBI won't be unsealed until 2067. It's a pity we'll all be dead.
6
James Comey shut the barn door after the horses were stolen.
6
Spot on --- you could tell from the first words out of the guy's mouth, any year, any situation, that he was this pious prig, full of conceited rectitude, unintrospective, heedless, lacking good judgment. Thanks, man.
7
He was an ego out of control and, in all probably, caused the election of tdump.
12
Where were these people while Rome was burning? Did you have right wing friends believing Pizza-Gate? Because I did. He's worrying about the Clinton Foundation while anyone with a brain can see what's going on at the time. Conservative friends spreading disinformation realtime on Facebook. Seth Rich? He missed the boat in such a major way. The best and the brightest? Gag me.
3
Who did you vote for, Mr L?
I recall the Times took an "above the fray" sort of attitude which well to do and highly educated types might see themselves as inhabiting.
I was, however, truly shocked to discover that so many millions of Democrats who'd voted for Obie, had stayed home or voted third party in 16 because the NY Times assured them that she would win no matter what.
Effectively, it wasn't the Russkis or the GOP which won this election-no.
It was Democrats-millions of white upper class and upper middle class Dems, who hated Hillary and suspected her of liking money too much-who thought, since the NY Times-Leonhardt's paper-claimed she was a "shoo in", and bcause the book makers in London had predicted her win-(London bookmakers had never been wrong, 'till 2016), that they could safely,(as in 2000 when the same voter type cast ballots for Nader, losing the election to Bush.), vote for a communist or green candidate, or just stay home since she would win no matter what."They "read it in the NY Times!" after all. . .
1
Tragicomedy or Tragi-Comey. Yes, hubris. The favorite character trait of AP English novels.
Unfortunately for the population we are reaping the "spoils" of Comey's overweening....a Trump presidency. This reminds me of the spider web theory in All the Kings's Men "He learned that the world is like an enormous spider web and if you touch it however lightly, at any point, the vibration ripples to the remotest perimeter and the drowsy spider feels the tingle and is drowsy no more but springs out to fling the gossamer coils about you who have touched the web and then inject the black, numbing poison under your hide. It does not matter whether or not you meant to brush the web of things. Your happy foot or your gay wing may have brushed it ever so lightly, but what happens always happens and there is the spider, bearded black and with his great faceted eyes glittering like mirrors in the sun, or like God's eye, and the fangs dripping."
2
Comey, almost single-handedly, is responsible for putting a corrupt, treasonous, bigoted, know-nothing vulgarian in the White House. His hubris nearly matches that of Trump himself. And for all these reasons he is to be reviled. Do not buy his book! He should not be rewarded for what he has done to us -- and to the world.
5
in a read between-the-lines situation, Comes offered this biblical quote: "But justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream".
It looks like the "P' tape really does exist.
Makes me wonder if a mulligan can be had for water sports...
5
Comey completed what Putin, Bannon, Cambridge Amalytica and the Trump campaign started, aided and abetted by FaceBook, and with Comey putting the proverbial "icing on the cake". America will never recover, and the entire global population will pay the price.
3
Have no interest in this book as I've had all I can stomach of Comey.
Thanks for this piece, it confirms what most know...
...Comey cared more about Comey than anything else.
Hubris?
Made a smart guy look very dumb.
7
James Comey's "Tragedy" is self inflicted. He allowed himself to be bought and sold by the Obama and Loretta Lynch DOJ who wanted Hillary Clinton to be president at any cost. He assumed the role of prosecutor in announcing that there would be no charges brought against Mrs. Clinton. His role was/is not that of prosecutor but as head of the FBI to gather facts and present them to those who have the prosecutorial function. In making his announcement 11 days before the election, it was apparent that evidence was becoming available which would have shown that there was complicity between the FBI under Mr. Comey and those who were supporting Mrs. Clinton's presidency. The new evidence was going to show that Mrs. Clinton had indeed committed crimes by passing on classified data to Ms. Abedin which then appeared on her husband, Mr. Weiner's computer-- facts which were known to the DOJ. In an attempt to show that he was not involved in a coverup, Mr. Comey made his October announcement. Sadly, his involvement in this whole messy matter has cast a poor light on both the FBI and the DOJ as well as sullied his own reputation.
3
He also lacked the courage to inform the current president that he was violating his oath of office by demanding the FBI director's personal loyalty.
3
Thank you, David. The world is gray, isn't it.
1
One wonders if Director Comey did not feel some vulnerability as head of a large, diverse agency with at least a faction, militantly convinced that the case against Hillary Clinton should be pursued. By speaking his serious concerns with her misdeeds, while pronouncing them not chargeable, he might have been heading off an insurrection against himself.
Good analysis.
1
Lets not forget the work of, Fox News. Headline.
Hillary will be indicted. Who gave that information to Fox?
2
The only way this charlatan can redeem himself is to take down Donald Trump. After that, please let his 15 minutes end.
5
Don’t blame Comey for all of this. We Americans have got issues. While it certainly didn’t help HRC that Comey decided to opine at the last moment, he alone is not responsible for Trump’s monstrous ascent to our White House. The blame must be shared by many more: apathetic and disengaged citizens who didn’t even bother to show up; irresponsible Trump voters who let their own fears and insecurities blind them to to Trump’s utter incompetence, unsuitability, and real danger to the world; an unprepared and profit-driven Media, and, most of all, a weak and morally challenged party over country GOP who, instead of engaging in principled debate, long ago decided that the easiest and fastest route to electoral success was to cheat by gerrymandering and other forms of voter disenfranchisement, and a strategy of seeding intolerance in the service of electoral gain. Ultimately, the Russians saw and took advantage of what is obvious to other countries but what many Americans refuse to acknowledge: that we have real and substantial issues with accepting all Americans as equal and worthy members of this United States. It’s a rough lesson but, until we address that elephant, there will always be Trumps to take advantage of the situation.
9
Having once occupied a senior position in federal law enforcement, I can say that there are some insightful points in this editorial. Comey simply rose too high above the limits of his altimeter and became disoriented in the thin air.
The most important principles of federal law enforcement are to play it straight and do the job in the most neutral fashion possible. Faced with lynch mob investigations of Clinton and Trump, Comey could not honor those principles. He wanted to be loved and lionized by the Washington establishment and he started making decisions based on how they would play in the media and how they would affect his legacy. In both cases he diverged from standard investigative practices in very stupid ways that only made sense as efforts to protect himself.
Lesser men than Comey have melted in the hot light of fame. Comey simply melted faster and more spectacularly than most. I imagine that his book will be one last pitiful attempt to rationalize how he lost his way and ruined his career.
2
Whatever is coming in the future of the Trump administration, including possible nuclear war, can be laid partly on James Comey. What an arrogant man.
4
Tragedy is what Comey inflicted on America and the world with his exoneration (slash attack) of Hillary just days before the election. Now he's off on a media tour to promote his side of the story and rake in some coin? The comey-ing weeks are going to be brutal.
5
Comey defied tradition when he both defended and then called out Mrs. Clinton. He also called the balls and strikes as he saw them, and there isn’t anything wrong with that.
Oh, come on. James Comey and his book? One word, ka-ching!
1
Like John McCain foisting Palin onto the national scene, Comey will never be able to live-down his actions before the 2016 election.
4
Oh please. Comey harpooned Clinton and put
Trump in the White house. Karmas is a boomerang.
HE put Trump in White House and then Trump
fired him
Also Comey was up to his eyeballs going after
Bill Clinton in the Marc Rich pardon matter
the best thing you can say about Comey
is that he is tall
2
Also, he can do a pretty fair Jimmy Stewart impression.
He is responsible for Trump clear and simple
3
James Comey is stained forever with is last minute reopening of the Clinton Email Greek Tragedy ten days before the election. It influenced the election and was one of the primary reasons that Trump was elected. I wonder how Comey can live with the knowledge that his bumbling of the investigation helped elect the worst President of our times. Mr. Comey, we will be paying for your stupidity for decades.
4
He is a trader, should be tried and punished.
1
James Comey did not help elect Donald Trump to the presidency; Hillary Clinton lost the election all on her own. She made the very bad decision to use a private email server and after it was made public she was dismissive of criticism and never understood why her actions were so inappropriate. She never helped people to understand why she felt she needed a private server or even if she ever considered the possible risks she was incurring. As such it remained an area in which she was vulnerable.She also made other major errors, all unforced, during the campaign.
Hillary Clinton is the only person to blame for a Trump presidency.
2
The mere mention of Comey pokes not just at individual wounds that have not healed, but at the wound the republic has sustained, whose lethality remains an open question. Ben Franklin was asked to characterize the nature of the agreed government as he left the Constitutional Convention in 1787. "A republic," he answered, then added "if you can keep it." Many are seriously wondering, with good reason, if the republic is now in danger of slipping away.
So we look for someone to blame. Comey is a convenient target, but Comey can't be blamed for the soccer moms and the trendy hip with noses buried in smart phones who can't be bothered to vote. Comey can't be blamed for the general lack of sustained political awareness on the part of those who turn out for B. Clinton or Obama, then stop paying attention, thinking that the problem has been solved forevermore, while regressives pack state houses, gerrymander voting districts and create a near-insurmountable regressive bias in Congress, from which they can choke any executive initiative, and pack the courts.
The case against Comey boils down to "he didn't conduct himself as I would have." Fine, but he was internally consistent: the October letter became necessary because of the earlier exoneration. No one mentions Anthony Wiener, a bit player and accidental spoiler whose personal depravity put his laptop and the emails on it under the spotlight in October. It was Weiner who created the conditions to which Comey had to respond.
8
Comey has always seemed to me to have a narcissistic streak, bizarrely craving the limelight and public attention, enamored with the idea of being a "legal celebrity" and public figure. He strikes me as extraordinarily self-dramatizing, culminating in the election debacle and his public cartwheels and histrionics to explain how he felt compelled to intervene in such a public way, as if he wanted his name in the list of famous history-shaping lawyers like Robert Morgenthau, Thurgood Marshall, Archibald Cox, the sort that appear in high school textbooks or the occasional Jeopardy question.
6
Imagine that - ANOTHER guy in high government with issues.
SHOCKING!
1
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes." Due to the existence of nuclear weapons, he may be the most dangerous human who has ever lived.
6
Who cares about this chicken execration? Let the man sell some books and eat in fine restaurants. He did his best and will be mostly welcome by Saint Peter when the counting is done. Technically, he only overturned a National election that introduced Trump fascism.
4
As I RECALL Hillary was going to win before that comment by Comey. He will forever be tarred with unwittingly assisting Trump not office. Who knows if Trump might have won. regardless , hwe is a man of integrity who knows a criminal when he sees one, namely TRUMP.
3
I will never understand why Mr. Comey announced an investigation into Hillary but not trump... even though BOTH were under investigation at the same time.
10
Tragicomedy, or Tragi-comey? Yes, hubris...the favorite character trait of AP English novels. Unfortunately for the citizens of the world, we are reaping the "spoils" of Comey's overweening...a Trump presidency. It reminds me of the Spider Web theory in All the King's Men. "He learned that the world is like an enormous spider web and if you touch it however lightly, at any point, the vibration ripples to the remotest perimeter and the drowsy spider feels the tingle and is drowsy no more but springs out to fling the gossamer coils about you who have touched the web and then inject the black, numbing poison under your hide. It does not matter whether or not you meant to brush the web of things. Your happy foot or your gay wing may have brushed it ever so lightly, but what happens always happens and there is the spider, bearded black and with his great faceted eyes glittering like mirrors in the sun, or like God's eye, and the fangs dripping." It doesn't matter whether Comey intended to brush the web or not. So often the greatest mistakes start with the very best of intentions.
2
Until the last third part of this article by Mr. Leonhardt, I thought it was a disgusting Comey apologist piece. But his take on Comey's unbelievable righteousness a week or so before the 2016 Presidential election changed my mind. Even so, in general, I wonder about this article now on the eve of Comey's book avail and upcoming TV appearances. It has the appearance of a simple pitch for Comey's book.
3
The tragedy of James Comey is now we have President Trump.
12
Mr Leonhardt writes "...anybody who’s read Greek tragedy knows that strengths can turn into weaknesses ..."
I was not aware that Greek tragedy --individuals making up stories about people--was the study of human behavior.
James Comey did Hillary a huge favor when he didn't charge her for her criminal actions. If he had decided otherwise she would have been dead in the water.
4
Did you skip over the part where Leonhard wrote that many others in the Justice Department said she did not do a criminal action? It depended upon "intent" and investigators decided she did not have criminal intent.
4
He made a wrong decision for the right reasons.
He should have left it alone, especially in the light of his pronouncement of it being much about nothing.
Now for the rest of his life, he will greatly lament his actions.
Because of his probably trying to appease the GOP from criticizing him for not charging Clinton, he has released an even bigger threat to our government
4
Is the book tour a stump to gauge the waters of elected office?
1
Comey elected Trump. History will not be kind.
5
James Comey is a self-appointed and overly pious altar boy. His bias against a brilliant, ambitious, and exceptionally accomplished woman is an indelible black mark on his legacy. That James Comey now claims he is "mildly nauseous" that he had a hand in electing a malignant & psychopathic narcissist is of ZERO comfort to America, and the world. James Comey has something ugly in common with Comrade Trump; both suffer from an oppositional personality disorder & grandiosity.
Many Americans, especially women, see through James Comey's intolerance of a female becoming President. Especially, a female who far exceeds him in brilliance & loyalty to her country. Many of us view "the letter" as an inbred desire of the Catholic male variety to sabotage a female from acquiring "power."
To sum it up, James Comey's ego could not tolerate the rise of a brilliant & competent female to there of leader of the free world. He not only chose the evil trump, he enabled him.
It was quite Catholic of Comey, and dangerous for everyone else.
6
Let be clear! The Republican committee chairs and Republican committee members bullied Comey into breaking all past DOJ protocols.
Now, he is just another member of the DC money hunger swamp.
2
Seems to me Comey would make a better politician than a prosector/FBI head. I'd vote for the guy.
5
Thank you for your use of the word tragedy. it has become acceptable that every disaster be termed a tragedy by the news media.Here it is properly applied to a negative event generated by a character trait.
1
Too little, too late, he damaged the reults of 2016 election that gave us the worst president during my four score and 1 years. He reminds me of a good cow that gives great milk, only to kick the bucket containing the milk over,each and every time it gets milked. Now he milking the proplem he gave us and making a buck at the same time.
What an abrupt change of direction this article took towards the end. I thought we were heading to some kind of analysis or prediction when we get a hairpin bend...
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes".
With all due respect, the author is entitled to express their opinion, however in the context of this article it has been done poorly and inappropriately. The aspect that I find the most offensive is the way this authors opinion sits amongst sentences telling us what Comey did and in what order. A factual timeline of events. Then out of nowhere this authors opinion. Placed to give it some kind of factual authority.
Let me express some facts. The authors opinion is fact free, emotive and largely fictional. Just because Trump is dismantling the Globalist system that has not served ordinary Americans well, we have to endure this 24/7 barrage of anti Trump propaganda. Trust me when I say this non stop media driven anti Trump campaign will ensure Trump secures a supermajority at the midterms. Perhaps then there can be some reflection in the media whether this has been the most appropriate response. Although somehow I doubt that level of sense exists. It will be double down on the disinfo.
4
Donald Trump is a crook. Until you come to that reality, you will believe everything is biased against him instead of seeing reporting on the factual moves Trump has made.
Tragedy? No. Just the wrong man for the position. The faint praise from Leonhardt might as well have been written as "I come to bury Comey, not to praise him."
2
Yes, Comey shares blame for us electing the most unfit buffoon ever, but the lion's share of that blame rests with you, WaPo, and all the media which gave Trump nonstop, breathless coverage of his every nonsensical utterance and rally, whilst just picking apart everything HRC said and did. Monstrously incompetent, but hey, you all got "clicks", right?
7
In the long run, Clinton losing the election may be for the best. The GOP Congress would not have let her govern effectively, and it has given the people the chance to see them for the unprincipled, uncaring hypocrites they are, unhindered by anything except their own greed and incompetence.
8
...very insightful & well said, Mr. Leonhardt. .... & infinitely tragic for our country & the world.... maybe the world will learn from the Trump Tragedy & sanity will reassert itself in that long slow arc of history bending toward a fair & more just world.
You perfectly described Comey's character flaw--his hubris--in reference to a Greek tragedy. Comey is sanctimonious to an annoying degree, and deserved to be fired if for nothing else than his incompetence in dealing with the Clinton e-mails. He vigorously bleated and explicated his rationales, but in his ill-considered exoneration (and to Lynch's relief) he behaved as judge and jury, and larded over the whole tawdry affair with his peculiarly annoying brand of moralizing and self-righteousness.
1
Honesty and integrity should not be confused with hubris and self-righteousness. We are living in morally confused times when we believe we should punish people for making factually honest statements, including people whose job it is to make factually honest statements.
Comey said that he felt "slightly nauseous " that his going public with the Wiener laptop story eleven days before the election may have swayed it. In about six days after the announcement, in reaction to Democratic outrage, the FBI searched the contents and and proclaimed no new evidence had been found. Of course the damage had been done.The FBI had been aware of the Wiener laptop for some weeks prior. They could have searched it and come to their conclusion secretly. You should feel more than slightly nauseous, Mr. Comey. We all should.
5
By writing a book at a time when he is a witness in this country’s great national tragedy, Comey continues to debase himself. As the author suggests, there are many aspects of Comey to like, but his ego brought him—and the country—down hard. Nothing excuses his decision to violate department policy and go after Clinton publically on two separate occasions—no matter the merits of his concerns or the pressures he faced. I doubt his book acknowledges his mistake or the irony given his fondness for biblical quotes, “ for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” was never more applicable than Trump’s firing of Comey. His arrogance not only cost him a job he loved, it played a pivotal role in tearing apart a country he undoubtedly would protect at all costs and the ideals on which for over two hundred years it has rested.
That all this has only made him “mildly nauseous” suggests that his gift for self-introspection is as acute as his judgment for determining personal sacrifices in the best interests of the country.
2
We can’t blame Comey for all of this. We Americans have got issues. While it certainly didn’t help HRC that Comey decided to opine at the last moment, he alone is not responsible for Trump’s monstrous ascent to our White House. The blame must be shared by many more: apathetic and disengaged voters who didn’t even bother to show up; irresponsible Trump voters who let their own fears and insecurities blind them to to Trump’ s utter incompetence, unsuitability, and real danger to the world; an unprepared ad profit-driven Media, and, most of all, a weak and morally challenged party over country GOP who, instead of engaging in principled debate, long ago decided that the easier and faster route to electoral success was to cheat by gerrymandering and other forms of voter disenfranchisement, and, most of all, a strategy of seeding intolerance in the service of electoral gain. Ultimately, the Russians saw and took advantage of what is obvious to other countries but what many Americans refuse to acknowledge: that we have real and substantial issues with accepting all Americans as equal and worthy members of this United States. Until we address that elephant, there will always be Trumps to take advantage of the situation.
4
I have no sympathy for him, after he chose to make Hillary Clinton's email investigation public, while keeping secret the investigation into Donald Trump's Russian connections.
4
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. "
Pray tell who among the other 43 was worse?
Whom the gods would destroy -- they send off to private school.
1
Everyone has an ego and egos are never to be trusted.
2
I didn't agree with what Comey did before the election. But the person who lost the election for Clinton was not Comey. It was Clinton herself and Huma Abedin, the woman Clinton chose to be her senior aide--another enabling female, who also blindly and stupidly stood by her man.
It was this fundamental lack of judgement on Clinton's part regarding her selection and oversight of staff that put Comey behind the microphone to talk about a compromised computer 11 days before the election.
Unfortunately, Clinton created her own mess. She needs to own up to her complete lack of good judgement, both in the man she stays married to and in her choice of employees.
2
It is poetic justice that Trump fired him. Comey should be in jail. But the damage this self important prig inflicted on all of us cannot be fixed. Obama showed bad judgement in appointing a Republican.
I am curious to learn of the pressure the GOP applied to the FBI to tar HRC.
4
Tragedy evolves in dwindling time. If not for Comey; trump would have destroyed you by now.
We all have secrets.
What did somebody have on Comey?
1
A bit melodramatic. Hillary lost because she was a flawed candidate with no message.
1
No accolades, no sympathy from me.
Thank you, Mr. Leohnardt, for this piece. You wrote, "He [Jim Comey] helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes." Let's not mince words. Comey's misleading and confusing public statement 11 days before the election was a <i>sine qua non</i> of Trump's electoral college victory, and Trump is the most dangerous, unfit American president in <i>American history</i>.
3
He’s going to do it again: come out with untimely information prior to the completion of a hugely important national task, the completion of the Mueller investigation. Agggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!
2
“. He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. ”
Probably he did, but even if he shared that opinion—and about half the country didn’t at the time—how could he have behaved in such a partisan fashion by appearing to protect HRC? he couldn’t . But he could always have defended NOT revealing the re-opening of the investigation int HRC’s emails by the simple principle that an investigation itself is not an indictment. And the second investigation revealed nothing, just like the first.
The real error was made by the Obama administration’s foolishly martyr-like refusal to reveal the investigation into Russian meddling/cum GOP involvement. Never would have a Republican administration been so selflessly principled about being above the partisan fray for the good of the country.
Obama never understood the new normal of Trumpism: everything is “rigged” if we lose and the opposition are always corrupt criminals no matter what the outcome. Even if HRC had managed to carry FL And MI and some how eked out an electoral and popular victory, we’d be experiencing a rabid, investigation-crazed Republican Congress, an hysterical FOX and alt-right media meltdown, and a mob lead by Trump trolling, tweeting and screaming “fixed”, “rigged” and “deep state corruption”.
We are now, thanks to Trump, and the Russians—riven by this new reality, no matter who the next President will be.
4
On the other hand, the explanation could be as simple as: he made a premature decision. It happens. I think his mistake was not waiting just a bit longer for the results of the analysis of Weiner's laptop. If memory serves, the data was reviewed in less than a week and it turned out there was nothing there that they hadn't seen already. Had he waited a week, he wouldn't have needed to make an announcement at all.
Comey's "tragic mistake" was highly partisan in effect, both in hindsight, and at he moment he made this "mistake." I don't care about his history re Bush/Cheney, I'm simply not buying that it was a mistake.
1
I don't think anyone can say with any degree of certainty whether Hillary would have won had Comey not advised the American people that they were looking into her emails again. It certainly seemed to move the polls initially, however, recall that polls were all over the place at various times during the race and 11 days in that election is kind of an eternity. Even if Comey's comments were one but/for cause of the outcome, it's the wrong way to look at the issue. Kind of like when people blame the ref for a single call in late play thereby ignoring the facts (1) that there were many many plays in the game that led to the outcome and, (2) one should expect that some calls are going to go your way while others go the other guy's way. Hillary had more luck in this election than Trump any old day of the week. Way better funding, a party that generally had her back, she unethically received the questions before the primary debate while telling no one, and, let's be honest, it was an incredible stroke of luck that she happened upon a decades old recording that Trump didn't even know existed of him saying some fairly damaging things (he said the stuff he said, so fair game, but hard not to see it as an incredibly lucky find). Focusing on one event out of an entire race is irrational. Mistakes were made, a lot of them, on both sides. Any number of them could have changed the outcome. On the date of the election Trump had the votes he needed to win, and Hillary did not. End of story.
Put yourself in Comey's shoes in late October 2016. There was evidence that some of HRC's mysterious emails had surfaced on Weiner's computer. They might yield nothing; or they might yield everything - no-one knew. If he had said nothing, and if that trove of emails had in fact proven some nefarious activity (rather than just carelessness) on the part of HRC and/or DNC, he would have been pilloried by the right and, I suspect, by many natural Democratic Party supporters. What was he to do? In the end, because of the extraordinary circumstance and because in some jurisdictions people were already voting, he chose openness. I can't blame him too much for that.
2
Meanwhile Trump was under investigation and Comey said nothing. Hard to say he had no choice. The author gets it right in describing him as having to be seen as righteous.
1
Comey has integrity, his most important quality. Sometimes that makes things awkward for others, and sometimes it upsets the course of history, particularly when "business as usual" has been continuing unchecked for a prolonged period. His honesty was not a mistake, and there's really no evidence to suggest that this country would be better, safer, more transparent, or more equitable had we allowed the Clintons to continue unchecked. I am grateful for people like Comey and, more recently, Donna Brazile, who see the importance of setting the record straight, so that we may someday have fair elections again.
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. No matter how brave Comey has since been, no matter how honorable his full career, he can never undo that damage."
Don't you think that should be said about the 2007 writer's strike that gave the current President his platform?
1
Comey caused damage for sure. Not sure one can say his actions threw the election.
What is clear is, there has never been a more hated and despised figure than Hillary Clinton when it comes to the GOP, and the conspiracy theory nutter crowd.
I have more than one friend who questions when Hillary is going to pay for her crimes and go to jail.
What crimes? Should she just go to jail because they hate her?
This is the most investigated person in the history of US politics. Has she shown bad judgement at times? Yes, but if that were the criteria they would re-open Alcatraz for Trump.
No amount of truth and facts will sway the anti Hillary hatred. One friend firmly believes that she and Bill had Vince Foster murdered. Still. After all the investigations.
Comey, fell victim to his ego and played in to the hands of the GOP. He is not a politician and no match for the Spinmeisters who ran with the story.
At least we can thank him for being smarter than Trump and deft enough to help get Mueller appointed.
6
Comey shares this characteristic with Trump: narcissism.
He had this big, big deal the FBI was handling: Hillary's emails. How big? Just ask the NYT, Wapo, MSNBC, and all other mainstream news outlets - not now, it's now (as it really was then) - a nothing story - but then, during the campaign and right up to the election, it was so big, so important.
Comey was the head of the agency investigating it but wasn't getting enough press. So he had to direct attention to himself.
You trashed yourself, Jim Comey, and it will be remembered by historians forever. Nice going.
Unfortunately the result of hubris impacting your thought patterns. If only Comey had stayed on the sidelines until after the election...staggeringly poor judgement with an eye to personal reputation....
Comey's decision to go public with the Clinton email investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Comey’s public announcement of the reopening of the Clinton investigation just 11 days before the actual presidential election were fatal, both for him and the citizens of our country. If he didn’t intend to influence the outcome of the election, why then didn’t he also go public with the fact the Donald Trump was under FBI investigation? No matter how impressive his history with the FBI or his bravery during the Bush Administration, he threw it all away when he became the catalyst for the election of Donald Trump, the most incompetent, traitorous, mentally unstable president in the history of the United States. No book or interviews will ever change the catastrophic damage; they will only fund Comey’s financial reservoir.
1
The clinton election loss dumping on Comey is as pitiful and beneath human dignity as trump. Neither clinton nor trump are deserving of the presidency and that is why she lost.
For Comey and all decent people the truth is sufficient. The truth must always be enough.
Jim Comey suffered from a little known disease: he was narcissistic about — not himself— but about his association with the FBI. In his mind, he became and WAS the Bureau. He projected his notion of perfection (against outside interference and threats to the Bureau’s independence) but the FBI has never been perfect and various Administrations through the years have tried to rein in both the Bureau and the DOJ — thankfully, in vain.
Seeing the FBI as perfect, Comey apparently concluded that as the nation’s top cop, he was duty-bound to talk publicly about Hillary Clinton’s emails to preserve the Bureau’s reputation as non-partisan and above mere politics. In doing so, he changed the nation’s trajectory for the worse.
He is the quintessential example of the perfect being the enemy of the good.
5
He's one of the several men who caused Hillary's defeat. Like so many others who danced with and enabled the Devil, he was later fired and publicly shamed. Unless his book helps impeach and convict Trump, it will be a waste of paper.
1
What fair and just column! An accurate picture of a good man whose tragic flaw changed history.
2
I don't feel bad for Comey - if it wasn't for him, Trump likely would not be in the White House. His decision to disclose to the public Hillary Clinton's email investigation but to remain quiet about the many FBI investigations into Trump have never been explained.
1
Like another who posted here, I too was wondering about the absurdity of having two lousy candidates when we had one shining star-James Comey--who seemed to represent all that is decent and true. I agree with David Leonhardt that Comey's greatest weakness--the need to speak truth to power--when silence would have been the best weapon--was his downfall. Yes, he should have alerted the voting public to the fact that Trump was under investigation if he was going to sing from the mountain top about Hillary Clinton. In the end, I am not sure what difference it made. After all, we did have Cambridge Analytica and the Russian Internet Research Agency to sway that small percentage of votes.
Is James Comey flawed? Yes, but not in an evil and twisted way, as are current swamp dwellers. I would take his flaws any day over those of the Clintons or the Trump Russian mob.
I fear that James Comey is too much of a lightning rod on both sides of the aisle to get any traction as a candidate. But in my view, that's what makes him the perfect candidate! James Comey for president 2020! The perfect end to this Shakespearean tragedy.
2
I see no good reason to blame Comey in any way for Trump’s victory. No voter changed their mind about Hillary because of the bogus email scandal. The responsibility for Trump lies squarely on the heads of the people who voted for him and no one else, least of all James Comey.
2
I love it when anyone can state unequivocally a certainty: how do you know no one changed his mind over Comey’s re-entering the Clinton email circus? Statics and focus groups suggest just the opposite. So many elements led to Trump’s election. Only one thing I know for sure: the absolutely wrong person is in the White House and the country and world are suffering for it.
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes."
Correction: He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president in our history.
4
Every great public figure messes up. Their next task is to clean up the mess they made, in this case the profoundly stupid reopening of the Clinton email scandal just days before the election. Comey more than made up for it by refusing to bow to the new emperor. Now the new book will make up for it even more, one hopes.
There seems to be lull in the storm surrounding the new emperor (president), which is a little surprising given his expected failure to support the students and young people protesting the lack of weapons (gun) control. Comey's book will add to the ammunition against that new emperor.
In the moment that mattered most, James Comey let his country down.
That is all that one needs to know.
RIP James Comey the Patriot
Live in infamy James Comey the Election Fixer.
1
His hypocrisy and dishonesty were glaring, because, while he publicly disparaged Secretary Clinton and announced that 11th hour fake, second investigation, he remained silent about the investigation into Trump. I refuse to believe he did not appreciate the impact of his decisions on the outcome of the election. He needs to go away.
1
Mr. Comey certainly did the wrong thing in discussing the Clinton investigation so close to the election. However his was a small piece of the debacle when you consider how the media went with the Hilary as flawed candidate and on sone kind of par with Trump narrative. I just saw a rerun of SNL from before the election which did this in a very smug way. Ha ha. Thanks Limirne. The media created this false narrative, this fake news, to maintain their income stream. As is and was at the time, Hilary was emminently qualified and Trump was completely unfit in many ways. This truth was buried by the media for its own ends and the consequences are plain to see every day.
3
The "do all the good" quote, attributed to John Wesley by Comey and many others, appears nowhere in Wesley's writings and made its first published appearance in 1904. But it's so plausible that it just goes round and round, even into Bartlett's Quotations, Hilary Clinton speeches, and thousands of samplers hanging earnestly on American walls. It's just one of those things, like the boiled-frog story, that people have accepted as true in defiance of fact. Trump may be the worst fabulist, but he's hardly the first.
See https://vitalpiety.com/2013/04/29/wesley-didnt-say-it-do-all-the-good-yo...
2
I won’t be reading his book. All I need to know about Comey is that he was one of the reasons that person is in the White House.
2
Comey has the naivete of a technocrat who is steeped in the values and commitments of a boy scout. As far as I know, he still hasn't acknowledged that he (and the media that plastered the renewed investigation all over its front pages for days, like the NYT did) doomed Hillary Clinton's election victory. The thought makes him nauseous. Really? Here is someone who fundamentally doesn't understand electoral politics, the fickleness of the American populace, and the impact of the media on gullible voters. Oh well. When he is on the tv show circuit, I won't be watching, but then again, I never watch when "celebrities" come on.
1
Thank you for ripping Comey for his blatant and, in my mind, prosecutable violation of The Hatch Act 11 days before the election.
Comey was in a pickle. The email cache had been found on Weiner's laptop by agents who were very conservative. Comey was, I believe, told that if he refused to re-open the investigation, the story would leak. In fact, there is strong evidence that those leaks had begun via Rudy G. in NYC.
That said, no real leader would do what he did.
2
Great column, Mr. Leonhardt.
Comey's hubris extends to what I'm assuming is a multi-million dollar book deal and what sounds like a star-studded publicity tour. Given what he did prior to the election, this is insult to injury and very much in keeping with Trump's values and modus operandi. Make enormous errors in judgment with grave consequences, violate the Hatch Amendment and make a pile of money from the mess you made. Only in America.
James Comey helped elect a dangerous man through a sense of misguided righteousness. At another juncture in history, another Republican hidden in a black cloak, Sandra Day O'Connor, in her role as a swing vote in the pivotal Supreme Court case that elevated another dangerous man, George W. Bush, who led us into a disastrous war with international complications that created the ISIS terrorists the world is dealing with today.
The parallels of these two decisions are hard to miss.
Both perpetrators have expressed regret. O'Connor for her partisanship and Comey for his misjudgment.
Will history excuse them? I doubt it.
5
That he elected Trump is highly debatable.
But if he did, he saved up from an even worse Prez.
I've read nearly all the comments and not one mention of the FBI's then on-going criminal investigation of Anthony Weiner's 'deplorable' conduct that led to the revelation of tens of thousands of emails stupidly stashed by Hillary's top aide, his wife, on an unsecured personal laptop.
What a conundrum. The question of the contents would take time to resolve. Was there enough time? Fortunately, the situation was resolved (the emails were copies of those already disclosed) and Director Comey immediately announced the findings.
I had already early voted for HRC. Nonetheless, while it raised the outworn specter of an additional cover up, I conclude that Mr. Comey's action was both prudent as well as necessary.
I usually don't involve myself in blame-games. However, in this instance, Weiner and Huma Abedin deserve significant responsibility for the debacle that ensued -- not James Comey. I must ask, how could he have compromised the election when the situation was resolved prior to voting day.
3
I don't feel bad for Comey at all. In fact if Trump fired him for his mishandling of Hillary Clinton's investigation then he more than deserved it. His self-serving press conference when he announced no charges would be brought against Clinton began the damage. His letter 11 days before the election gave victory to Trump--with some help from the Russians. His epic unfairness in not announcing that there was an on-going FBI investigation of Trump finished the job. Comey can take his God-complex and ride on into the sunset as far as I'm concerned. His behavior--and lack of it--is a black mark on the 2016 presidential election which is tantamount to an asterisk. He has more than helped bring us to the dangerous, frustrating place in which we find ourselves today. I won't read his book. I'm done. Let him take his saintly ways and disappear.
2
"He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes." If Comey has half as much character as Mr. Leonhardt infers from his history then he will acknowledge his key role in, and accept responsibility for, our current national disaster, and dedicate himself to trying to make amends. In any case, if he does I'll read about it secondhand and maybe when my library gets a copy of his book. I'm not up for rewarding him financially for so catastrophically harming our country, even if it was just hubris and ego and not sinister intent that made him do it.
Let's be fair to Comey. HRC was a bad candidate, with no fire in her belly and no resonating message that stuck. Her hubris and sense of entitlement ( and the electorate's Clinton fatigue) may have been more to blame for her loss than Comey's ill timed pronouncements. But, I do agree that Comey has a unique perspective on his relationship to power and as a result saw himself as the final arbiter of these issues and events. His hubris may have gotten Trump elected.
It angers me when I read again and again how Comey kept Clinton from winning. Long before the election I knew I would never vote for her. Not as a woman...nor as a DEM that went IND before the election...nothing could have made me vote for her. Many people I know voted green....and many were coerced by Bernie Sanders to throw her a bone when she undermined him and forced him to take up for her. She has spent the past 30 years creating a name for herself in the most negative light. She earned the disdain and outright hatred others felt towards her long before James Comey and emails. Clinton is a dirty politician, plain and simple.
Sure, Trump has proven to be the most heinous person to ever sit in the WH but I couldn't in good conscience vote for Clinton who was yearning for the next war and to be crowned queen. No. Not Comey or any other outside factor would have influenced my vote more than Clinton herself. I don't trust her to this day. We didn't need a woman in the WH at all expense.
We will survive Trump. No I did not vote for him. But the best outcome of his tenure just might be the exposure of our country's underbelly. It needed to be shown and it needs to be dealt with. Trump is doing just that as he unravels our nation and the rats jump his rotten ship. To me, Clinton's hands are just as dirty with 30 years of slimy dealings. They are mirror images of greed and narcissism.
Don't blame Comey that Clinton lost. She did it to herself long, long ago.
1
Director Comey tarnished the reputation of the FBI and the idea of “public service” by the Justice Dept. That’s why he’s rushed into print and on a speaking career. His image must be protected ! At all costs. Historians will not be as exculpatory of this Opinion article. Just the reverse.
1
How many more iterations of why Donald Trump won the election can we continue to dwell upon? Enough of Comey, Clinton, Putin, Bernie, Debbie, Obama, the deplorables, the Electoral College, Fox News, the bots, Cambridge Analytica, gerrymandering, low voter turnout, the Evangelicals, the wealthy donors, the disenfranchised, etc. etc. etc.
Time to stop analyzing ad nauseam and get on with how to win in 2018 and get our democracy back. We can't just count on Robert Mueller alone.
3
Ouch but in a way true.... in his rigor just before the election, he tipped the scales to a beast who devoured him.
2
It all goes back to the American voters having two terrible Presidential candidates to choose from. FBI investigations like the Clinton’s and Trump sleeping with Russians just confirms what the Swamp is all about.
This is the best illumination of an exceptional but tragically flawed human being that I have read. And he is the nemesis of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Whatever else you can say about the man--he may be a good father and nice to his dog--his brazen act to throw the election to Donald Trump 11 days before the election will live in infamy. Had Hillary Clinton won, I like to think, she would have fired him and then sought to prosecute him for whatever law you can dream up he might have/must have broken in using the FBI to poison a national election.
As so many despots have noted, the big lie, the lie which is declaimed in full glare of TV lights, is the one most likely to succeed and Comey played that card.
"Crooked Hillary" could not hold a candle to conniving Comey.
Nobody considers the obvious. The dude just ain't all that bright. Everyone assumes that he is. Our assumptions are often the culprit.
its real simple...don't buy the book and you'll send a loud message.
1
The fact that "billionaire" don trump needed a peasant like comey to win must be galling.
No wonder mr. trump hates comey so much.
1
He called himself Reinhold Niebuhr, author of the famous book "Moral Man and Immoral Society".
I think Comey reveals his view of himself in his Twitter nom de guerre- a good man dirtied by politics.
1
The evil men do lives after them. Comey’s motivation for announcing the reopening of the Hillary investigation so close to Election Day probably wasn’t exactly “evil.” But that one narcissistic act was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, and gave us the horrors that have followed Trump’s election. That will be History’s judgement of Comey and that is as it should be. Harsh? Maybe, but we’re all paying a ghastly price for his terrible decision.
2
Comey’s last minute torpedoing of HRC is unforgivable for all time.
7
I am one of the ones who voted for Trump and would do so again, were the election be held today. Most of my friends voted for his opponent and I don't have anything nasty or silly to say to them. And I never understood the personal animus toward the Democratic candidate. I voted for Candidate Trump because of the policy agenda he advocated and would do so again because of his efforts to implement that agenda. But to this day, I would rather have a beer with his opponent and think she's a very decent person. I write this because if the Democrats want to regain the White House--and I do believe balance in government is good--they would be well-served to look in a different direction. I didn't vote for President Trump because of James Comey's last minute press conference or because of any "fake news" story planted on the internet. I voted for an agenda.
1
My feelings regarding Mr. Comey are mixed. But, shall begin w/the Clinton encounter with Loretta Lynch, which arguably started this entire mess. If AG Lynch had been a white male, and Republican (especially), she would not been intimated into stepping aside in the HRC/Server investigation. She would have stood her ground and said: How can one be rude to a former President who stopped by to say hello? Do you really think as a sitting USAG, I would be so intimated as to allow myself and the work of those who report to me to be so easily influenced? However, because of her race and gender, not only did she step aside, Comey arrogantly ignored the DOJ process of not commenting on the HRC investigation-not once, but twice. Frankly, President Obama should have fired him for insubordination following the initial press conference in July-politics be damned. Comey had a choice. I too have heard from a friend who works for the FBI that in NYC there was a definite anti-HRC cabal. Maybe this is what got Comey to act as he did. We shall never know. All I know is that HRC has been investigated more than any politician we have and thus far, no firm criminal wrong doing has been found. And, Comey's action just prior to the election speak volumes about a man who takes no advice from anyone. He sullied his reputation for fairness and evidenced a political tone deafness of collasal proportion.
5
Only Mr. Comey knows why he released the update on the investigation of Hillary Clinton and the whole email/server business at a crucial point in the election. I hope he will be forthcoming about his reasoning either in his book or in interviews.
Mr. Comey's moral character seems impeccable. We applauded his racing to Ashcroft's side when he was hospitalized to protect this country from the midnight assault on this country by Gonzales and Card. Perhaps he made a decision that was just in keeping with his character. It is not unlike decisions the ACLU has to make when they are protecting a challenge to the Bill of Rights.
The election of Trump does not rest solely on Mr. Comey's shoulders. Clinton's campaign managers and the DNC took too much for granted about voters in swing states, challenges to Clinton by Sanders and others played a part in spitting the Democratic vote, the Russian interference into the election, and a myriad of other factors came together in a perfect storm which led to the defeat of Clinton.
2
If I had to use one word that lost the election for Democrats and humanity it would be Pragmatism or the idea that something simply works it becomes right. We had a country drifting to the right or in free fall and the idea of just being a little better, no firm positions, was so offensive that when Donald said the election was stollen from Bernie, everyone paying attention should have known he spoke the truth as that was the sharpest tool to use against the opposition. Key example was Hillary's pragmatic position with KeystoneXL and energy. Working behind the scene for it and promoting fracking to the world it simply turned Drill Baby Drill into All of The Above which really was Burn Baby Burn. Combine that offensive position and people knew at a gut level the election was stollen from Bernie in many ways and like money in politics the pragmatism of taking as much as Democrats could simply reinforced the distain for a corrupt system. Comey represented some sound reflection on the corruption but the momentum of free fall to the right was set in motion by the endless lack of enthusiasm and firm positions against corruption and denial of science Hillary simply refused to firmly make a difference on. So pragmatism as represented by the endless denial of man made climate change in meaningful way lost the election for the Democrats and betrayed the American people if you believe science or the evil of letting money buy the position.
I’ve never forgiven Comey for costing Clinton the election. But as a Christian who believes in the Lords Prayer that admonishes unconditional forgiveness, I hope to get there one day.... knowing that nothing happens in God’s world by mistake. I eagerly await Comey’s book hoping it will help me reach forgiveness.... if only to save my soul.
1
Comey's a republic, so yeah, by definition he's flawed.
Here, here, Mr. Leonhardt. What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.
3
Maybe in my small mind the social media platform, Facebook, Cambridge Analytical played a major role in the 2016 election. Trump and his swamp minions had the assistance of such corruption that it is mind blowing what they did. Comey played a supporting role but people staying home not voting played a bigger role of allowing this monster be president and we are all paying for it.The 53% of white women voting for this man better not be marching with the women's rights groups because this is what they wanted.
I look forward to hearing Comey speak and anyone else who cares about America . Comey will make a difference and the Trump supporters need to listen and learn something if that is even possible.
The next election Democrats better go out and vote, otherwise it is eight years of destruction that our children are going to be paying the price for not Trumps or his administration.
4
Comey single-handedly swayed a national election. He is more responsible for Trump’s victory than anything the Russians did.
The only question that remains is: Was Comey a Russian stooge?
3
"Hubris" precisely explains Mr. Comey's now tainted reputation. One hopes that this is not a factor in Mr. Mueller's role as special counsel. No one wants to see another outstanding, public servant be sullied by an association with Donald Trump, whether as an ally or an adversary.
2
Comey's mentor when he was younger was Rudy Giuliani who was extremely anti-Clinton and pro-Trump and even bragged on Fox news they "had a couple of things up their sleeves" that could turn the election around two days before Comey went public about the Clinton situation -- just days before the election. (And Giuliani is good friends with Robert Mercer one of Trump's biggest backers.)
3
That whole rat's nest needs to be investigated.
If the emails on Huma's computer had to be reviewed in October 2016, it should have done quietly with no public announcement such as the one made by Comey. The review produced nothing and added nothing to the Clinton email investigation. Comey could have had that information before the public announcement he made that helped swing the election to Trump. I am more than mildly nauseated by Comey.
Comey should have thought about Robert Muller would have done ---- that is, keep your mouth shut until you know what you are talking about.
9
Excellent column! As a European I sometimes (actually more often lately) struggle to understand how & why certain things work - or not work - in the US. One thing I have long wondered about was what to make of J. Comey. Your column gave me quite a bit more insight and the reference to "Greek tragedy" seems well chosen. Excellent piece. This is why I read your paper. Thank you.
3
Please. Not more of the "Hillary lost because of Comey" nonsense. First and foremost, Hillary lost because of Hillary. She lost running against Donald Trump. At best, she was the second worse choice between two truly dreadful candidates. Just enough.
4
My only criticism is that Donald Trump is the most unfit President the United States has ever had, not simply the most unfit President of our lifetime. Harding, Buchanan, and Grant will be there to thank him whenever his time comes. A stain on Mr. Comey's
career for which I am sure he will atone.
5
Why does Comey think it is appropriate to capitalize on the current Special Council Investigation and use it as a chance for such shameless self promotion? If he had an ounce of sense he would put all on hold until after Mueller's case is presented.
3
I will not be buying Mr. Comey's book or watching his parade on TV. His comments on Clinton while concealing what he knew about the Trump campaign seem like treason or at least sedition to me.
Comey is not a patriot now and probably never was.
6
James Comes is an honest man in an era of dishonest politics. That he is reviled by both Trump and the Clintons is a testimony to his integrity, and their lack of the same virtue.
3
Comey followed protocol with regard to the ongoing counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign. Was it sexism that caused him to come forward with his big Clinton nothing in the most damaging way?
3
James Comey lost all credibility as a jurist when he announced the recommendation not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her email scandal. After describing facts that unambiguously showed that Ms. Clinton intentionally violated the law on handling classified material (she knew that she had her own email server that was not approved by the State Department and that classified material was being transmitted to her on that server), Mr. Comey had the audacity to not even charge her with gross negligence when handling the classified material by the cute semantic trick of calling her conduct "extremely careless". This was tantamount to saying there is a special lex-Clinton.
3
One point that should be made: the FBI (if not Comey) surely knew that the newly discovered copies of emails had almost no chance of containing anything significant. After all, the FBI had already looked through 30,000 emails and found nothing significant, and they didn't even know that the newly discovered copies of emails were new to them. So, thanks to Comey, we had 11 days of headlines screaming "FBI re-opens Clinton probe" for nothing.
9
If Comey is a tragedy, what are McConnell, Ryan, and Pence? Oh, that's right, they never had any virtue to lose.
11
It's ironic that you chose the John Wesley (Methodism founder) quote, paraphrased, "do all the good you can". That's the same quote Hillary Clinton used as the foundation for why she was running for President, again paraphrasing: "do all the good you can for as many people as you can as much of the time as you can."
United Methodism is founded on the social justice teachings found in the New Testament. Ironic that 2 Methodists used the same foundational teaching and ended up with such dreadful outcomes for themselves, our country and Democracy.
2
Shows that definitions, means and methods (npi) matter. The devil's in the details!
1
David gets this exactly right. Of course, the thanks Comey got from the buffoon that he likely got elected was humiliation and termination, proving the old adage: No bad deed goes unpunished by the beneficiary of that deed, when that beneficiary is Donald J. Trump
4
Trump should be celebrating Comey rather than demonizing him.
2
I should have added that Trump may not have won if Comey wouldn't have made the announcement about reopening the Clinton Email investigation.
1
Those that seek to be neutral and perfect are neither. He will be judged harshly, and rightfully so. Hubris, or simple arrogance? It doesn't matter, either lead us to the Trump Regime. SAD.
3
For all you Democrats who love to hate James Comey, remember also that it was your beloved Barack Obama who nominated him for that position. I'm not saying Comey wasn't qualified. Obviously he was, but so was 1000 other Democrats. At the time of the nomination I complained to my Obama worshipping friends that it made no sense. Never mind that the suggestion of Comey for the position came from none other than Mitch McConnell, the person who publicly dedicated himself to crippling the Obama presidency. When Comey announced that he was "reopening" his case against Hillary Clinton just 10 days before the election McConnell must have thought he was dreaming. Clearly no one on Earth could have imagined that Comey would become the greatest Trojan horse in American history. But what matters is that Barack Obama had no business nominating Comey in the first place.
3
Comey is imperfect, and I can see the streak of hubris and self-righteousness hinted at in the article, but did he mess up the election? I doubt it. My theory is that his revelation gave people who would have voted for Trump anyway an excuse to do so without appearing too bigoted and racist, but they would have found another way to rationalize their vote without it. Of course, I don't know for sure, but neither does Mr. Leonhart.
Comey got suckered by conservatives into trying to prove he was non-partisan. All those years in the FBI and he didn't see it coming. Now he's villified by both parties, when he could have just kept his mouth shut.
If he's very, very lucky, he won't go down as the man responsible for helping the person who destroyed American democracy get elected.
If he's not, then he'll have good company, as John Roberts and Citizens United will be in the preceding paragraph.
4
He may have made a grave mistake in the days before the election, but he is NOT blame for the election of Donald Trump. 63 million Americans in the right states are. The lever was pulled despite overwhelming evidence over 4 decades that Trump was a racist, liar and conman. 17 months have passed since ‘we’ elected Trump and his support has barely waivered despite the 2000 lies he has told while in office and the non-stop vitriol through tweets and rallies and incompetence. James Comey is NOT to blame for that.
2
True enough, he personally did not do it. But if we're honest we're required to admit that a lot of what he did *put* us in the place where Trump & Trump's lies adversely affect the nation every day the sun comes up.
Make no mistake, I think Comey & the position he's in now are good for the country. But would we be here if it weren't for his actions just before the election? Evidence then & now says most likely not.
1
In short, Mr. Comey is a living, breathing human being, complete with a few warts. Gosh, I’ve got a few flaws, too.
I guess spotlights do more than enlighten.
1
Me too. But my hubris didnt change the course of history. His did.
6
Comey’s ‘What? Me, Worry?’ act has been one of the most crazy-making sub-plots in the tragicomedic farce that has been the past decade or so of American history. I’ve gone full circle, from thinking he was a stand-up guy back in the W era to my current belief that his oddly puritanical egomania was a key/critical factor in putting us all in the deep end of this darkly dangerous pool we’re forced to swim in now. While I certainly don’t think he’s a reflexive crook or compulsive liar like so many of The President’s Men, he’s been an inadvertently destructive force on a par with most any of them. What a scary mess.
2
Leonhardt getss Comey in ways many don't. I never thought for a second Comey wanted to change the outcome of the presidential election, the balance of the Senate and Supreme Court. I have no doubt he did all three -- not out of partisanship or venality, but out of a colossally arrogant naivete and (yes) self-absorption. His Shakespearean tragedy of hubris empowered a dangerous buffoon. Comey has done our nation more damage than words can capture.
5
small points, these:
to the best of my knowledge:
it was NOT Mr. Comey who used a personal email server for the public's business;
nor in doing so,
was he responsible for the 'loss/misplacement'
of at least 30k of said emails.
talk about blunders galore,
ripe for exploitation,
without which,
Mr. Comey's incongruous behaviors would never have occurred.
these fundamental facts,
along with too many dems staying-home from the polls;
in conjunction with a deep failure of the HRC crew to recognize and go-get the disaffected midwest rust belt citizens;
juxtapositioned with the wild-joker-card of the Electoral College;
all combined to give us the curse of DJT.
at least and until the entire Special Counsel's work and reportage is completed,
Mr. Comey is currently only a bit player,
though a very highly visible one at that.
Wonderful application of Greek tragic analysis to Comey, except that Comey is not a tragic figure who suffers.
Instead, (like more than a few prosecutors before him) Comey is getting very rich, learning nothing, and forcing ordinary Americans to pay for his sanctimonious arrogance.
3
I am beginning to see Trump as inevitable. If not Trump now, then a more sinister and efficient version of trump later. Trump is the final wake-up call for a sick America. He is the wall we hit while driving drunk; the heart attack we have while lighting our cigarette; the packed suitcase and slam of the door when the rest of the world has had enough of our infidelity.
I think that a lot of our bad behavior is now on the table, thanks to Trump. It's up to us to either change our national lifestyle, or start writing our will.
5
Unfortunately , hitting a wall or having a heart attack may be fatal.
This is all repetitive and just excusing Hillary’s horrible job as a candidate. Jim Comey, a very smart man who did several very dumb things, did not get Donald Trump elected. Hillary Clinton’s sycophants ran a terrible campaign and she contributed with a feeling of entitlement to the position. She ignored the key states as we all know and then blames submissive wives and the “deplorables “amongst others. How is Har different then Donald labeling people all the time. Trump ran a digital laser focused campaign just like President Obama did against Mitt Romney. No one thought he could do it. And he we are.
1
Hillary did not "ignore" anything.She was prepared,she campaigned,she pointed out that trump was dangerously unfit.The media(for ratings) chose to deliver us unto EVIL.
3
Comey midwived a catastrophe. But the catastrophe is what counts, Mister. Focus on the greater fault; don't bore us with literary criticism.
Whilst the article was, overall, quite good, Mr Leonhardt repeats the assertion that Comey helped Trump get elected. In truth, it was Clinton's election to lose, and she lost. Russian meddling, Comey's October letter; if they had any influence on the outcome, it was marginal. Clinton lost because she ran a horrible campaign, cobbling together a coalition of everyone except working-class whites, and then too many of that coalition failed to go out and vote. As a recent NYT article pointed out (again), Hillary lost millions of votes that Obama won.
It is thus disingenuous of Mr Leonhardt or anyone else to pin even part of the blame for Trump's election on Comey.
Putin needed a lot of help to get his guy elected and to further his goal of dividing and conquering us. Having the FBI Director push Trump over the top was a deus ex machina moment that no self-respecting novelist or screenwriter would ever consider.
Comey can rightly say, with that Confederate general years after Gettysburg, “It took a lot of mistakes to lose that battle, and I made most of them.” Gettysburg gave us the chance to make our country right generations ago; let’s hope we’re all up to the task again.
1
Not many people can go from getting hated by left to getting hated by right, and that too in such a short span. Comey shall forever be remembered for that.
1
I will put him up with Ervin and Church as a hero, should he succeed with the prosecution of the Donald
1
You got it exactly right, David.
I don't buy it. James Comey is not the reason Hillary lost. It was the "basket of deplorables" speech that cost her the election.
I suggest you read Hillary's twitter feed.The basket is pretty full.
People make mistakes and James Comey made a big mistake when he told the world about the reopening of the email server investigation 11 days before the election. He should just admit his mistake, apologize to Mrs. Clinton and the country and move on. In his new book I hope Comey talks about in detail how unqualified Trump is to be president. How crooked and unscrupulous the president is. (I hope Republican Comey did not vote for Trump knowing what he knew.)
2
It is interesting that Comey quotes John Wesley who thought of himself as perfect while being a very flawed and arrogant human being. When Wesley came to America to be the Priest at the Anglican church in Savannah, GA he was a rigid authoritarian. He decided that a young woman member should marry him and when she refused he excommunicated her! Eventually his arrogance caused the church members to oust him and then he and his brother went off and founded the Methodist church. It would be interesting to read Comey's family background and upbringing to see how it compares to Wesley's. Certainly the same hubris!
2
Comey's erraticism in the Clinton email debacle is attributable to several factors. Self-regarded pillars of rectitude often twist their sanctimony into self-aggrandizement - it's common human ego frailty to turn righteousness into self-righteousness. That was evident in the tone of Comey's announcements: He'd gone god. This book release is further evidence.
Sanctimony also got the better of him in the motivation for his announcements the last month. In an earlier appearance before Congress to explain the summer's non-prosecution decision, he'd made an unwise, inappropriate and ill-fated commitment to report any change in that conclusion (which should never have been announced by DFBI in the first place, leaving him open to charges of grandstanding and insufficiently justified by his concern of a politicized Obama DOJ - not unwarranted given Holder and Lynch's partisanship).
It's been bruted about that the rightist Erik Prince-Giuiliani-rogue NYPD/FBI field office cabal leaned on Comey to announce the reinvestigation after the convenient Wiener laptop discovery (the examination of which was slow-walked by said cabal to delay any exoneration until too late, to Comey's tardy and naive surprise). Word is they told Comey if he didn't go public they would and in the bargain would accuse him of withholding it to steer the election. He was boxed in. Of his own making.
1
Enough of the nonsense that James Comey cost Hillary Clinton the election. There is truth in the notion that one person cost Mrs. Clinton the election: Hillary Clinton.
Comey’s book should not hit the shelves. He is deeply involved in the politicization of the FBI. His underhanded actions to enable the special counsel indicates clean and pure intent to create and play with fire Hard to imagine a man of his flavor would ever get to the position achieved. His tome if released would find a most comfortable bookcase spot .. in the same crybaby temperament as Ma Clinton’s what and why-er delusion. This man is not good for America.
It's a real stretch to suggest Comey got Trump elected. Given the relentless pressure generated by Republicans Mr. Comey found himself in a lose - lose situation.
In the end it was Hilary Clinton and her supporters who got Trump elected. Policies of shifting sands blowing in the wind and her stand-off persona turned more people off than Trump's arrogant but otherwise genuine personality.
More voters ended up trusting Trump but a substantial number of voters stayed home. That is what got Trump elected and it had nothing to do with Mr. Comey.
Actually if we're going to "punditize," as it were, we should probably correct a core error -- more people did *not* "trust Trump." More people (~3 million, albeit not in red states) trusted Clinton.
As my old dear grandpappy would have put it, to be righteous one must first be right." -grin-
1
Mr. Comey is a national disgrace, hated by democrats and republicans alike, an embarrassment to the FBI, law enforcement and any notions that equal justice under law exist. Other than that, he has had a great career.
1
James Comey will likely be remembered as either one of the most incompetent or corrupt people of the first part of this century when everything is said and done.
1
Dated April 1, 1997, The New York Times published a letter from Jane Prettyman of Santa Barbara, CA that stated in part:
"In high school literature class we learned that in tragedy, the hero undergoes a change in character. If the hero remains essentially the same throughout his life and dies in part because he never changed, the action is not tragic but pathetic."
In the current context, has James Comey ever really changed his character, Hillary Clinton notwithstanding?
I hope some of the news interviewers ask Comey why he thought he had to reveal that Hillary was again under investigation 11 days before the election while at the same time he thought it not appropriate to reveal that Trump had been under investigation since July, 2016. The asymmetry reeks of partisanship.
3
I don't care what James Comes has to say; I don't care if he apologizes from here to kingdom come, if he condemns the president or even leads someone to the president's removal from office. I will never forgive him for what he did that put us where we are today. He, more than anyone else, is responsible for this--we are suffering from his hubris while he will earn millions of dollars that shield him from any real consequences of the madness of the president. I hope his book ends up remaindered in two weeks, sold for a buck in Dollar Tree -- and that still no one buys it. Shame on him. Shame on him. Shame on him.
2
The writer fails to mention that both Bill Clinton and Obama made mistakes that likely partly drove Comey's decision to hold the controversial July 2016 press conference (which in turn led to Comey's Congressional testimony and to the reopening of the email investigation shortly before the election).
Bill Clinton stupidly reached out to chat with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac while Hillary was under DOJ investigation -- terrible judgment/terrible optics. And Obama made a public statement that Hillary's email situation had not negatively impacted national security -- again, while Hillary was under DOJ investigation. Presidents are not supposed to weigh in on matters pertaining to open DOJ investigations.
Both of these foolish moves likely influenced Comey's (very unfortunate) decision to publically flesh out the factors behind the decision not to prosecute Clinton for her sloppy handling of classified documents.
What Jim Comey never understood is that self-righteousness can be just as blinding and destructive as the more base human emotions. To be right is one thing, to be wise is quite another.
1
One correction in an otherwise spot on piece, Comey didn’t help elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes, he helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president EVER. One hopes that, every once in a while, The Infallible Mr Comey has a dark night of the soul over that one.
3
What a tour de force analysis. Hubris and the unforseen consequences of self rightous zeal.
3
Well said, David. Thank you for exposing the proverbial Achilles Heel. Terrifying irony!
Yeah. I can't forgive him either.
I’m just hoping to live long enough to read Mueller’s indictments and report to Congress. As he is apt to do when burnishing his self image, I’m afraid Comey will give Nunes, Hannity, and the “law and order” GOP more ammunition for their war on the FBI.
And I blame President Obama for appointing Comey to head our F.B.I. An ethical bureaucrat is more rare than an ethical politician, and the reason is that a politician can fire a bureaucrat like Comey whose extremely tentatively cautious job decisions undermine his ruthless personal ambitions. There’s a lesson for Comey in the fall from grace of archangels wanting to usurp the power of the one who can create and destroy them.
1
Poor judgment when it counted most. Not a hero.
1
There's no way to be sure whether or not or not Comey's 11th-hour non-revelation lost the election for Ms. Clinton. What is sure, from all the facts, is that Mr. Comey used very poor judgment at a critical moment. Silence was his legal right: he should have manned up and stood fast.
You got it right in the final three paragraphs. With all the wonderful Comey qualities, those same qualities conspired to convince himself that "he had no choice". If he was true to himself he had to make that speech about the Hillary investigation. He did it, he thought he was right and everyone else was wrong, and he compounded it with the 11 day "reopening of the issue". He knew better. No. Was he affected by the Hillary polls on the rise? Maybe we will find out. But I think the tragedy extends beyond him to Obama, who chose to remain moot on Russian meddling, for somewhat similar reasoning. He was trying to do the right thing. He knew better. Both were wrong, and both may have been influenced by what everyone expected - Hillary was going to get elected. Their combined efforts scuttled that in a double whammy that is Donald Trump. The haunting hellishness of hubris, and the great importance of humility.
3
Comey's decision to go public with the Clinton email investigation during the 2016 presidential campaign, and Comey’s public announcement of the reopening of the Clinton investigation just 11 days before the actual presidential election were fatal, both for him and the citizens of our country. If he didn’t intend to influence the outcome of the election, why then didn’t he also go public with the fact the Donald Trump was under FBI investigation? No matter how impressive his history with the FBI or his bravery during the Bush Administration, he threw it all away when he became the catalyst for the election of Donald Trump, the most incompetent, traitorous, mentally unstable president in the history of the United States. No book or interviews will ever change the catastrophic damage; they will only fund Comey’s personal financial reservoir.
831
Yes, it’s right up there with Colin Powell’s career-ending swan dive into that empty bucket of WMD’s...
30
For the reasons you state, I will not buy Jim Comey's book.
Why enrich the one man most responsible for the election of the incompetent, vile, narcisscistic Donald Trump.
39
I bought it and look forward to reading it. However, it will not change my opinion of his actions to harm our nation when he could have avoided doing so.
The election was close enough that there were many events that could have changed the outcome, had they not occurred or had the timing been different. Whether it ultimately turns out for good or bad -- see the parable of the Zen master. On the plus side, many citizens have been propelled into civic engagement for the first time in their lives.
1
Comey was but one of many perfect storm elements that led to Trump's election.
More significant was the false equivalency narrative in the media that equated Clinton's unsecured email with Trump's colossal collection of suspect behavior including fraud, bankruptcies, licentiousness, chiseling, constant stream of lies, pandering to prejudices and overall vulgarity.
This media narrative mirrors Comey's own need to act like a maverick rather than hew to the painful truth.
Both helped tilt the scales among moderates and made possible the electoral college fluke that put this malignant narcissist in the White House.
9
Despite his enormous accomplishments and impassioned calls for honor and morality in politics, Comey’s insincerity and hence, sanctimony, are ever- present.
Comey fiercely rails against Trump for the ignominy he has introduced into the public sphere, but willfully ( notice I am not using the term mistakenly) interfered in the democratic process. Reigniting the Hillary email “scandal” with what was by all accounts a non-issue in the days before the election was not a naive error, but an egregious political calculation that blew up in his face and irrevocably harmed this nation. Comey’s sin and the holier than thou attitude he conveys in its aftermath offer a troubling paradox.
16
Comey's erraticism in the Clinton email investigation is attributable to several factors. Sometimes those who cast themselves as pillars of rectitude twist their sanctimony into self-aggrandizement - it's common human ego frailty to believe one's reviews and turn healthy righteousness into self-righteousness. That was evident in the tone of Comey's announcements. He'd gone god. This book release is further evidence.
His sanctimony may have also gotten the better of him in his motivation for his announcements the last month. I read that in an earlier appearance before Congress to explain the summer's non-prosecution decision, he made an unwise, inappropriate and ill-fated commitment to report any changes to that conclusion (which should never have been announced by FBI in the first place, leaving him open to charges of grandstanding but is explained by his concern of a politicized Obama DOJ - not unwarranted given AG Holder's blatant politicking and AG Lynch's ham-handed partisanship).
It's been bruted about that the rightist Erik Prince-Giuiliani-rogue NYPD/FBI field office cabal leaned on Comey to announce the reinvestigation after the Wiener laptop discovery (the examination of which was slow-walked by said cabal to bring the matter to a head right before election day, to Comey's naive surprise). Word is they told Comey if he didn't go public they would and in the bargain would accuse him of withholding it to steer the election. He was boxed in. Of his own making.
3
Thank you Mr. Leonhart for sorting out some of the confusion surrounding what Comey did. While many factors affected the outcome of the 2016 election, Comey's actions certainly played a big part. This article is right on.
3
There can be no doubt Comey's actions, especially those 11 days before the election, cost Hillary Clinton the election. It is well documented in: "The Unmaking of the President 2016: How FBI Director James Comey Cost Hillary Clinton the Presidency" by Lanny Davis. Mr. Davis also documents the role of the media (including the NYT) in the unfounded attacks on Hillary Clinton. Of course, the real culprits, in my opinion, were the sanctimonious democrats and progressives who were looking for absolute purity and either stayed home or voted for a Unicorn (stealing a metaphor from Mr. Krugman), who doesn't exist. I worry that this kind of event could play out time and again in future elections because too many voters get their "news" from FOX or Sinclair or perhaps the new "Roseanne" and don't bother to make the effort to learn the facts. But I cannot forgive Comey. His hubris didn't take him down. His actions earned him the honor of being fired by the corrupt president and a book tour; it cost us the election.
501
Maybe Comey had to be fired by Trump or it would look just too obvious that he supported Trump's election. Now Comey gets to work on resurrecting his image (and to me only an image) of moral rectitude.
14
No. There is only one way to assess the results of the election. According to all the polls, there were just six states where the election was too close to call (<2% difference between Clinton and Trump). That's like having to toss six coins, where there will be 64 outcomes, each equally likely, since getting a result of two tosses produces four equally likely results, i.e. HH, HT, TH, and TT). Those states - FL, PA, MI, NC, WI and NH carried a total of 94 Electoral College votes. Trump won five, gaining 90 of the 94. Clinton won NH, gaining only 4.
There were six ways of getting five Trump wins out of six elections. Six divided by 64 is 9% - an unlikely result but not significantly different from a random effect.
If either candidate had won any five of the six, he or she would have won. It was RANDOM. It wasn't caused by anything other than voters casting votes.
If Clinton had lost California, or Trump had lost Mississippi, that would have been a statistically significant departure from randomness. But neither of those events happened.
Random means RANDOM, which means that there is NO DOUBT that the results can be explained by anything except chance.
There have been elections - 2008 and 2012, for two - where the outcome was easily predicted, and if either Romney or McCain had won, it would have differed very significantly from chance. But 2016 just happened. Because it did.
4
"Of course, the real culprits, in my opinion, were the sanctimonious democrats and progressives who were looking for absolute purity and either stayed home or voted for a Unicorn (stealing a metaphor from Mr. Krugman), who doesn't exist."
I know many of these people. They really are to blame.
23
It is to Comey’s credit that he said he felt ‘ nausea’ at the thought that his actions could have been the cause that Donald J Trump is the President of the United States. He’s going to have to live with that the rest of his life.
3
"nausea" said with all the conviction of a school kid trying to take a sick day.Comey was purposeful in his announcement days before an election. Can't believe anyone would PAY to hear what he has to say. He's said enough.
1
From the day that Comey tipped the election to Trump it was obvious that he knew what he was doing. Everyone knew. Clinton was well ahead and suddenly she was not. I will ask now as I did then the first and most reasonable question in politics: who paid and how much?
6
In the end Comey's decision to release this useless information against Hillary Clinton at a most critical moment was political as his thoughts were more about seeking favor with Republicans than protecting the country and our election process. In his mind he may think himself just, but history will judge him as a political hack. I will for one never forgive him for that one action no matter his previous actions. In the end he failed miserably and that is all that counts.
6
All I can say is Exactly. This piece hit the nail on the head.
4
Folks, Comey was on thin ice regardless of which candidate won the presidential election. Would Hillary have kept Comey in office if she had won? Really?
5
The penultimate paragraph says it all.
He helped elect the most dangerous, unfit American president of our lifetimes. No matter how brave Comey has since been, no matter how honorable his full career, he can never undo that damage.
9
Those who insist that "Bernie purists" lost Hillary the election are focusing on one minuscule element in the perfect storm that was the 2016 election. They forget that the Russians were spreading confusion and sowing distrust, that the Republicans were gerrymandering and suppressing votes, that tens of millions of registered voters didn't vote at all, and that the overwhelming majority of Bernie supporters did vote for Hillary in the general election. Hillary's campaign failed in taking for granted those critical "firewall" states where she lost the Electoral College by a few thousand votes, assuming they were in the bag. And the media played false equivalency, also assuming Hillary had it in the bag even as they treated her opponent as a candidate right up there with her in legitimacy. So many watchdogs with bark collars and no teeth. Then along comes Comey with empty insinuations about emails but not a peep about the Russian candidate. So many reasons why Hillary lost despite winning the popular vote. Bernie might not have been electable two years ago; as a "Socialist," an "East Coast elite," and a Jew, he would have faced ferocious headwinds. In 2020, if he's actually thinking of running, those factors would still play a role, but to look pragmatically at the horse race, age would be the biggest issue. His policy points remain enormously popular.
2
Bernie is "ideas" not accomplishments.His resume paled in comparison to Hillary..and I hope that Al Gore (another popular vote winner)would step in and save us from "tabloid Donnie"
1
I think of the word shade, when I think of his comments on Hillary Clinton, and his silence on Trump.
Don't buy the book and enrich an accomplice to the crime being committed against the United States. I am not interested in his mea culpas and suggest we dial him out, not watch, and let him go to the dustbin of history.
The answer is no when asked if you watched James Comey.
5
Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election because she was a weak candidate with an even weaker campaign message. To blindly blame Trump's victory on Comey is to utterly misunderstand the dynamics of what occurred.
5
I reject Trump, his Administration, and their destructive actions and dangerous policies with every fiber of my being. Director Comey's "October Surprise" was indeed infuriating, inexplicable, and a damnable error of judgement. Yet, he is an honorable, decent person who has served this country well over time, with overwhelming integrity, intelligence, and courage. I do not apportion responsibility to him for the election of the totally unfit, unpresidential, unprepared Trump. For that, the minority of the electorate who voted for him are the ones for us to accurately blame, the consequential, tragic, mistake of millions.
2
Hubris as the downfall of a potentially great man? For almost all purposes, his 11th hour discussion of Hillary led to her loss . . . or maybe not. After a year of Trump's ludicrous behavior and non-leadership, giving Comey a large share of the blame is very convenient.
Unfortunately, Trump rules and Comey's part falls in the vapor trails of hindsight. All that's really important now is to curtail the maniac and his party.
We must prepare for November, 2018!
5
Reading this affirms my guy feelings about Comey. No, I won't but his book. But millions of "patriots" will make him rich.
1
Trump condemns Comey for political betrayal. Many Clinton supporters blame him for Hillary’s unexpected loss. Maybe he was a straight shooter. Decisions without political malice.
3
Comey said right after his firing he released the Uma email discovery to get the truth out there before the Russian propaganda machine could fire up. He said he knew they were behind much of the Hilary misinformation. He thought to get ahead of the disinformation curve.
The Putin oligarchy has done a lot of damage. Let's not blame our own when the enemy is from without.
3
Then he should have explained why he was doing what he did. That he never disclosed anything about an investigation into the Russian connection to the DT campaign makes him even more culpable for the situation we are in. If democracy survives long enough for anyone to write a critical and honest history of this time, he should be indicted as responsible in a major way for what has happened.
"When doing the right thing meant staying quiet and taking some lumps, Comey chose not to."
To me that sentence sums up Jim Comey.
The honorable thing to have done after concluding that Mrs. Clinton had committed no punishable crime, would have been to fade from the public arena, even in apparent disgrace, sacrificing himself to save the nation from the darkness Hillary's opponent both portended and has been delivering.
Mr. Leonhardt, spot on!
3
The modern American, political version of The Inquisition has been the Republican House, committees headed by Darrell Issa, Trey Gowdy, Jason Chaffetz. They spent years and millions of dollars raking the lives of political opponents over the coals, coming away with not even a single indictment. It's hard to imagine that Comey made his intrusions into the Clinton campaign -three times no less- without the calculation that he would be lashed at the wheel endlessly should republicans suspect that he withheld something useful to them prior to the election. I can understand any concerns that Comey had along those lines. In the end, he should have stiffened his spine and done the right thing, which was to maintain sensible tradition and keep the FBI's voice out of the election.
6
Mr. Leonhardt's piece is far too kind to James Comey. If you get down to brass tacks, Mr. Comey isn't too much different that Donald Trump. Both are egotistical, with much more regard for themselves and their legacies than for the good of the country. They both have itches to scratch, and if scratching them hurts the country, well ... in their eyes, that's just too bad.
That Mr. Trump is clumsily aggressive and Mr. Comey is passive-aggressive is beside the point. At the end of the day, they'd both rather hurt the country than suffer criticism. (The irony of which is plain - their egocentric postures buy them much more criticism than would making truly hard decisions for the good of the country.)
The hardest thing to do and the right thing to do are often the same. For Mr. Comey, disregarding DoJ policy was difficult - he surely would have gotten some ostracism for not speaking about Ms. Clinton's emails. But Mr. Comey's outsized ego won out, resulting in him improperly influencing an election won by the thinnest of margins.
I like the fact that Mr. Comey is currently positioned against Mr. Trump. And I like the fact that Mr. Comey's self-image and ego will make testifying against Mr. Trump easy, and at some level enjoyable to him.
But I don't like Mr. Comey. Not one bit.
7
I have give Comey a pass on his Hillary back and forth. Hi did what he saw right without thinking of the consequences He would have been blamed either way. How many Govt officials do we know that will stand up to a bully like Trump, certainly not the highest Law Enforcement Officer in the Nation.
2
Blaming Comey for HRC's loss is just silly. Waaaaaay too many other things involved. When teams are tied with seconds to go, only a fool blames a loss on the final fumble. Many errors, many points scored, brought the team to that tie. There were other fumbles along the way,
Anyhow, to continue the analogy, Comey wasn't even part of either team. Wasn't his job, the winning or losing of those teams. The way I see it, Comey really didn't have a good choice available.
The energy in the election was clearly with Sanders. Imagine if he were our president now. Clearly he was seen as a threat to too many powerful interests.
2
Hillary won the primaries by 4 MILLION voted. Now THAT is a lot of energy. Hopefully Bernie stays on the sidelines and/or his record is more publicly scrutinized.
Have you ever made a mistake?
There is something about your selection of words in this passage that troubles me. It is as if you decided some time ago that you are the judge and jury of this other man.
Yes, I , too, was amazed when Mr. Comey made his public statements so close to the election. To suggest that Ms.Clinton lost the election solely because of Mr. Comey's remarks is unfair. From way over here on the Left Coast it appears that that actor who now calls himself President (which of course, he is) played the con man's game: you know, promises, promises, promises. Whoopee. It all sounded so wonderful that folks were suckered.
Now it is the media who are being suckered. Each day The Donald professes concern about another topic.Way to go, old man. Keep yourself in the headlights of the daily news.
In the meantime, sir, judge not lest you be judged. cheers.
2
Stephen Colbert, David Remnick, Rachel Maddow, Mike Allen, George Stephanopoulos and “The View.”
If Comey was never partisan, then why are these the only outlets and journalists to start his tour? Unless there is more variety in his stops than these, it seems clear he is avoiding conservative outlets.
1
Why did Comey reveal status of Clinton investigation but say nothing about Trump campaign which was itself under investigation at the time for its dealings with the Russians?
3
Comey was arrogant and short-sighted in his announcement about reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton's duplicate emails. It's hard to pity a man who used his power so irresponsibly.
But the thing is, Comey's public trials should not be about him personally, they are about what happened to him because of Trump. And it is clear that Trump was villainous and Comey tried to stand up for himself and for the rule of law.
When Trump asked Comey for loyalty and to let Flynn go, the FBI Director did not relent. A seasoned prosecutor, Comey understood that a man with skeletons in the closet was trying to compromise his own integrity. Comey made clear, in his testimony last year, that he resisted the "patronage relationship" Trump tried to manipulate with him.
Comey saw his own termination on a TV while giving a speech. He, like the rest of us, heard Trump change publicly the story behind his firing - and the true one, revealed to Russians behind closed doors, that it should take investigative pressure off of him.
Comey has since then also been subjected to an endless barrage of hostile and degrading tweets from Trump.
So we don't have to enjoy Comey the man or find him inculpible of his, and the nation's, downfall. We should root for his story to get across, because he has truth on his side.
1
Comey shares the fate of many in the chattering class who become enamored with the sound of their own voice-he has been hoisted on his own petard- his response in the summer of 2016 to allegations of Hillary's mis-management was completely inappropriate- he should have turned the information over to a federal grand jury and not put his fingers in the mix- he was betrayed by his own edemic ego- and by lynch trying desperately to avoid any responsibility-his best strategy from here forward would be to keep quiet, collect his pension and wait for a while-the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd was apparently too much for him to resist - no matter - i wont be buying the book-i feel bad for a guy who had a good reputation for years and was sacrificed at the alter of the clintons, like so many others
1
I do not doubt Mr Comey believes himself to be a man of integrity but he is also human and therefore, like the rest of us, he is also fallible.
On his last appearance before Congress, he said he did not regret what he did to Hillary Clinton. That showed a certain amount of arrogance and some blindness towards his own unethical behavior towards Mrs Clinton. That was unforgivable.
In my view, his interference tilted the election towards Mr Trump. Yes, he has paid a terrible price for his so called "righteousness" but so has one half of Americans. I honestly hope he has dedicated a good portion of his book to apologize to Mrs Clinton and her supporters. Otherwise he has learnt nothing out of this whole sorry mess.
4
The tragedy is that he ultimately allowed Trump to win.
2
Exactly. Hubris. But let's not flatter him with the Greek tragedy reference.
2
The difference between the cost of hubris in a Greek tragedy and the use of the word here is that in Greek tragedies, the gods punish the hero guilty of the hubris. Here, we are the ones suffering from Comey's enormous errors. He lost his job but he has a huge book deal and millions of dollars to shield him from the consequences of that. So many of us? Not at all.
1
Well written. Fair and complete. Balanced and rings so true.
James Comey and Robert Mueller protecting Attorney General John Ashcroft from being bullied by White House officials Alberto Gonzalez and Andrew Card while Ashcroft lay ill in a hospital was their finest hour. That's why we have public servants - to fulfill their obligations to us, including not letting sick people get hustled by public officials with no scruples and no conscience. That alone was the price of admission for these two admirable men.
1
Reads about right David. In addition to the fact that "he helped elect the most dangerous, unfit..." I would add he perhaps irreparably damaged the democratic institutions of justice as horribly partisan and corrupt he wishes to champion. One need only witness the savaging of Mueller to appreciate the extent of the damage.
2
Wow. Partisan or not, how do you let this guy off the hook so easily? All other virtues aside, the man is single-handedly responsible for the election of Donald Trump. Imagine if he had not done what he did at the 11th hour? Do you think that might have swayed way more than 77,000 voters? If there’s a tragedy in all of this, it’s that one. And no amount of weighty commentary by Comey or that sad, pained look that he uses to suggest that he was just doing his duty, no matter how painful it was for him, can erase that fact. Quite the opposite of what you suggest – I think history will be very unkind to him.
4
I will not buy James Comey's book, just as I refused to buy OJ Simpson's book. It's unseemly of him to exploit his renown, since much of it was gained thanks to a disastrous decision that has seriously damaged our country.
4
The Greeks called if hubris, false pride, Comey brought us Trump, rather than simply doing his job he violated his own principles, he metaphorically preened himself, he seized the headlines and overturned an election, he must not be forgiven, his book, his mea culpa, can not make up for Imposing Trump upon our nation.
2
Lordy, I really don't need to hear, or Read, his excuses. MUCH too little, too Late.
4
Why then? Why did he feel at that point in time he owed an explanation for the investigation given the admonitions against such actions? Was this a tipping point that helped people cast a vote for one of the most inept, scurrilous and dangerous presidents in the history of this Country? Maybe, maybe not and perhaps Mr. Comey can regain some of his stature and respect by helping Mr. Mueller pin POTUS for the impeachable crime of obstruction of justice - it would be sweet vindication.
2
I'll never forget the Inauguration Day in 2016 when the TV cameras followed Trump into the White House. Comey crossed the room to meet his new boss with a charming, little-boy duck of his head, that looked to me like a kid who knew he'd done well and was looking forward to his reward with a little bit of false modesty for show. At that moment I thought, 'Comey knew exactly what he was doing when he released that letter just before the election,' and broke out in a cold sweat. I get the charm. I don't buy the 'integrity'.
2
An excellent opinion piece. Thanks!
1
Meanwhile, he was mum about the Trump Russia investigation. That’s makes the October surprise so indefensible.
5
Sixty-three million people ignored all the warning signs and voted for Trump. *They* are responsible for Trump - not Comey, not Hillary, not Jill Stein voters.
3
Thanks David. Regardless of where on the political scale you measure Comey, the damage he did to our country prior to the election can never be excused. Why? Because I was a Hillary supporter and voted for her, but even I thought that she might be guilty of something terrible if the director of the FBI felt he had to release that statement to Congress just days before the election. Saying “I’m sorry” after you’ve released a nuclear weapon on innocent people will never bring them back to life. Now he’s going public to do what? Clear his name & reputation?
What all of us should take away from this tragedy is the lesson we were taught as children: Look before you leap.
5
It was the Obama Administration that corrupted Comey. Loretta Lynch ordered him to mislead the American people regarding whether Hillary Clinton was under investigation, and he complied. It probably seemed like a small compromise at the time allowing him to serve a larger sense of justice, but it led to all the other problems. Comey was caught between FBI agents who knew the truth--that Clinton had been grossly negligent in handling highly classified material--and the Obama Administration that wanted the matter white-washed. Next, Comey in trying to strike a balanced usurped the authority of the entire Justice Department leadership in exonerating Clinton, but still had to explain away the evidence that too many in the FBI knew, euphemistically changing gross negligence to extremely careless and hanging his hat on prosecutorial discretion. This led to his testimony before Congress in which he promised to keep them informed of any major change in the status of the investigation, which led him to send the letter to Congressional leaders just before the election. If he had not bowed to Lynch's original political pressure, none of this would have happened. Of course, he probably would have been fired, and no liberal or Democrat would have uttered a single word of dismay over his firing.
3
What a terrific essay. Seems to capture the good and tragically, disastrously bad of Comey, exactly as it should be seen.
4
"Comey, however, decided that he knew better than everyone else."
Do not they all?
And therein lies modern humanity's unsolvable problem: The Tragedy of Human Hubris.
MB
2
He cost Clinton the election, and now the country is at risk. I will never forgive him.
3
Thanks Mr Leonhardt. Short and to the point. I agree.
Dude was righteous in ignoring DOJ rules about announcing political investigations especially close to an election, but apparently not righteous in failing to mention trump investigation. Sad.
3
Comey is not to blame for the tragedy of Trump. The hubris in this drama is the Liberal conceit that the election was rational and hinged on such a decision. The chants to "lock her up" had no basis in reality or in the comments of Comey and would have continued no matter what the FBI director said. If we are going to work at the next election to remove Trump we must focus on the real dynamics that got us here.
2
Hubris or not, we desperately need national figures to speak truth to power right now. I just hope Comey's truth-telling and note-taking are as good as he makes them out to be.
1
The NYTimes condemnation of Comey's decision to release the fact that the announced closure of the investigation into HRC's emails was being reopened is unwarranted. Indeed, if the shoe had been on the other foot, with his announcing a reopening of an investigation of Trump that the FBI had previously announced as closed, you would have praised his integrity in standing up to his critics and Doing The Right Thing.
HRC concealed -- and continues to conceal -- half the emails sent through the facility she used for government traffic as being "personal." She knew better. Many organizations, particularly those dealing in classified material, forbid the use of their mail server for personal messages. HRC was not naive, not ignorant of such policies. Indeed, her arrogance is what gave us Trump -- not Comey's attempt to be forthright and honest.
2
Always beware the self-righteous. They never perceive their own flaws, just the flaws of others.
4
During my career as a print reporter, I asked the FBI for comment many times: Were they investigating this or that?
The response was always the same: they didn't confirm or deny that an investigation was in progress.
Before Comey (though this was different in the Hoover era), I can't recall the head of the FBI explaining why the Bureau had decided not to file charges in a case.
Comey is no hero, and I would be astonished if his book is other than one more campaign book: Look at me! Aren't I grand?
2
This book tour will resemble a well deserved public flogging. There's a least that.
1
The FBI routinely say they do not comment on ongoing investigations. We now know that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign and keeping very quiet about it, while simultaneously raking Hillary Clinton over the coals in public. Investigate all you want. But you cannot choose to try one candidate in public while keeping quiet about the other when they both were running for office of President. Mr. Comey May be a good man. But in my opinion, he was a demagogue who believed too much in his own purity. I have no sympathy for this man.
2
Let's wait until we hear James Comey speak, in his book and in his interviews. Could it be that the man everyone is claiming is 'showing bad judgment to speak now' is really going to save this country and stop its terrible fall after all?
1