in his memoir A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and
Leadership (2018), James Comey presents himself as a man who throughout his
life has tried to do the right thing. He
discusses mistakes he has made and his efforts to improve himself and his
character. He had a long, distinguished
career in law enforcement both as an agent and a prosecutor prior to becoming
Director of the FBI. He served under four presidents, from Clinton to
Trump. He does not gossip, for the most
part, but we become aware that he liked some presidents more than others. Although he was prone to agree more with
President Bush politically, he found him prone to gruffness and capable of
being distant. Obama, whom he did not
always agree with politically, he came to like and respect. His attitudes towards Hillary Clinton are equivocal.
And he seemed to have little respect for Donald Trump even before the 2016 election
campaign began.
In the future, most people will
remember Comey for his handling of the Clinton e-mail controversy and its impact
on the 2016 presidential election. Many readers will look to his memoir in
hopes of finding clarity on that matter.
Although there may be other reasons why Clinton lost, including a series
of mistakes by her campaign, misogyny, probable Russian interference, baggage
from her husband’s presidency, not to mention the archaic and outmoded
Electoral College, many people blame Comey for her defeat. In the summer of 2016 Comey announced that the
FBI found in its investigation no reason to indict Clinton, but he also stated
that she had handled the e-mails “carelessly.” Ten days prior to the election he
held a press conference to reveal that the investigation had been reopened
because of new evidence, and then three days before the election he announced that
the investigation had turned up nothing new and was therefore closed again—this
led many, including this writer, to suspect political shenanigans, to suspect
that he was trying to throw the election. Since that time, in his resistance to
Donald Trump, in his refusal to close the Mueller investigation or to pledge
fealty to the new president, many have moderated their opinions of him.
The memoir doesn’t shed new
light on the controversy. Comey admits to character flaws early in his
memoir. He recounts how early in his
career he convinced friends that he had been a professional basketball player,
and he admits to other mistakes. All of
these foibles became a basis for self-improvement. Comey presents himself as someone always
struggling to improve, to overcome personality quirks, and so on.
Comey’s explanation for his
handling of revelations about the Clinton e-mail controversy is that he was
attempting to protect the FBI’s public image, to preserve the public trust in
the FBI. He explains his concern that if
he did not announce the resumption of the investigation he and the Bureau might
later be accused of suppressing important information during the final days of
an election. This is reasonable enough
on the face of it, but there were other concerns he might have considered,
including the national welfare. Moreover, his announcements about the
investigation violated FBI protocol. Comey says he believed Clinton would win
the election, implying that if he had thought otherwise, he might have handled
things differently. And he says he often
wonders whether he made a mistake.
I believe Comey did care about
making the right decisions. I think he
has served the public trust in a basically honest way. However, I also think he cares about his public
image. His insistence on duty, on
uprightness, on protecting the FBI might on occasion have blinded him to the
need for thinking more carefully, more deeply, about the most important of his
decisions.
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