A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, by James Comey

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.