Fired Former FBI Director Comey’s testimony about FBI leaks to the press is at odds with his sworn statements from his former deputy, Andrew McCabe. We know Comey met with Trump on several occasions assuring him that he was not the subject of an FBI investigation. This happened amid mysterious leaks to the press that Trump was, in fact, part of the probe. We now know he made sure that his memos about his meetings with Trump were leaked to the press. His explanation of his behavior is that it was designed to force the appointment of a special counsel. But the question should be asked whether it actually was to deflect scrutiny from his own improper actions?
A number of high-ranking FBI officials during Comey’s tenure were either been fired, forced to resign, retired, or were reassigned; some cases resulting from accusations of improper conduct or bias. Andrew McCabe was assigned by Comey to oversee the Clinton email scandal. Comey knew or should have known McCabe’s wife had run for a seat in the Virginia state Senate. It was a matter of public record she received help of nearly $500,000 in campaign contributions from a PAC associated with the Clintons. One would have thought the appearance of impropriety, conflict of interest, should have been obvious at the time, most especially is such a high profile and politically charged matter.
Comey’s FBI is largely responsible for the prominence and leaking of the notorious Christopher Steele dossier. Comey did not reveal to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) that requests for warrants to conduct surveillance on a member of the Trump campaign were based on an unverified dossier. The FISA court was never informed that the dossier was funded in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign. The FISA court was not informed that Steele, a foreign national, had been dropped as an FBI source for leaking to the press. Comey misled the FISA court by presenting news stories as proof of alleged Trump-Russian collusion, even though those stories were based on the contents of the unverified Steele dossier.
Comey’s misdeeds pose lots of questions. Is Comey merely a hypocrite? Don’t his actions make the FISA warrants invalid? If the FISA warrants are invalid, are the Mueller investigation and all information and indictments stemming from it, at least arguably, fruit of the poisonous tree? In his shame is he projecting his sins onto others? Why does he portray himself as a moralist? Does he hope to help insulate himself from future legal jeopardy? The man makes no explanation about why, when, where, and how the FBI used an informant in hopes of gaining damaging information against Trump.