Comey
may get the last laugh
By:
LeRoy Goldman
Columnist
BlueRidgeNow.Com
June 18, 2017
Today
Washington is paralyzed at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue by
uncompromising zealots in both parties. And worse, they hold sway
because there has been an analogous shift among voters. The political
center has been systematically hollowed out as the ranks of
uncompromising zealots have swelled in both parties.
Who
comes to exploit America’s vulnerability? Russia with its
sophisticated, substantial, and clandestine effort to undermine our
free elections. Make no mistake about it, the Russian attack on our
election is right up there with Pearl Harbor and 9/11 in terms of its
malevolent, destructive purpose.
And
what about the 2016 election and its stunning result and surreal
aftermath? The good thing about the election is that it got rid of
one of the two horrible candidates. The bad news is that it it put
the other horrible candidate in the White House.
The
FBI counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to
interfere in our 2016 election began last July. In March of this year
then FBI Director Comey confirmed that the investigation included an
effort to determine if there was any coordination between the Trump
campaign and Russia. He also said that such an investigation would
necessarily require, “a credible allegation of wrongdoing or
reasonable basis to believe that an American may be acting as an
agent of a foreign power.”
Since
then, thanks to leaks, Trump’s tweets, his interview with NBC’s
Lester Holt, hearings before Congressional committees, and the sworn
testimony of private citizen James Comey, we know much more.
We
know the President was obsessed with two, and apparently only two,
aspects of the FBI investigation, whether he was under investigation
and whether he could convince Director Comey to lay off his former
National Security Adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn.
According
to Comey’s recent sworn testimony we know that the president urged
Comey repeatedly to state publicly that he was not under
investigation, and to lay off Flynn because he was a “good guy.”
We also know that he implied that failure to comply would cost Comey
his job. When Comey didn’t comply Trump fired him on May 9. The
next day in the White House he told the Russian ambassador and the
Russian foreign minister, “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was
crazy, a real nut job.” And the following day he said, “You know
this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an
excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election.”
Is
it reasonable to assume that Trump went to bat for Flynn out of
loyalty? I doubt it. Trump’s loyalty begins and ends with himself.
Much more plausible is that Trump wanted to prevent the investigators
from “squeezing” Flynn to see if he would incriminate bigger
fish.
We
also know that the president attempted to divert attention from the
investigation by claiming that the real scandal was an effort by
President Obama to wiretap the Trump campaign, a claim wholly without
merit and flatly denied by intelligence officials from both
administrations.
We
know that there are credible reports that the president urged the
Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, and the Director of the
National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers, to push back
against the FBI inquiry into possible collusion between Russia and
the Trump campaign. Both refused, but would not further discuss the
matter in recent open testimony before the Senate Intelligence
Committee. Their silence will not stand.
We
know that former FBI Director Comey has testified that he leaked the
notes of his meetings and phone calls with the President. Comey has
testified that he believed the release of their contents would lead
to the appointment of a special counsel to lead the investigation.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed two days after the leak.
The
incredible irony here is that Comey told Trump several times that he
was not under investigation. But Trump’s firing of Comey and the
way he both did it and described it have now almost certainly caused
the special counsel to open an investigation of the president. At
issue will be whether or not the President obstructed justice.
Comey’s notes and testimony lay a trail of crumbs from Mueller’s
office to the Oval Office. If Mueller makes that case, Trump’s a
goner. In the meantime Trump has emasculated his ability to govern.
If
Mueller charges the president with obstruction, the delicious irony
will be that Jim Comey may well have brought down both Clinton and
Trump, not a bad day’s work!
If
you want a clue concerning the public’s reaction to of all this,
watch the special House election in Georgia this Tuesday. It’s a
heavily Republican district where the outcome Tuesday is uncertain.
It shouldn’t be.
Times-News
columnist LeRoy Goldman is a Flat Rock resident. Reach him at:
