© Reuters
Former FBI Director James Comey
Former FBI Director James Comey
Nevertheless, Comey released a statement portraying the scathing report as a type of victory and encouraged his critics to send their apologies to him. It was a "Captain Queeg" moment when myth borders on madness. Rather than rave about who stole his strawberries, as Queeg did in "The Caine Mutiny," Comey claims someone stole a reputation that he tossed away two years ago. The report states that Comey not only knowingly violated rules governing all FBI employees, but his decisions "set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current FBI employees."
It details how Comey removed FBI memoranda and then used his friend, Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman, to leak the contents of one memo to the New York Times. Several of the memos were later found to contain privileged, sensitive, or classified information. The FBI seized the memos and had to "scrub" the computer of Richman to remove the unauthorized material provided by Comey. The report also says Comey later acknowledged that some of the classifications were "reasonable."
Of course, facts are largely immaterial in matters of mythology. When Comey removed FBI material and arranged for a leak to the media, the coverage stayed positive despite some of us noting that the "memos" removed by Comey were FBI material and potentially classified. At a minimum, he violated clear rules against leaking such information to the media, a curious decision for the person tasked previously with finding leakers. I noted that such leaks were entirely unnecessary, given other options for getting this information to investigators and to Congress.
Comment: Accusations without proof from known liars versus provable attacks by Israel on 4 Middle East countries in just the last few weeks - although the idea Hezbollah would be working to defend itself, with help from Iran, is not improbable - see: Israel opens new front against Lebanon, with two drones hitting Hezbollah targets in Beirut - Zionist entity now bombing 4 ME countries UPDATES