Latest in James B. Comey
Comey has a distinctive view of how the genuinely ethical leader may have to protect institutions by breaking with the norms and procedures that usually sustain them. But this view fails to address the question of process.
Reflections on the former FBI director’s book, leadership—and no-win situations.
The results of a quick Google Surveys poll on whom the public believes is telling the truth about their interactions, President Trump or former FBI Director James Comey, show a remarkable degree of public confusion and uncertainty as to what or whom to believe
When President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the White House quickly stepped up to slime Comey. Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that "The President, over the last several months, lost confidence in Director Comey. The DOJ lost confidence in Director Comey. Bipartisan members of Congress made it clear that they had lost confidence in Director Comey.
James Comey's testimony portrays an administration confronted with a grave issue—the President’s failure to observe norms and institutional boundaries—but no apparently effective process or implementation of norms for dealing with the potential for reoccurrences.
There is nothing to suggest that Comey's disclosure of his memo was illegal, unethical, immoral, or otherwise inappropriate.
The firing of James Comey puts the Trump-Russia investigation in immediate jeopardy and removes from the investigative hierarchy the one senior official whom President Trump did not appoint and one who is known to stand up to power.
There is but one key personnel decision, in the upcoming Trump administration, that is absolutely clear: FBI Director James Comey must remain in place.
Remember how harshly Attorney General Eric Holder was criticized for not disclosing the FBI’s discovery of then CIA Director David Petraeus’s extramarital affair and improper communications with Paula Broadwell until just after the 2012 presidential election? That incident and this one should remind us it's not accurate or helpful to deny that the DOJ, and in this case the FBI, gets some discretion when it comes to deciding whether to make pre-election disclosures about ongoing investigations. The question is not whether they have discretion but what makes for reasonable exercise of that discretion.
This week, the Aspen Security Forum featured interviews with—among others—FBI Director James Comey, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, and NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers. I have edited these discussions down to manageable length and focused them on the questions most of interest to Lawfare readers.
Comey's discussion with CNN's Wolf Blitzer is most notable for his comments on ISIS and encryption—as well as some pointed comments about cybersecurity.