Letter to James Comey:
First I want to say that I read your book, and believe you are an honest and honorable man. You tried to do what you believed was right in the difficult times of the spring, summer and fall of 2016. There are those who say you “threw the election,” but I believe that was never your intent. You did your best to protect the investigation, the Bureau and the nation.
I do think, though, that there were two judgment calls made in the last months of the 2016 election that ultimately were in error. The first was the announcement of the re-opening of the Clinton email investigation. The actual investigation was fine, and in fact, necessary. You had to know whether more evidence was available. But the announcement created a huge impact on the election, one that I believe you should have been able to predict. The only reason I can see for you to have done this, is that you knew the information was going to come out of the FBI office in New York anyway, and to protect the Bureau, you let it out officially instead.
But once that happened, it was incumbent upon you to “level the field.” You knew there was significant evidence of Trump campaign collusion with Russia, you knew that there was an ongoing investigation that, at the time, gave indications of a serious chance of a “Manchurian candidacy.” Sure, if the Clinton investigation re-opening had remained secret, what all of your FBI and DOJ procedures called for, then the Trump investigation should remain silent as well. But you “outed” Clinton; and you are a fair and honest man. You should have taken one more step down the perilous slope, and arranged for the Trump investigation to be “outed” as well. At least then things would be “even;” albeit even uglier. Then the American people would have had an equal opportunity to decide.
But that didn’t happen. As unbelievable as it seems, Donald Trump was chosen President by the Electoral College; and you, the intelligence community, and the American people were faced with a President potentially under Russian influence. I believe you then continued to do your best, first to try to persuade the President of his vulnerabilities, and then to investigate into what was occurring.
You, your FBI agents and staff, were faced with impossible and heroic choices. You saw evidence that the President was compromised, and, despite the dangers involved, went ahead and investigated. As history has demonstrated, many who have “aimed for the king” get sacrificed. You and your deputy were fired, and multiple others have been transferred, retired or resigned. All of you have been disparaged in public, in the media and by the President himself on Twitter. Your team was sacrificed in the name of protecting the United States. While all of that will probably be seen as heroic ten years from now, it can’t make it feel much better today.
Your successors discussed the Constitutional means of protecting our nation. This included enacting the 25thAmendment, and even gathering evidence towards impeachment. They did everything they legally could to protect the investigation, with Mr. Rosenstein ultimately appointing an unimpeachable leader to protect it, Robert Mueller.
Some have called this an attempted “bureaucratic coup d’etat.” But a “coup d’etat” is defined as an illegal action to overthrow the leadership of the state. You and your team were searching for the LEGAL means of dealing with an unprecedented situation; it is reasonable that every Constitutional tool should have been on the table.
We don’t know what Mueller, Rosenstein, McCabe or you knew about Trump, then or now. We do know that if it comes down to whom to trust to have the best interests of the nation at heart, it sure should be the folks who dedicated their lives to her service. So, while I wish you would have acted differently back in October of 2016, I believe that you and those leading the FBI were acting with integrity, then and now.
Americans will ultimately see the truth, and act with that same concern for our nation. I simply hope the damage being done by the President and his allies to our institutions, and to our faith in the nation, will not be beyond repair.
Thank you for your service.
