Too Soon for History
It’s far too early to try to write the history of our era. The three crises of our time: political and societal polarization, growing world authoritarianism, and the pandemic; aren’t over. Any analysis would struggle to summarize and evaluate. Today, we are still in the “play-by-play”, without knowing what the outcomes will be. To use a sports analogy: were in the third quarter, and the Bengals are ahead.
But we have learned about individuals: we can look at their actions and draw some conclusions about human behavior. The obvious subjects are the leaders, but it’s “too soon” to talk about Presidents. Donald Trump is such a toxic subject, that even mentioning him in this paragraph will stop some from going farther. And while Joe Biden doesn’t create the same visceral reaction, any discussion of him will end up being simply current events. So while those two are fascinating, it’s for another time. Maybe in a couple of decades when the mere mention of their names doesn’t generate emotion. (How old do you have to be for the name “Nixon” to generate anger?).
We can look at the recent past, the original crisis of the Trump Administration, and learn a lot about right and wrong, success and failure, courage and cowardness. Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies faced a question. Was the Trump Campaign and then Administration somehow infiltrated by Russian Intelligence? What is critical for this essay is how two individuals faced up to the question. Let’s look at them, dropped into the white-hot furnace of Russiagate: James Comey and Rod Rosenstein.
Comey
James Comey was Director of the FBI as the 2016 political campaigns began. A highly accomplished US Attorney from the University of Chicago, he rose through the ranks of the Justice Department to become the Deputy Attorney General under President George W Bush. He demonstrated a strict moral compass even then. When his boss, Attorney General John Ashcroft was desperately ill and in the hospital; Presidential Counsel Alberto Gonzalez tried to gain his signature on a 9-11 plan to further infringe on American privacy and rights, Comey literally stood at the bedside and told the man acting in the name of the President, no.
Comey believed strongly in that compass, and in the inherent strength of the FBI. So when he saw a “flaw” in the Obama Justice Department, a perceived conflict of interest in the Hillary Clinton email investigation, he took it upon himself to mete out justice. Instead of following his own agency’s policy of not commenting on investigations or interfering in electoral politics, Comey gave his famous “speech” castigating Clinton’s handling of classified materials, and then declining to proceed with any charges.
Crossfire Hurricane
From a solely FBI perspective, Comey’s compass with correct. Attorney General Loretta Lynch seemed compromised by her meeting with former President Clinton. Her Deputy, Sally Yates, didn’t “take charge” of the situation. So Comey stepped in, to protect the “process” and the FBI. That he was stepping into the middle of the Presidential election seemed to be a tertiary level concern.
At the same time, Comey was acutely aware that his FBI was investigating a much more serious allegation, that the Trump Campaign was compromised by Russian Intelligence. Operation Crossfire Hurricane was at full speed, closely monitored by Comey and his Deputy, Andy McCabe. But as open as the Clinton investigation was, Crossfire Hurricane was one of the best kept secrets in FBI history. We didn’t even find out about it, until the New York Times printed a story in February of 2017.
Compass versus Scale
Comey followed FBI policy to the letter, recognizing that open knowledge of the investigation would have a tremendous impact on Trump’s chances. While this met his strict compass, he seemed to be without a scale to measure the fairness of what he was doing. Every move: the Email press conference, the secret Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and the final devastating public letter to Congress reopening the Clinton investigation were all “correct”. But when weighed on the scale of fairness and history, he failed.
That compass needle maintained its strict reading when Comey was asked to pledge “fealty” to the new President, and refused. The President waited until Comey was across the country in Los Angeles, then fired him by tweet. Comey, dissed by the President he unintentionally helped put in office, became the symbolic figure who lost his job but kept his soul. But there remained the flaw: the strict compass without the scales of justice. Perhaps that’s the reason that “Lady Justice” is blindfolded.
Crumbled
The man who helped fire James Comey was Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein was the Harvard educated Republican US Attorney for Baltimore, brought in to become the Deputy Attorney General. He was unwillingly elevated to national prominence, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions, recused himself from involvement in the Russiagate investigation. That left Rosenstein in charge of the Justice Department for these matters.
Rosenstein got his first taste of Trumpian government, when he was called on to write a memo detailing why James Comey should be fired. A dutiful lawyer writing for his client, the President, Rosenstein created the document that served as the basis for Comey’s removal. He later claimed that he didn’t realize that would be its purpose. But Comey was fired non-the-less.
After Comey was fired by the President, Rosenstein was faced with a crisis in the FBI. The new Acting Director, Andrew McCabe, was also the direct supervisor of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump campaign. The pressure of those days was obviously great. McCabe wrote that Rosenstein broke into tears in meetings about what they should do. The use of the 25th Amendment was discussed – and whether Rosenstein as “Acting Attorney General” in the Russiagate matter might have a vote in the process. There was even a conversation about Rosenstein wearing “a wire” to get “the goods” on the President.
Only a Face
Rosenstein seemed to hold firm publicly, and became the “face” of the Justice Department standing against the Administration. With Comey gone and McCabe conflicted, Rosenstein brought in the highly respected former FBI Director, Robert Mueller, to be Special Counsel in charge of the investigation. He removed direct FBI leadership, though many of the actual investigators remained.
But the Acting Attorney General than proceeded to hamstring Mueller. Rosenstein restricted any investigation from going into Trump business, personal or campaign finances. The old adage from the Watergate years, “follow the money”, was off the table. Instead, the Mueller team was required to try to “make a case” without financial information.
And Mueller himself established a second standard which restricted the scope of his research. He determined that regardless of what was found, the President of the United States could not be indicted in Court. And since it was “unfair” to raise charges without the opportunity for trial, Mueller simply refused to answer any question of whether the President might have committed crimes.
So while publicly Rosenstein seemed to be the “White Knight” standing for Justice, he was carefully arranging for a pre-determined outcome. Whether he also recognized that Robert Mueller was struggling personally is unknown. But it certainly didn’t hurt Rosenstein’s apparent choice of outcome that the Special Counsel (Mueller) was in fact, of diminished capacity.
And when Jeff Sessions finally resigned, and William Barr took over as Attorney General, Rosenstein was happy to stand (literally) in the background, and allow Barr to finish the job of torpedoing Crossfire Hurricane and the Mueller Report. It seems that the White Knight was merely a placeholder, unwilling to risk the opprobrium of the Trump Administration or his fellow Republicans.
Failed
Two men, one of character, one who merely acted like he was. In the end, neither “rose” up to the level of the challenge they faced. One failed from having a too narrow view. And the other failed by having too little courage. They both let down our country in a time where we needed them most.
