RUTHFULLY YOURS

Jan LaRue is senior legal analyst with the American Civil Rights Union.
Former FBI director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday suggests that the first question to FBI director nominee Christopher Wray at his Senate confirmation hearing should be: “Are you currently going through menopause?”

Comey said he was confused, uneasy, troubled, concerned, shocked, very disturbed, and stunned during his conversations with President Trump. The only missing menopausal symptoms are night sweats and weight gain.

Comey should have been sweating when he “woke up in the middle of the night” and decided to potentially violate federal law by using a close friend to leak contents of a government memo to a reporter at the New York Times, which Comey wrote while FBI director on an FBI computer while in an FBI car.

Comey’s bombshell – that he’s a leaker – came during questioning by Sen. Mark Warner:

I created records after conversations. I think I did it after each of our nine conversations. If I didn’t, I did it for nearly all of them, especially the ones that were substantive.

Much of the media reaction to Comey’s testimony, including some in the “fair and balanced” wing, began: “President Trump had a bad day.”

Really? It’s like a headline announcing that a guy was spared from an 11th-hour execution that reads: “Condemned Missed Traditional Last Meal.”

Comey’s angry, self-serving opinion of President Trump as a liar is the swamp “gospel” of self-evident “truth” by much of the spinner class. The real news – that Comey confirmed that Trump was never under investigation on Comey’s watch, never interfered with the Russian investigation, and didn’t order him to stop investigating Gen. Michael Flynn – is their “oh, yeah, by the way” subtext.

Comey admitted having “a queasy feeling” when he obeyed former attorney general Loretta Lynch’s order to downplay the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton. She told him to call it a “matter,” just as Clinton was spinning it.

That’s the same Lynch who met with Bill Clinton in a plane on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport while his wife was under criminal investigation by Lynch’s DOJ. Good thing for Lynch that Bill wasn’t the Russian ambassador.

Comey’s queasiness didn’t prompt him to memorialize Lynch’s instruction. He told Sen. Tom Cotton that he didn’t record conversations or memos with the attorney general or any other senior member of the Obama administration.

Nor did Comey mention Lynch’s order in his infamous July 2016 statement recommending against indictment of Clinton:

Although there is evidence of potential violations regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

Comey made it his job to decide that Clinton shouldn’t be charged with violating numerous federal laws after laying out the case for her indictment. But he told the Senate committee it wasn’t his job to decide if Trump had obstructed justice.

Comey didn’t cave to “pressure” from Trump. He didn’t obey what he now perceives as Trump’s “order” to drop the investigation of Gen. Flynn.

Comey said he didn’t have the “presence of mind” to tell Trump it was inappropriate. He said he was not strong, not “captain courageous.” Wonder Woman in need of hormones, possibly.

Yet Comey never considered resigning or telling the White House counsel about his feelings about Trump’s “inappropriate” behavior. He did tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump.

There’s a headline AARP should be hyping to seniors everywhere: “Giant Terrorist Tracker Cowered by 70-Year-Old.”

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He has served as defense counsel in national security cases involving classified information and alleged leaks to the media.

The testimony of James Comey proved long on atmospherics and short on ethics. While many were riveted by Comey’s discussion of his discomfort in meetings with President Trump, most seemed to miss the fact that Comey was describing his own conduct in strikingly unethical terms. The greatest irony is that Trump succeeded in baiting Comey to a degree that even Trump could not have imagined. After calling Comey a “showboat” and poor director, Comey proceeded to commit an unethical and unprofessional act in leaking damaging memos against Trump.

Comey described a series of ethical challenges during his term as FBI director. Yet, he almost uniformly avoided taking a firm stand in support of the professional standards of the FBI. During the Obama administration, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch gave Comey a direct order to mislead the public by calling the ongoing investigation a mere “matter.” Rather than standing firm on the integrity of his department and refusing to adopt such a meaningless and misleading term, Comey yielded to Lynch while now claiming discomfort over carrying out the order.

When Trump allegedly asked for Comey to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn or pledge loyalty, Comey did not tell the president that he was engaging in wildly inappropriate conduct. He instead wrote a memo to file and told close aides. He now says that he wishes he had the courage or foresight to have taken a stand with the president.

However, the clearest violation came in the days following his termination. Comey admits that he gave the damaging memos to a friend at Columbia Law School with the full knowledge that the information would be given to the media. It was a particularly curious moment for a former director who was asked by the president to fight the leakers in the government. He proceeded in becoming one of the most consequential leakers against Trump.

Comey said that he took these actions days after his termination, when he said that he woke up in the middle of the night and realized suddenly that the memos could be used to contradict Trump. It was a bizarrely casual treatment of material that would be viewed by many as clearly FBI information. He did not confer with the FBI or the Justice Department. He did not ask for any classification review despite one of the parties described being the president of the United States. He simply sent the memos to a law professor to serve as a conduit to the media.

As a threshold matter, Comey asked a question with regard to Trump that he should now answer with regard to his own conduct. Comey asked why Trump would ask everyone to leave the Oval Office to speak with Comey unless he was doing something improper. Yet, Trump could ask why Comey would use a third party to leak these memos if they were his property and there was nothing improper in their public release.