Former FBI Director James Comey has defended the agency on Twitter, writing, “All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would.”
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been attacking the FBI for its investigation of potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. Trump is expected to clear the way soon for the publication of a classified memo that Republicans say shows improper use of surveillance by the FBI in the initial stages of the investigation.
The Justice Department and Democrats have lobbied Trump to stop the release, saying it could harm national security and mislead the public.
On Twitter, Comey urged his former colleagues to “take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up.”
He concluded, “Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy” — a reference to the senator who, in the 1950s, conducted hearings aimed at rooting out Communists in the U.S. government.
Since his firing last May, Comey has made his personal feelings about Trump known, testifying in detail about personal interactions he says troubled him.
He also authorized a close friend to share with reporters details from a memo he produced documenting one such encounter — a February conversation in the Oval Office in which he said Trump encouraged him to drop an FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. That revelation promoted the Justice Department’s appointment of a special counsel to run the Russia investigation.
Comey has also used language about “weasels” before, most notably in a September 2016 congressional hearing when he defended the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
“You can call us wrong, but don’t call us weasels,” Comey said. “We’re not weasels.”
(AP)
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5 Responses
Comey gambled and lost. He tried to enter the political arena, and played both sides of the fence (mostly one side). He lost big time. The FBI is an institution that can never be allowed entry into the political scene. It can never be partisan. But he tried it, and blew it. At one point that he was accurately accused of taking one side, he thought to balance it by playing the other side. Now he lost both sides, and created an environment that pleased no one.
I wish him success in other ventures. As a politician, he proved to lack the fundamental quality of being trustworthy. There are others in high positions at FBI that have fared similarly. Some are gone, others going. DRAIN THE SWAMP.
He dares to mention Joe McCarthy in a manner suggesting he is different? The most famous allegation against Joe McCarthy is exactly that he trashed Americans for contacts with Russia. The current “investigation” is exactly about trashing Americans for contacts with Russia. Was Joe wrong then but right now? Or was Joe (a Republican) right then also?
Weasels And Liars: it takes one to know one. lock him [and her] up.
georgeg: you must be blind and deaf. The trump organization had oodles of contacts with Russians. Manafort , Carter Page, Trump jr…etc
rabbiofberlin, Trump is also eating Russian dressing with his salad. This is real evidence of Russian collusion.