How many other memos did Comey leak to the New York Times? But Comey, you understand, had his scruples: he made sure not to leak the news that Trump himself was not under investigation for colluding with the Russians. That was not to get out.

Comey Served at the Pleasure of Himself

SPECTATOR

Of the show trials in the Soviet Union, it was said, “Everything was true, except the facts.” One could say the same about the show trial Donald Trump is suffering at the hands of a hysterically partisan ruling class. Its frenzy over James Comey’s Senate testimony bears no relationship to reality; it is simply a reflection of its own ruthless power politics and determination to nail Trump at any cost.

Comey’s testimony was utterly unpersuasive. Though presented in high-minded terms, it amounted to little more than sour grapes over a sacking, and a wholly justified sacking at that. Comey’s directorship was an unmitigated disaster.

Trump “lied” about the reasons for my firing, whined Comey. No, he didn’t. If Trump said that Comey’s lousy judgment had caused “turmoil” at the FBI, that’s because it did.

That Comey characterized Trump’s comments about a demoralized FBI as a “lie” should discredit the rest of his testimony. It just underscored the straining, self-serving character of his appearance. He showed up not to defend an “independent” FBI but to justify his own dubious tenure at it.

And now it turns out that this great Niehburian conscience of Washington is a self-confirmed leaker. He had a “friend” pass a memo to the New York Times in an attempt to parry the president, he testified. Only a navel-gazing flake like Comey — he left Catholicism for relativistic Methodism — would be deluded enough to think that such admissions enhance his credibility. Instead, they just confirm what a self-serving operator he has always been.

How many other memos did Comey leak to the New York Times? None of the fawning, drippy senators were going to ask him that. Comey is clearly responsible for the leaks to the Times after Trump’s infamous tweets about Obamagate.

But Comey, you understand, had his scruples: he made sure not to leak the news that Trump himself was not under investigation for colluding with the Russians. That was not to get out.

Let’s cut through the nonsense: Comey, not Trump, is the villain in this idiotic saga. In all of his heavy-breathing hints and leaks, Comey let people think that the president was under investigation. The scandal is not that a guilty president asked the FBI director to treat him as innocent, but that an innocent president was treated as guilty by an FBI director drunk on his own rectitude.

One has to laugh at the audacity of an FBI director who violates the confidences of others casting himself as the arbiter of honesty and integrity. 

Trump’s instincts about Comey were absolutely correct. He is the kind of ruling-class creep who takes secret notes on presidents, then leaks them to the press, all while expecting a pat on the head from the great and good for his “independence.” 

Who elected Comey to such an exalted position? Comey claimed he understood that he served at the “pleasure” of the president. But this was BS. He served at his own pleasure, and his remarks were designed to pander to the undemocratic opportunism of the Democrats, under which the least accountable figures (Supreme Court justices, FBI directors, “career” civil servants) are increasingly deified.

Trump did not obstruct justice. How could he have? There was no investigation to obstruct, as Comey himself pathetically acknowledges. The partisan jackasses at CNN had promised that Comey was going to refute Trump’s claim that Comey told him on three separate occasions that he was not under investigation for collusion. He didn’t; he confirmed it.

So what exactly has Trump lied about? Once again, Trump is more sinned against than sinning. The media always cast him as the bully, but when the dust clears, he more often than not emerges as the victim.

Comey sees himself as a white knight, saving the republic from a vulgarian. But the American people can see that the “respectability” of a leaking, vicious, two-faced ruling class doesn’t add up to much and constitutes a much deeper vulgarity than anything Trump represents. If one can fault Trump for anything in the firing of Comey, it is that he didn’t do it sooner.