Michael Mason is a retired Executive Assistant Director of the FBI.
By Michael Mason
I believe the firing of James Comey is something that should concern all Americans.
The justifications for the firing of the Director that have been put forth by the White House lack credibility. Can anyone legitimately claim that the timing of this act is not, at the very least, suspicious?
The comment intended to quiet this storm that “…only the Director was fired, not the whole FBI…” might be true, but relative to its impact, it is a patently absurd statement.
Relative to the release of the information contained in the now infamous Comey letter, the American public seems to believe that Director Comey released that letter to the media. He provided the letter to the Congressional Committee to which he was obligated to report investigative progress.
That letter was obviously leaked to the press by one or more members of that committee immediately thereafter. Like it or not, Comey was in a very difficult position immediately prior to the presidential election. If he had said nothing and the FBI found nothing…the matter passes unnoticed.
However, if he says nothing and an internal sympathizer calls a member of the press, then it looks like an attempted cover-up. If he says nothing and there’s no leak, but the FBI finds something and reports it after the election, all hell would have broken loose. So Comey was in a situation akin to seeing two small children fall into a lake and you can only save one. No matter what you do, that story will not end well.
The independence of the FBI is critical and that independence has been soiled by this situation. Comey was previously commended by the President, even called “courageous” for acts now used as justification for his removal. It would be laughable if it were not so serious.
Now the President is tweeting that there better not be a recording of any conversation he had with Comey. Far beyond the utter absurdity of the President “tweeting” such a threat and/or allegation, it would appear to me such a recording would make it completely clear what was said between these two men.
However, let’s not remove the dense fog that accompanies everything coming out of the White House relative to this situation. Just to be clear, I am not suggesting for a second that such recordings are appropriate but rather how odd it is the President felt he needed to issue a tough guy statement relative to the utterly improbable likelihood any such tape(s) exist. Just more dense fog, intended to distract our attention from the matter at hand once again.
The American public really needs to wake up and demand more from the President of the United States and his administration. Waking up each day and turning on the news for five minutes to see the latest absurdity coming out of the White House is already getting tiresome.
