This political axe murder will only intensify scrutiny of Russia links
It was implausible that FBI director James Comey was fired for his actions back in July 2016 – the rationale contained in the memo by Rod Rosenstein, the US deputy attorney general. It was implausible that Comey was fired by Donald Trump for being too tough on Hillary Clinton. It was implausible that Trump fired Comey for reopening the Clinton investigation 11 days before the election, something that at the time Trump praised as “guts”. It was also implausible Trump, a man notorious for being swayed by close and loyal advisers, acted on the word of an official he hardly knew. That Trump found Rosenstein’s arguments so persuasive that he had to act fast, so much so that Comey learnt of his firing from television – is also implausible. So, why did Trump fire Comey? The cliché is that if you’ve infuriated both sides it means you must be doing something right. Sometimes, it means you must be doing everything wrong. Over the past year, Comey has been repeatedly wrong. Not necessarily out of malice or partisanship. He faced unpalatable choices. Never in US history had a major party nominated a candidate who was under official FBI investigation. Which makes the usual injunction that FBI directors stay out of elections both facile and impossible.
Comey had to make up the rules as he went and, in so doing, he became anathema to both Democrats and Republicans. And there’s the puzzle. There was ample bipartisan sentiment for letting Comey go. And there was ample time to do so.
True, this became more difficult after Comey revealed in March that the FBI was investigating the alleged Trump-russia collusion; difficult but not impossible. And, instead, we got this political axe murder, brutal even by Washington standards. No final meeting, no letter of resignation, no presidential thanks.
Why? Trump had become agitated by the Russia-election probe. But if he thinks this will kill the inquiry, and the story, he’s made a huge blunder. It has brought more attention and it won’t stop the FBI inquiry. Confirmation hearings for a successor to Comey will now become a national TV forum for collusion allegations which had been merely a scandal in search of a crime.