The Comey memo

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein devoted five of the 11 paragraphs in his now-infamous Comey memo to critical statements made by former political appointees at the Department of Justice, as if those statements are de facto proof that James Comey deserved the ax.

But by the morning after Comey’s firing, one of the individuals quoted by Rosenstein had called the justification for it — Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation — “a sham.”

Those who had worked under Democratic administrations (including Bill Clinton’s) are so compromised by their political ties as to render their observations about Comey, also quoted in the memo, meaningless.

Yes, the Trump administration is now discovering the downside of relying on a cut-and-paste of newspaper op-eds and cable TV interviews to justify the belated firing of the FBI director. For instance: Rosenstein noted in his memo that Donald Ayer, deputy AG under President George H.W. Bush, had been critical of Comey over the Clinton investigation. The quotes are not from Ayer directly, but from an open letter signed by him and 100 former federal prosecutors last October. But after Comey’s firing Ayer said basing it on his mishandling of that investigation was “a sham.”

Rosenstein’s memo also quoted critical observations about Comey from Alberto Gonzales, former attorney general under President George W. Bush, again from last fall. But yesterday Gonzales said on NPR that “if in fact there is a reason for why now, I think the White House needs to come out very, very quickly and give an explanation.”

Of course the only White House “explanation” so far is to refer anyone asking questions to . . . Rosenstein’s memo.

And really, are the American people supposed to feel confident in Comey’s firing because Hillary Clinton loyalist Jamie Gorelick criticized him last year in a newspaper op-ed?

Gorelick, former deputy attorney general under Bill Clinton, was rumored to be Hillary Clinton’s pick for AG. She has the odd, added baggage of representing Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner as they navigate a sea of conflicts of interest related to their employment at the White House.

Yep, a real objective voice of reason there!

Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided that Comey had to go. Rosenstein was tasked with justifying it, and his effort to do so is paper-thin.