New York Post

You’re not above the law, Comey!

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THERE they go again. For the 1 millionth time, anti-Trumpers are horrified, aghast, stupefied.

The president’s latest offense against their sensibilit­ies is a pointed use of his pardon power. So far, he has pardoned just five people, including Jack Johnson, the legendary black boxer whose conviction a century ago was an act of pure racism.

But four others involve recent, politicall­y tinged cases, including that of conservati­ve provocateu­r Dinesh D’Souza. Most alarming for the usual critics, the president hints that he is just getting started and cites a possible pardon of Martha Stewart, whose conviction came under James Comey, the former FBI boss and Trump’s archenemy.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told reporters he worries Trump is sending a message to witnesses in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, adding, “In the United States of America, nobody is above the law.”

Bingo! That’s exactly the point Trump is making, though he and Warner obviously disagree on who “nobody” is.

To Warner, it’s Gen. Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen — Trump’s former aides and one of his lawyers. The first two face charges brought by Mueller, and Cohen is in the crosshairs of the Justice Department. Warner’s fear is that Trump is signaling that a pardon awaits those who are loyal to him.

Perhaps so, but to Trump, the idea that “nobody is above the law” applies just as well to Comey, his former FBI deputy Andrew McCabe and other Obama-era officials who spied on his presidenti­al campaign and leaked classified informatio­n to the liberal media.

Trump believes Comey broke the law and cheered when McCabe was fired and referred for possible prosecutio­n for lying to FBI investigat­ors.

But when it comes to Comey, there’s more to the president’s anger than the suspect handling of the Hillary Clinton e-mail case or Comey’s attacks since Trump fired him. Much more.

Go back to Jan. 6, 2017, when Comey briefed Trump, then president-elect, on the infamous Russian dossier at Trump Tower.

Well, not the whole dossier. Only the salacious allegation involving Trump and prostitute­s in a Russian hotel room. Asked why he didn’t tell Trump about other allegation­s, Comey told CNN, “Because that was the part that the leaders of the intelligen­ce community agreed he needed to be told about because we knew it and thought it was about to become public.”

That’s a fishy evasion when you realize Comey’s briefing was immediatel­y leaked to CNN, probably by James Clapper, then the director of national intelligen­ce and soon — what a coincidenc­e! — a CNN analyst.

It’s also not incidental that Comey told ABC News that then-President Barack Obama was part of the White House meeting on Jan. 5 where it was decided Comey would brief Trump alone on the dossier and limit it to the prostitute claim. That meeting is the same one Susan Rice cites in her bizarre memo to herself, where she insists Obama ordered that the probe be handled “by the book” and stresses he gave no orders to investigat­ors. The truth of what happened at that meeting would answer many questions.

Meanwhile, consider the things Comey withheld from Trump that January day.

The list starts with the fact he didn’t tell the president-elect that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee paid for the dossier, or that it was compiled by Christophe­r Steele, a former British spy.

Comey didn’t tell Trump the FBI had Steele on its payroll, and fired him for misleading agents about media contacts.

He didn’t tell Trump there was a surveillan­ce warrant on Carter Page, a fringe player in the campaign, or that the dossier was used in the FISA court applicatio­n to get the warrant.

Most incredible of all, Comey didn’t mention that the investigat­ion into Trump’s campaign was still ongoing at that very moment.

Imagine that. He could have said, “Mr. President-elect, I have to tell you the investigat­ion into possible collusion with Russia continues even as we speak.” But he didn’t.

That was no mere oversight. It was a deliberate choice, approved by Obama.

Nor did Comey tell Trump about Stefan Halper, the American professor in Great Britain recently outed as the spy who approached three members of the Trump team, trying to see if they knew anything about collusion, or trying to entrap them.

The things Comey didn’t mention are astonishin­g when you remember that Trump would take the oath of office in just two weeks. The new commander in chief was deliber- ately being kept in the dark by the outgoing administra­tion.

So what was Comey up to with that very limited briefing? It’s possible the sole purpose was to mention the prostitute­s, then give CNN the story as a way to inject the dossier into the political bloodstrea­m and hope Trump would step aside.

Or perhaps the goal was to monitor how Trump reacted. Recall that the investigat­ion was still secret, Page was still being surveilled and other campaign players, including Flynn, were being picked up “incidental­ly” on other wiretaps. Maybe Trump was, too.

In his book, Comey writes that Martha Stewart was prosecuted for lying about a stock sale to “reinforce a culture of truth-telling.”

Fair enough, but to truly “reinforce a culture of truth-telling,” those who enforce the laws must be held to at least the same standard as everyone else.

That’s the most important message Trump is sending with the pardons of people prosecuted by Comey and his cronies. Even the FBI is not above the law.

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