Comey darkens the cloud over Trump
In former FBI director James Comey’s account, Donald Trump comes across more like a mob boss than a newly sworn president. In their one-on-one meetings, Trump demands loyalty. He treats the FBI directorship, a 10year term designed to preserve independence, like a patronage job. He pressures Comey to publicly clear him. When that doesn’t happen, the president abruptly fires the FBI director in humiliating fashion.
Office demands higher standard
Most disturbingly, by Comey’s telling in a statement released Wednesday, Trump tries to obstruct an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had just been dismissed for lying about communications with the Russians. In a scene that sounds like something out of The Godfather, Trump clears the Oval Office of everyone except Comey. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy,” Comey quotes the president as saying.
Comey leaves the Feb. 14 meeting uncertain about what to do about this “very concerning ” event and unsure whom he can trust at the Justice Department. The new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is a Trump loyalist who seems compromised because of his own Russia connections. The second in command at Justice is a short-timer, so Comey writes down everything that happened and decides to keep it “very closely held” within the FBI.
At today’s highly anticipated hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump’s defenders will undoubtedly grill Comey about this decision, try to undermine his account, and paint him as a disgruntled ex-employee. The president has already denied trying to quash the Flynn investigation.
But Comey’s account, which confirms and expands on weeks of leaks, carries a ring of authenticity. In a he-said, he-said situa- tion, the by-the-book former FBI director is far more credible than a president famous for playing fast and loose with the facts.
Comey’s testimony paints a picture of a president acting wholly inappropriately, unable or unwilling to abide by normal ethical constraints.
It should prompt congressional investigators to redouble their efforts to get to the bottom of Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election, and any possible collusion between Moscow and Trump associates. It should also add fuel to special counsel Robert Mueller’s broad investigation into the Russian connection and whether any crimes were committed.
Much attention will now turn to the questions of whether Trump’s actions met the legal definition of obstruction of justice, what — if any — underlying activity was being covered up, and what the appropriate remedy is.
But divining whether a citizen Trump would end up behind bars is the wrong standard for President Trump. The highest office in the land demands its occupant set a standard for integrity, not merely escape indictment.
According to Comey’s account, the president was desperate to “lift the cloud” that the Russia investigation was casting. Thanks to the lawman Trump fired, that cloud is now a thunderstorm over the presidency.