Donald Trump's Comey Problem
James Comey
Over at Lawfareblog  theyâve gotten a hold of a cache of e-mails from inside the FBI from the immediate aftermath of the president*âs firing of director James Comey. These are significant in a couple of ways: first  the release of these e-mails can fairly be seen as a counterstroke against the president* and his congressional dogsled team  and second  they give a pretty good look at the kind of chaos that Comeyâs firing occasioned in the Bureauâs rank and file.
When President Trump fired  James Comey  as FBI director last May  the special agent in charge of the Detroit field office  David Gelios  wrote an email to  his  staff: â I just saw CNN reporting that  Director Comey  has been fired by President Trump. I have no notification from HQ of any such thing. If I receive any information from HQ  I will advise. Iâd ask all to stand by for clarification of this reporting. I am only sending this because I want everyone to know I have received no HQ confirmation of the reporting. I hope this is an instance of fake news.â
Oh  and the e-mails also provide further evidence that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is an utterly truthless drone whose daily briefings are unworthy of serious attention. At the time  Comey  was fired  the White House line  peddled by SarahHuck and by the vulgar talking yam for whom she works  was that agents in the Bureau had âlost confidenceâ in Comeyâs leadership. (At the time  the president*  of course  would undercut his own outrageous lie by telling Lester Holt that he canned  Comey  over the Russia thing.) These e-mails show a sense of outrage among the grunts in the field offices on whose behalf Sanders and Trump presumed to speak.
After the president fired Comey there was some uncertainty about whether Comey  as a former FBI employee  would have to pay his way home from LAX or would be able to use the directorâs plane. NBC recently reported that an irate Trump called McCabe a day after the firing asking why  Comey  had been permitted to return to Washington on an FBI plane. McCabe indicated that he hadnât been consulted about the use of the plane but  had anyone asked  he would have approved the request. Thanks to one of these emails  we now have a small window into what went on at the FBI at the time. On May 11  Gregory Cox  assistant director of the Critical Incident Response Group  emailed all of the Critical Incident Response Group thanking âall who were involved in efforts to bring home former Director Comey from Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.â The apparent defiance may be subtle  but it is unmistakable. Cox may not have known that his email dealt with a point the president had personally raised with the acting director  but he thanked his people for doing the right thing by  Comey  irrespective of politics  he  was surely aware of in a generic sense.
I donât minimize how thoroughly  Comey  bungled at the end of the 2016 presidential campaign. If what  he âs doing now is atonement  thatâs only right.  He  has a lot for which  he  should atone. But the sense of dislocation in these e-mails shows where the current propaganda war against the FBI first took root. Itâs where the water first went muddy.
Over at Lawfareblog  theyâve gotten a hold of a cache of e-mails from inside the FBI from the immediate aftermath of the president*âs firing of director James Comey. These are significant in a couple of ways: first  the release of these e-mails can fairly be seen as a counterstroke against the president* and his congressional dogsled team  and second  they give a pretty good look at the kind of chaos that Comeyâs firing occasioned in the Bureauâs rank and file.
When President Trump fired   [TGT]  last May  the special agent in charge of the Detroit field office  David Gelios  wrote an email to  his  staff: â I just saw CNN reporting that   [TGT] has been fired by President Trump. I have no notification from HQ of any such thing. If I receive any information from HQ  I will advise. Iâd ask all to stand by for clarification of this reporting. I am only sending this because I want everyone to know I have received no HQ confirmation of the reporting. I hope this is an instance of fake news.â
Oh  and the e-mails also provide further evidence that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is an utterly truthless drone whose daily briefings are unworthy of serious attention. At the time   [TGT] was fired  the White House line  peddled by SarahHuck and by the vulgar talking yam for whom  [TGT]  works  was that agents in the Bureau had âlost confidenceâ in Comeyâs leadership. (At the time  the president*  of course  would undercut his own outrageous lie by telling Lester Holt that he canned  Comey  over the Russia thing.) These e-mails show a sense of outrage among the grunts in the field offices on whose behalf Sanders and Trump presumed to speak.
After the president fired  [TGT]  there was some uncertainty about whether  [TGT] as a former FBI employee  would have to pay his way home from LAX or would be able to use the directorâs plane. NBC recently reported that an irate Trump called McCabe a day after the firing asking why  Comey  had been permitted to return to Washington on an FBI plane. McCabe indicated that he hadnât been consulted about the use of the plane but  had anyone asked  he would have approved the request. Thanks to one of these emails  we now have a small window into what went on at the FBI at the time. On May 11  Gregory Cox  assistant director of the Critical Incident Response Group  emailed all of the Critical Incident Response Group thanking âall who were involved in efforts to bring home former Director Comey from Los Angeles on Tuesday evening.â The apparent defiance may be subtle  but it is unmistakable. Cox may not have known that his email dealt with a point the president had personally raised with the acting director  but he thanked his people for doing the right thing by  Comey  irrespective of politics  he  was surely aware of in a generic sense.
I donât minimize how thoroughly  Comey  bungled at the end of the 2016 presidential campaign. If what  he âs doing now is atonement  thatâs only right.  He  has a lot for which  he  should atone. But the sense of dislocation in these e-mails shows where the current propaganda war against the FBI first took root. Itâs where the water first went muddy.