“I Would Not Want to Influence an Election, With Notably Rare Exceptions”

As Paul says, Jane Mayer’s reporting is absolutely remarkable, and the story should be read in full. But as International Man of Principled Integritude James Comey embarks on his rehabilitation tour, like Adam I think this is worth highlighting:

It wasn’t until October 7, 2016, that anyone in the Obama Administration spoke publicly about Russia’s interference. James Clapper, Obama’s director of National Intelligence, and Jeh Johnson, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, issued a joint statement saying that the U.S. intelligence community was “confident” that Russia had directed the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s e-mails. James Comey, then the F.B.I. director, had reportedly changed his mind about issuing a public statement, deciding that it was too close to the election to make such a politically charged assertion.

[FBI finds evidence that foreign power is trying to ratfuck a presidential election] “We must scrupulously observe the rules and norms that forbid the FBI Director from trying to influence elections.”

[FBI finds some emails redundant and immaterial to a closed investigation into email server management best practices] “I know the rule is designed to make sure that our investigations don’t influence elections, but I think in this case, we should break that rule, because there’s an election, and we should influence it.”

You can defend either of these choices individually, but you certainly can’t defend them collectively. At least his letter to Congress didn’t generate a huge wave of negative coverage against one candidate 10 days before the election or anything!