James Comey Was Sure He Was Above The Law. Supporters Hope He's Right

As James Comey is arraigned, new documents show the FBI under his watch criminally investigated first, and looked for reasons later

While social media and legacy press raged over Bari Weiss, and Republicans thundered over new documentation showing Special Prosecutor Jack Smith monitored the phone records of eight GOP Senators, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley released a disturbing document as part of his opening statement to a Senate Oversight hearing. He revealed that on March 2, 2017, FBI agent Timothy Thibault — part of a now-disbanded political investigation unit called CR-15 — wrote a draft letter detailing interest in investigating Donald Trump:

Somehow a FBI HQ DAD at CD side received information CR-15 was leaning toward open a case on the Trump campaign… What we are doing: Aggressively seeking out open-source information, HUMINT info that could predicate a case.

Aggressively seeking… info that could predicate a case.

“Obviously, everything is reversed here,” a spokesperson for Grassley’s office said. “You’re supposed to follow a lead to start a case, not start a case in search of a lead.”

The letter was released before former FBI Director James Comey today pleaded not guilty to charges of lying to Congress. Organic support for the hulking ex-FBI chief at the courthouse was faint. A few protesters held signs reading SHOW TRIAL and WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT, and media focused unironically on whether or not Trump is “using the justice system against his adversaries.” Comey, the once-mighty FBI chief who interfered with two presidential campaigns in 2016 (although he only conducted intrusive surveillance of one), is now going to argue for dismissal on the grounds that his prosecution is “vindictive.”

Nobody seems to care now, but Trump faced multiple secret investigations at the hands of the FBI under Comey’s watch even before Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to conduct his epic “links and/or coordination” probe. “Crossfire Hurricane,” the first, was absurdly predicated on a conversation between Australian Alexander Downer and Trump aide George Papadopoulos that “suggested the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia” (a suggestion of a suggestion!). The newly disclosed effort by Thibault openly grasped for predication.

A little-discussed third FBI probe, launched a day before Mueller was appointed in May of 2017, claimed to be seeking to learn “if President Trump is or was directed by, controlled by… the Russian Federation.” No predication has even been released or asserted in that case, as in yet another grotesque joke on the public, the document released in response to a FOIA request was pretty much entirely redacted:

The document above was composed one week after Comey’s firing. If that wasn’t a “vindictive” investigation, initiated in response to Comey’s dismissal, the unredacted document should say so. The Trump administration would be smart to release it.

Anyone tempted to feel sorry for Comey need only read the New York Times account of the hearing today, portraying a “lopsided power dynamic” in favor of the great man:

An uninitiated observer might even have mistaken the defense for the prosecution on Wednesday, given the lopsided power dynamic. To the judge’s right stood Mr. Comey, the former head of the F.B.I. and the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, and Mr. Fitzgerald, a former federal prosecutor known for winning convictions in major terrorism and public corruption cases.

On the left, at the prosecutors table, sat Lindsey Halligan, who was making her second-ever appearance as a prosecutor after she was hastily installed by Mr. Trump as the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia last month.

That portrait properly frames the Comey trial, scheduled for January 5th. Comey and his supporters see themselves as a wronged government-in-exile, facing off against “vindictive” trespassers who’ve “eroded the rule of law” by prosecuting an innocent intelligence chief. That propaganda is succeeding. Even commentators who seemed to understand the story in the moment seem to have lost enthusiasm for any case that might redound to the benefit of a currently gloating White House occupant like Donald Trump, forgetting that the identity of Comey’s target is the exact reason this case matters so much.

Anything you can get away with doing to an elected billionaire president can be done to everyone. If you get away with breaking attorney-client privilege for Trump, no conversation with any lawyer is safe; if you test-a-lie your way to Trump surveillance warrants, anyone can be spied on; if FBI goons can target the president for criminal investigation first and hunt for predication later, any FBI chief can cook up any case he or she pleases. The prospect of this particular ex-FBI chief walking is outrageous since no one, not even former CIA chief John Brennan, lied so frequently, fluidly, and with such absolute assurance of getting away with it as James Comey: