Fired FBI director James Comey has once again returned to the spotlight, this time in the form of an op-ed published the New York Times where Comey argues that the FBI will have no problem investigating decades-old allegations against Brett Kavanaugh in the next week.
In the opinion piece, titled, “James Comey: The F.B.I. Can Do This,” Comey urges Americans to put their trust in the FBI as they seek to investigate uncorroborated sexual misconduct claims against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“President Trump’s decision to order a one-week investigation into sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, his Supreme Court nominee, comes in a time of almost indescribable pain and anger, lies and attacks,” Comey writes.
He continues by listing his grievances against President Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, then blaming Republican voters for not sharing his opinions on the two men.
We live in a world where the president routinely attacks the F.B.I. because he fears its work. He calls for his enemies to be prosecuted and his friends freed. We also live in a world where a sitting federal judge channels the president by shouting attacks at the Senate committee considering his nomination and demanding to know if a respected senator has ever passed out from drinking. We live in a world where the president is an accused serial abuser of women, who was caught on tape bragging about his ability to assault women and now likens the accusations against his nominee to the many “false” accusations against him.
Most disturbingly, we live in a world where millions of Republicans and their representatives think nearly everything in the previous paragraph is O.K.
Comey, who has attempted to make himself into a nonpartisan hero, is now attacking Republican voters for not being sufficiently bothered by Kavanaugh “shouting attacks at the Senate committee,” never mind the fact that he just had to endure a week of utter hell as his name and reputation was destroyed, he was relentlessly smeared in the media, and his family received violent messages and threats.
No, the real victim here is the poor members of the Senate, because Kavanaugh occasionally raised his voice to protest the vile attacks against him.
The fired FBI director’s real point in penning this article, however, is to assure the liberal readership of the Times that if nothing else has stopped Kavanaugh’s confirmation, the FBI can.
Comey is literally bragging about how the FBI has the power to do the Democrats’ dirty work for them and stop Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
“Although the process is deeply flawed, and apparently designed to thwart the fact-gathering process, the F.B.I. is up for this. It’s not as hard as Republicans hope it will be.”
Comey then brags about the FBI’s power, writing that it can “speak to scores of people in a few days,” “confront people with testimony and other accounts,” and “[test] them and [push] them in a professional way.”
“Yes, the alleged incident occurred 36 years ago. But F.B.I. agents know time has very little to do with memory,” Comey writes, citing the fact that people always remember how the weather is on their wedding day, seemingly comparing getting married to attending a drunken teenage party.
Comey then writes that FBI agents know that “little lies point to bigger lies” and then accuses Kavanaugh of “obvious lies…about the meaning of words in a yearbook.”
In the final paragraph, Comey concludes the op-ed with a barely veiled warning.
Once they start interviewing, every witness knows the consequences. It is one thing to have your lawyer submit a statement on your behalf. It is a very different thing to sit across from two F.B.I. special agents and answer their relentless questions. Of course, the bureau won’t have subpoena power, only the ability to knock on doors and ask questions. But most people will speak to them. Refusal to do so is its own kind of statement.
There are a number of reasons why someone approached by the FBI wouldn’t want to submit to, as Comey himself says, “relentless” questioning. Chief among them would be the fact that many people honestly do not remember what occurred 36 years ago and don’t want to talk to FBI agents about their hazy memories of high school parties that occurred over three decades ago.
But it’s impossible to read what Comey wrote and not think that there’s a more sinister implication–if you don’t want to talk to the FBI, maybe you have something to hide.
We are now in full-on totalitarian “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” territory. The left will clearly stop at nothing to destroy Kavanaugh–let’s hope their dirty tactics don’t work.
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