Comey’s unilateral, drive-by news conference in July 2016 should not rightfully be a precedent for anything.
By Letters to the Editor March 6 at 3:04 PM Whatever the right course for Attorney General William P. Barr to take with regard to disclosure of the findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, the FBI’s actions in closing the Hillary Clinton email investigation should be no precedent.
Mr. Comey concealed from the department what he planned to do, and whatever the historical practice of the Justice Department in high-visibility cases, it played no role in Mr. Comey’s actions. He spoke — without precedent or justification — only for the FBI. But more important, Mr. Comey’s July 2016 comments amounted to a smear, without any forum for rebuttal and formal vindication.
In his op-ed, Mr. Comey cited “angry voices in July 2016” that “said we should have said nothing.” As Ms. Clinton’s attorney, I was certainly one of those “angry voices,” but the alternative was not for the FBI to remain silent. Mr. Comey could have reported the number of witnesses interviewed, the number of subpoenas issued, the number of documents reviewed, the number of FBI hours spent, etc., before closing the investigation.
Perhaps the most devastating critique of Mr. Comey’s actions came in the June 2018 report of the Justice Department’s inspector general. The inspector general found it was “extraordinary and insubordinate” for Mr. Comey to have concealed his intentions from then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch before the news conference. The inspector general further found Mr. Comey’s justifications for his statement not “reasonable or persuasive” and his actions “inconsistent with [Justice] Department policy.
There may be valid reasons for releasing Mr. Mueller’s findings to Congress and the public, but Mr. Comey’s unilateral, drive-by news conference on July 5, 2016, should not rightfully be a precedent for anything.
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