Questions for Comey

Vincent J. Curtis

8 June 2017

These are some questions I would like to have put to James Comey:

For what branch of government does the FBI Work?

Okay, the Executive Branch.  Who is the head of the Executive Branch?

Okay, the President.  Are you aware that the oath of the president includes that the laws be faithfully executed, and that this places him above you in terms of law enforcement?

The authority to investigate that you exercise is an executive authority, isn’t it?  The president’s authority as the head of the executive branch?

The president was elected to carry out certain political reforms that he campaigned on, did he not?

So, when he came to you and said that this Washington investigation was causing problems for him and the implementation of his program, can you not see his frustration?

Mr. Trump was elected to drain the Washington swamp, and here is a Washington-centric matter – allegations of collusion with Russia, and baseless accusation of his guilt in it – can you not see his perspective, that this is the swamp’s way of resisting being drained?

Why did you not accede to Mr. Trump’s request that it be released that he personally was not under investigation?  Did you not do something similar in respect of Hillary Clinton?

In your role, you sometimes have given the president advice.  Has he no right to give you advice?  Does the president the authority to direct you to investigate something?  Does that not include the authority to have you cease investigating something?

What is more important to you: your reputation or the success of your country?

I get the business of the FBI Director being like Caesar’s wife in respect of reputation, but in the rough-and-tumble of Washington politics, can you see how maintaining the image of Caesar’s wife can interfere with a just-elected president being stymied in moving on his agenda, and therefore the success of the country?

If it was chilling to pass on to your investigators that the president wanted the Flynn matter dropped, why do you say that your actual firing would not deter them in perusing the Flynn matter?

 You announced to the world that your investigation of Hillary Clinton was complete, and that you would not be pursuing charges, and yet you wouldn’t announce to the world that Donald Trump was not under investigation of any kind.  Why the difference?

The appearance of the “Russia Investigation” seems to break down into two parts.  The first is what Russian agents did to spoof, queer, mess with, and otherwise influence the election, and the second is coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian agents and that larger campaign to influence the election.  Have you any evidence that Mr. Trump authorized or himself engaged in such collusion?  Is it your opinion that Mr. Trump is his own man, or is he owned by the Russians?  Is there anybody in a position of giving advice to Mr. Trump who is in the pocket of the Russians?  If so, who are they?

When asked about it, you have said it is not for you to say what you think about President Trump having engaged in obstruction of justice in regards to the Flynn request, but you have also asserted that FBI agents have a moral if not legal obligation to report a crime, and especially a felony.  Did you report that President Trump may have engaged in felonious obstruction of justice to the Justice Department?  If not, why not?

Why did you loyally go along with A-G Loretta Lynch’s request to call the Hillary investigation “a matter” terms that tracked Democrat election rhetoric, but reacted with horror at meeting with the new president and deny that you would serve him loyally?  In fact, you didn’t trust Mr. Trump from the moment you met him, did you?  So, why wouldn’t he enquire as to your loyalty?  Especially in view of the leaking and the nature of those leaks?

You said you kept notes of meetings with President Trump because you did not trust him and you thought he would lie.  After the blissfully honest days of the Obama Administration, in which you kept no notes, why did you continue in your job as Director of the FBI under Trump, a man you did not trust?  Could that feeling of mistrust not spark a feeling of mistrust on Trump’s part towards you?

Following Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Chuck Schumer’s warning against dissing the intelligence services, why is it that the only thing about the Trump investigation that didn’t leak out was that Trump is not and never was the subject of a counterintelligence or criminal investigation?

You had your memos to self leaked in order to force the appointment of a special council.  Why did you not force the same in respect of the Hillary Clinton investigation?

The investigative fury that has been launched against Donald Trump has been slipping.  First, it was collusion between his campaign and the Russians, and that has now gone by the boards.  Then, it moved to the transition period, when Jared Kushner set out to create a back-channel communications with the Russians.  That this became an issue proves that there was no collusion during the campaign, because those channels would already have been created by collusion during the campaign.  The Kushner thing turns into nothing because the establishment of back-channels is routine in the conduct of modern diplomacy.  So, then it was the Flynn matter and his conversation with the Russian ambassador that was misrepresented to Vice-President Pence.  Since Flynn was fired, all that is left is an accusation of obstruction of justice by Trump’s asking Comey to let the Flynn matter drop, and this occurred after Trump had assumed office.

The pattern here is of Washington engaging in its chasing of the tail in order to thwart Donald Trump is carrying out his election mandate to drain the swamp, to repeal and replace Obamacare, to implement tax reform, and to build a wall.  No wonder a New York businessman has so little patience with the ways of Washington, something he was elected to change.  The swamp is doing everything to avoid being drained.

And that is what all this furious investigation is about: the swamp doing what it can to resist being drained by this man whom they despise.

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