James Comey Wonders if U.S. Able to Protect Itself from ‘Bad Man’ Donald Trump

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 07: Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Hannah Knudsen

Former FBI Director James Comey wondered Monday on Twitter if the U.S. has done enough to protect itself from a “bad man” like President Trump.

Comey quoted Frederick Douglass on Monday, writing, “In 1867, Frederick Douglass said: ‘Our government may at some time be in the hands of a bad man… We ought to have our government so shaped that even when in the hands of a bad man we shall be safe.'”

“Did we shape it well enough?” he asked, declaring, “The test is underway”:

The Justice Department’s (DOJ) inspector general (IG) report released last month found that the disgraced FBI director – who has a longstanding feud with the president – violated FBI policies by leaking memos detailing his private conversations with Trump.

“However, Comey’s own, personal conception of what was necessary was not an appropriate basis for ignoring the policies and agreements governing the use of FBI records,” Michael Horowitz’s DOJ watchdog report stated.

“We conclude that Comey’s retention, handling, and dissemination of certain Memos violated Department and FBI policies, and his FBI Employment Agreement,” it continued.

Despite that, Attorney General William Barr is declining to prosecute him.

“Upon completing its investigation, the OIG [Office of Inspector General] provided its factual findings to the Justice Department for a prosecutorial decision regarding Comey’s conduct, as required by the Inspector General Act,” the office stated.

“After reviewing the matter, the DOJ declined prosecution,” it added.

Comey emphatically claimed vindication following the release of the report, sarcastically requesting apologies in a pair of tweets.

“I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a ‘sorry we lied about you’ would be nice,” Comey wrote in part:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel that it is not over, indicating that the IG report’s findings essentially make Comey “eligible for a larger conspiracy charge”:

So this is a guy who is definitely not telling the truth, and the good thing about the IG report is he’s now made himself, the IG has now made him eligible for a larger conspiracy charge—a criminal conspiracy charge—which is what we really hope the attorney general [U.S. attorney] out of Connecticut is able to do,” Nunes said. “That’s the big thing that we need. We need real charges brought. And I think a lot of people are frustrated because they feel like Comey leaked classified information. But the question is would a panel of jurors in Washington, D.C., [convict]? There would be so much ambiguity because he claims—I forget the exact numbers, but like 1, 4, and 7 contained classified information but those weren’t the memos that he gave to his professor friend that went to the media. It would be almost impossible to prove and he would probably skate. And probably the worst thing to happen would be for him to skate. So I think that in the end, the Attorney General made the right decision as long as they continue to press on the larger issue which is: How did this whole investigation begin in the first place with zero evidence, zero evidence that Trump had any involvement with Russia?

Comey has made a point to criticize Trump in recent months, accusing him last week of being too narcissistic to focus on dominant issues such as gun violence and hurricanes.

Comey admitted last month that he was “tired of being a Trump critic,” but decided that he needed to continue speaking out for the good of the country following a purported pep talk with a former colleague:

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