Disclaimer: One of the authors, Benjamin Wittes, is friendly with Comey. Wittes was actually one of the few accounts that Comey was following on Twitter. Nevertheless, this article has everything. It includes little bits of details that are worth knowing. For example.
Furthermore, Comey’s July press conference violated the Department’s principle against releasing information on the subject of a criminal investigation that has been closed without prosecution, Rosenstein’s memo says. Notably, Rosenstein does not appear to have waited for the conclusion of a DOJ Inspector General investigation into the matter.
Why didn’t Sessions and Trump WAIT until the DOJ Inspector General finished his invesigation?
Wittes list all the reasons.
It removes the guy who, in February, reportedly refused the White House’s request to publicly knock down stories about Trump and Russia while congressmen in key positions of investigatory responsibility allegedly complied. It removes the one person of stature (figurative as well as literal) in the government whom everyone knows will—even when he’s wrong—do what he thinks is the right thing and damn the torpedos. It removes, in other words, the essential person for a credible investigation.
It also details why the Comey firing is so suspicious and frankly, in my opinion, even makes the case for Comey as an independent, decent, (flawed), FBI Director.
Read it over here: lawfareblog.com/...
There’s only one thing I disagree with though. In the first paragraph, Wittes writes the following:
Make no mistake: The firing of James Comey as FBI director is a stunning event. It is a profoundly dangerous thing—a move that puts the Trump-Russia investigation in immediate jeopardy and removes from the investigative hierarchy the one senior official whom President Trump did not appoint and one who is known to stand up to power.
One of the biggest dangers of Comey’s firing is that Trump might actually get away with it, ironically, because of Comey’s unpopularity among Democrats and on the political left.
No way. The Democrats wanted Comey to get the investigation moving. They wanted him to be more forthcoming. They did not want him fired. Especially not with the Trump Russia investigation underway. Saying DEMS changed their mind on Comey is wrong. To quote this random dude on Twitter:
Article: lawfareblog.com/...