James Comey’s had a very lucrative year since he was fired by President Trump.

He’s sold several million books, made myriad highly paid speeches, and appeared on all the big talk shows.

In doing so, he’s become household name.

Comey’s now a multi-millionaire celebrity living the American dream.

He even has his own Oprah-style one-name Twitter account: @Comey.

And he’s achieved this newfound fame by constantly attacking his old boss, acting in the process like a brazen, politically motivated opponent.

There’s just one problem I have with all this: Comey was Director of the FBI, supposedly a top-secret intelligence agency.

Former FBI Director James Comey’s now a multi-millionaire celebrity living the American dream - and he’s achieved this newfound fame by constantly attacking his old boss, Trump

His job was to KEEP secrets, not to spill them to anyone with a large check.

And what the hell does Comey have to boast about anyway?

This is the guy who screwed almost everything up while holding one of the most prestigious and important jobs in federal government.

So much so that he is universally loathed and distrusted on both sides of the political aisle.

Yet here he is, strutting around like he’s a Marvel superhero sent to save America from the bad guys, whilst conveniently overlooking the increasingly likely fact that he himself is one of the very worst of those bad guys.

The breath-taking irony of Comey’s self-promoting new angelic persona is not lost on former colleagues.

Yesterday, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein finally went public on his real thoughts about Comey who recently sneered that Rosenstein’s soul had been ‘eaten’ by Trump.

‘The former director seems to be acting as a partisan pundit,’ Rosenstein retorted, in an address to the annual Greater Baltimore Committee Dinner, ‘selling books and earning speaking fees while speculating about the strength of my character and the fate of my immortal soul. I kid you not. That is disappointing.’

As zingers go, this ice-cold back-slicing riposte was right up there with being mauled by a Polar Bear in the Arctic.

Rosenstein also emphasised his own comparative neutrality.

‘People spend a lot of time debating whose side I was on, based on who seemed to benefit most from any individual decision,’ he said. ‘But trying to infer partisan affiliation from law enforcement decisions is what you might call a category error. It uses the wrong frame of reference.’

Exactly.

Rosenstein’s legal assessment of Comey is that he deserved to be fired by Trump because of his inept handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and especially the public way in which he announced both the results of the investigation and the reopening of it just 10 days before the 2016 election.

Rosenstein’s legal assessment of Comey is that he deserved to be fired by Trump because of his inept handling of the Hillary Clinton (pictured above on her Blackberry) email investigation

In a memo used by Trump to justify Comey’s firing, Rosenstein said the director was ‘wrong to usurp the Attorney General’s authority’ by holding the press conference where he announced the initial closure of the investigation, and made comments to the press that were ‘inappropriate, derogatory and unfair’.

In a damning conclusion, he said it was ‘a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.’

But it is Comey’s treatment of Donald Trump that may lead to far more serious consequences for him and some of his former FBI team.

Today it emerged that Attorney General William Barr has appointed a U.S. attorney, John Durham in Conneticut, to examine the origins of the Russia collusion investigation and determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was ‘lawful and appropriate’.

Today it emerged that Attorney General William Barr (above left) has appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia collusion investigation. This is after former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (above right) also finally went public on his real thoughts about Comey who recently sneered that Rosenstein’s soul had been ‘eaten’ by Trump

This comes a month after Barr told Congress he believed ‘spying did occur’ on the Trump campaign in 2016.

At the centre of this sensational claim lies a surveillance warrant the FBI obtained on former Trump associate Carter Page, and the bureau’s use of an informant while it was investigating former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopolous.

Separately, the Justice Department’s inspector general is also investigating the Russia probe’s origins.

So the heat is being massively turned up on the FBI, and the man who was at its helm at the time: James Comey.

In light of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s expansive report, which exonerated Trump or any of his campaign team of any collusion with Russia, Comey may now face some very difficult questions.

Comey’s FBI colleagues like Andrew McCabe (above right) Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr (above left) and Peter Strzok all conspired to compromise the President

As I wrote when Mueller’s report was released, it seems patently clear now that Comey’s FBI colleagues like Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr and Peter Strzok all conspired to compromise the democratically elected president of the United States.

They are all heavily implicated in numerous acts of alleged crimes involving the misuse of a dodgy discredited dossier compiled by dodgy discredited former British spy Christopher Steele which they used as an excuse to get FISA warrants to spy on Trump campaign team members without any mention of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats financing it.

Their treachery, and Trump-hating motivation for it, is all there in their own words.

Strzok texted Lisa Page, his secret lover, before the 2016 election, and after he had just helped get Hillary off the email scandal rap, to say a newly-opened FBI investigation against Trump was an ‘insurance policy’ against him in case he won.

McCabe, who succeeded Comey as FBI Director, confirmed to CBS after his own departure that he not only launched a counter-intelligence operation against President Trump, but also later discussed with FBI colleagues whether it was possible to remove him from office using the 25th Amendment.

Strzok texted Lisa Page, his secret lover, (both pictured above) before the 2016 election, and after he had just helped get Hillary off the email scandal rap, to say a newly-opened FBI investigation against Trump was an ‘insurance policy’ against him in case he won

What the hell were all these FBI agents, who took an oath to serve the President, doing by plotting against him in such a disgraceful way?

And how much did their boss know about what they were doing?

Well, now we’re going to find out.

As Comey’s behaviour has recently grown more defensive and erratic, there is a mounting belief that he and his FBI agents illegally cut corners and broke the rules in their zealous desire to stop Trump becoming President, and later - under Director McCabe - have him removed when he did.

If that is now proven to be true, then the repercussions for all those involved will be incredibly serious and probably involve some of them going to prison.

Comey needs to be asked, under oath, at what stage did he decide to proceed from a preliminary investigation or inquiry (a ‘PI’) to a full-blown investigation (an ‘FI’)?

This only happens when the FBI has received substantial information that implicates US citizens as agents of a foreign power. But there are very tough rules about how such information is acquired by FBI operatives against a U.S. citizen.

So what information did Comey receive?

How did he and his FBI team receive it?

Who did they task with getting further information, when did they task it, and how did those sources go about their work?

James Comey likes to parade around in some weird kind of moralising halo, but we may be about to discover just how ill fitting that halo is.

For when it comes to soul biting, Comey’s a shameless shark that has munched great chunks out of the integrity and reputation of the FBI.

With every smart-a** tweet, smug talk-show appearance, self-satisfied speech, and mutually back-slapping interview on CNN, Comey causes fresh embarrassment to a bureau that has always prided itself on professionalism and discretion.

Now he might soon see his Icarus style attraction to the bright lights of fame rebound on him in spectacular style.

The net is fast closing on the FBI shark.

And if he doesn’t have some very good answers, James Comey’s next book may be his prison diaries and his next CNN interview conducted from a cell.