The principals involved in the Crossfire Hurricane Operation were not seven layers below him – they were right below him in the organization’s line-and-block chart

Parsing the muddled statements of a former FBI Director on FOX News with Chris Wallace





On Sunday, December 15, 2019, Chris Wallace interviewed, for 15 minutes, former FBI Director James Comey in the wake of Department of Justice, Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s long-awaited report entitled “A REVIEW OF VARIOUS ACTIONS BY THE FBI & DOJ IN ADVANCE OF THE 2016 ELECTIONS”. AKA: IG Report

Comey has labeled the impact of the report as a vindication of the FBI Comey has labeled the impact of the report as a vindication of the FBI. But in his testimony before the U.S. Senate, Horowitz said his report “doesn’t vindicate anyone at the FBI who touched this, including the leadership.” From then on, it was downhill for Comey in the Wallace interview. As you watch Comey bob-’n-weave, keep this statement on page 5 of the IG Report in mind. It necessarily limits the scope of the report. “The question we considered was not whether a particular investigative decision was perfect or ideal or one that we believed could have been handled more effectively, but whether the circumstances surrounding the decision indicated that it was based on considerations other than the merits of the investigation. If the explanations that we were given for a particular decision were consistent with a rational investigative strategy and not unreasonable, we did not conclude that the decision was based on improper considerations in the absence of evidence to the contrary. We took this approach because our role as an OIG is not to second-guess valid discretionary judgments made during the course of an investigation, and this approach is consistent with the OIG’s handling of such questions in past reviews.”

Comey: Maybe it depends on the interpretation of how we understand the word vindication The short version of that is: Not our job to determine why mistakes were made. When Wallace tells Comey that “the IG said you should feel no vindication,” Comey channels the classic response of Bill Clinton during the investigation leading up to his impeachment. “It depends on the meaning of the word ‘is’”. Comey says, “Maybe it depends on the interpretation of how we understand the word (‘vindication’)”. What I mean is that the FBI was accused of treason, of illegal spying…all of that was nonsense.” And then Comey rope-a-dopes the conversation by shifting vindication to the FBI after reviewing a litany of accusations made against it by the President—accusations that Comey characterizes as “nonsense”. That’s guilt displacement. In his own mind, Comey IS the FBI, and he IS the protector and champion of same. None of those accusations by Trump were true, Comey says, but he cops a plea of guilty of process sloppiness. If he was still the FBI Director he says, “I would be very concerned about it (sloppiness) and diving into it.” Sure. Wallace shifts to Comey’s statement on December 7, 2018 wherein Comey claimed to have had total confidence in the FISA process. Wallace compares that claim to Horowitz’s critical statements concerning the FISA process with its “17 significant errors” in the application process. How does Comey explain that difference?

Comey and Wallace debate the role of the Steele Dossier in securing FISA warrants With nowhere to hide, Comey says, “He’s right and I was wrong. I was over-confident in the procedures the DoJ and the FBI had built over 25 years. I thought they were robust enough.” (Beware of the word “robust” when used inside the Beltway. It’s meaning is usually vacuous.) So, Comey is guilty of assuming competence was in place when, he admits, it was not. Hey, but that’s not his fault! It goes back over two decades of FBI Directors. He was, he states, guilty of “over-confidence”. Those are weasel words. (Before the Normandy Invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower, who was no weasel, wrote a statement, in the event the invasion failed, putting the blame for failure solely on himself.) Comey and Wallace debate the role of the Steele Dossier in securing FISA warrants. Again, it’s Comey saying the Steele Dossier was not central to getting the first warrant —it was merely part of a “broader mosaic” of evidence. Meanwhile, the IG said that its role was “central” to getting the initial warrant that was, eventually, renewed time and again.





Comey maintains a befuddled, puzzled expression as he shucks-and-jives

Hear what Comey says next: “I’m not sure he (Horowitz) and I are saying different things.” Yes, he said that. Wallace says, essentially, you two are not saying the same thing. Comey’s response is, “I don’t understand him (Horowitz) to be saying that; I could be wrong about that. “I don’t see the disconnect between the two of us (he and Horowitz), and I’m sorry that I’m missing it,” all of which suggests that, assumptions to the contrary, English may not be Comey’s first language. At this point, we’re at 6 minutes into a 15-minute interview. Before the interview ends Comey will, also: Claim the FBI never considered the Steele Dossier was “bunk,” only that it contained significant errors of source reporting, and,

Discount the sub-source’s claim that Steele knew the information was “bunk” does not necessarily make it so, since the source may be distancing himself from it. But anyone who has written, signed and submitted a Form 302 recognizes that that is an absurdly ridiculous excuse for mis-information. At midpoint in the interview, Comey maintains a befuddled, puzzled expression as he shucks-and-jives his way through with incredulous responses, all of which Wallace is fully aware.





Federal Bureau of Investigation is in deep distress Then, at the apex of bizarre, Comey says, “As the FBI Director, you’re not kept informed on the details of an investigation so, no, in general I didn’t know what they learned from the sub-source. I didn’t know the particulars of the investigation…As the Director sitting at the top of an organization of thirty-eight thousand people you can’t run an investigation that’s seven layers below you, you have to leave it to the career professional to do.” And with those words Comey indicts himself. The principals involved in the Crossfire Hurricane Operation were not seven layers below him – they were right below him in the organization’s line-and-block chart. And if they represent the integrity of the “career professionals” of the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is in deep distress.

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