CORNELL LAW PROF. WILLIAM JACOBSON: Jim Comey Tainted The Special Counsel: Robert Mueller should step aside: Friends shouldn’t be investigating friends.

The Special Counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller barely has gotten off the ground, and already there is a stench.

That stench was created by former FBI Director James Comey, who admitted in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he leaked, through a friend, memoranda purporting to document improper conversations between Donald Trump and Comey. . . .

That Special Counsel was appointed just a few days after the Comey-contrived leaks.

By the Order from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Mueller includes within his jurisdiction “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.” Comey testified that he believes Mueller is evaluating the communications between Comey and Trump with regard to potential obstruction of justice. Indeed, Comey expressed certainty in his testimony that the Special Counsel was investigating Comey’s conversations with Trump. . . .

What started as concerns over Russian interference in the election now is about the interactions between Comey and Trump.

CBS News reported that Mueller reportedly gave approval for Comey to testify before Congress and that the testimony was coordinated. Comey testified that he was permitted to review his memos in preparation of his written opening statement for the Committee submitted the day before his live testimony. . . .

There are a lot of questions that need to be answered about how Rod Rosenstein came to appoint Mueller in those few days after the Comey leak, and whether Comey and Mueller, directly or indirectly, had any communications regarding Trump prior to Mueller’s appointment.

Regardless, we now have the prospect of the Special Counsel investigating and necessarily assigning credibility (or lack thereof) to witnesses, including Comey.

There is a problem here that goes beyond their long professional interactions. In 2013, The Washingtonian described the close professional history, Forged Under Fire—Bob Mueller and Jim Comey’s Unusual Friendship.

The Boston Globe reported on May 20, 2017, that the men considered themselves friends. . . .

Whether they were just close professional friends, or consider themselves personally friendly, the fact is that they are not at arms length. This relationship, at least as reported, appears to be much more than the routine interactions you might expect two law enforcement officers to have had in the regular course of business.

Something doesn’t seem right here. Comey manipulated the system into getting his friend appointed Special Counsel, and now that friend will be investigating matters in which Comey is a key witness. More than that, Comey’s own actions in leaking government property raise legal issues as to whether Comey himself violated the law.