Julian Borger, writing for the Guardian, gives a travel log for the Trump-Russia dossier. I have not seen it laid out so clearly anywhere else, so, I have excerpted a few of the more interesting stops along the way.

“By July, the counter-intelligence contractor … delivered his reports, but … their contents weighed on him. If the allegations were real, their implications were overwhelming.”

“He delivered a set to former colleagues in the FBI … but heard nothing back about any investigation.”

“The bureau seemed obsessed instead with classified material that flowed through a private email server set up by Clinton’s aides. The FBI’s director, James Comey, threw the election into a spin 11 days before the vote by announcing his investigators were examining newly discovered material.”

“The FBI however continued to refuse to comment on the [Trump dossier] issue …. The FBI counter-intelligence division … is extremely secretive, [unlike] the New York field office …. The threat of leaks from New York about Clinton emails had reportedly pushed Comey into making his October surprise announcement.”

There is much more in the article, but the above points are worth considering in isolation. James Comey clearly is not in charge of his own organization. Worse, he allowed that failing to push him into an egregious error, one that has and will continue to cost this country deeply.

President Obama, in what little time he has left, should fire Director Comey. Since the Senate must confirm any new appointee, Obama will have no say in that. However, he and other Democrats can make it clear to the country that the priority of any successor should be to clean out the New York office. There is no guarantee what the DOJ IG investigation into this will or will not do. Act now. It won’t correct Comey’s abysmal failure of judgement, but he must pay some price for it. God knows the rest of us will.