FBI Director James Comey's fingerprints are all over the 2016 political scene, his clouded judgment becoming more apparent with time. He acted improperly in what he did and didn't do during a presidential campaign as close as it could be.

Capturing the majority of vote, Hillary Clinton paid the price for what Comey did, relentlessly and publicly pressing her email status up until the last days of October. Donald Trump vastly benefited from Comey keeping evidence of Russia's involvement in the election off the radar until it was far too late.

First, though, a reckless accusation is afoot that the government set up a wiretap on Trump during the campaign."Comey asked DOJ to refute claim" was today's front page Washington Post headline, tantamount to a vehement denial of Trump's wild claim over the weekend that as president, Barack Obama requested a tap on Trump's phone. The FBI is part of the Justice Department, so Comey's request for a denial makes sense.

This is a fitting response. But it's a variation on a theme that goes back to the first term of the George W. Bush presidency. Comey likes to be caught in the crosshairs as an upright man in the Washington roughhouse rumble. As Justice Department deputy attorney general, he raced White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to the hospital bed of Attorney General John D. Ashcroft to prevent Ashcroft from signing papers to extend a domestic spying program.

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This was a principled stand to take in 2004, and is likely what recommended Comey to the young idealistic Obama. That pick for the FBI was a fateful unforced error, reverberating to this day and beyond.

In truth, Comey is no innocent, despite his Catholic schoolboy looks. He dwells most days in a brutalist architectural slab of concrete named for J. Edgar Hoover on Pennsylvania Avenue. And it's time now to see he is just as much a political player as Hoover, at the highest level of government and the deepest level of democracy.

The powerful post of FBI director is meant to be nonpartisan, but it's hard to police personality. Over the years, a profile of Comey has emerged: a contrary, self-righteous man who sees himself as above the presidents he works for – or against. Trump decided to keep him.

Comey has been a card-carrying Republican for most of his 56 years, and even if he is registered as an independent, his actions indicate otherwise. The decisions and the timing of his public announcements shaped the fluctuating electoral landscape.

John Podesta, Clinton's campaign director, told The New Yorker that "a major movement of public opinion" occurred even as Comey announced there was nothing to investigate, after all, in some unrelated Clinton emails. This was very late in the game, with days to go. It mattered.