The Curious Case Of Comey

John Hartmann
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

For the past fifteen years the FBI has been Robert Mueller and James Comey.

These two men have been the directors. They have led the bureau, spoken for it, championed it.

It was theirs.

Last year, for some reason or other, Comey got it into his head that he would insinuate himself into the presidential election. This was odd. FBI directors avoid the spotlight, if they can. Not Mr. Comey.

This is what he actually did: In the heat of the campaign he summoned the nation (FBI directors can do that) to the trial he was conducting.

He put Hillary Clinton on trial, convicted her, then let her go with a wrist slap.

He did what? What? And what?

He wasn’t supposed to hold a press conference. Or a trial. He wasn’t supposed to convict anybody, ever. He was not supposed to sentence anybody, ever. None of that is the job of the FBI. The job of the FBI is to gather information and turn it over to their bosses in the Justice Department. They will decide charges, decide trials, and suggest punishment.

Comey did those things all by his lonesome.

What was he thinking?

What would make the quintessential Washington Bureaucrat emerge from his burrow to remind the nation that the democrat candidate was a candidate who could be –and was– the subject of a criminal investigation?

What’s your guess?


One guess: He wanted Hillary to lose. It’s hard to imagine Comey going through with it without telling Mueller –his predecessor, his best friend, his mentor, his collaborator. If so, the FBI, itself, wanted her to lose. Maybe they did. She was, after all, the most venal candidate in the history of the republic; a republic they are sworn to protect. Adding weight to this guess is the fact that he did it again nine days before the vote.

Another guess: He wanted in. Ego. Self-Importance. Maybe that’s in there, somewhere.

Another guess: He’s a nut job. A confused man stumbling blindly in the desert of politics.


Now, Comey’s been fired. That’s what makes his case so odd. His work was done. Hillary lost. Maybe, if he hadn’t leapt into the fray, she wouldn’t have. He was the first person she blamed for her defeat. But when Trump fired him, that was all it took for the left to embrace the guy that cost them the election.

Now, also, there is an investigation into Russian Collusion in the Trump campaign. There was none. But that’s not going to stop anything.

Where many go a path is made, even if there’s nothing at the end of it.

This investigation is run by…Robert Mueller. How can this possibly be? How could a man of honor not say: “Thanks but the guy’s my best friend. Find someone without a dog in the fight.”

Mueller didn’t do that though, did he?

Which makes him a curious case, too.

The Job 7.27.17

“The Job”

John Hartmann

Written by

Mr. Hartmann resides in the Poets House on Riverside Drive in Richmond Virginia.

“The Job”

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