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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLAWFARE: "The nightmare scenario: Trump fires Comey, the one man who would stand up to him"
https://lawfareblog.com/nightmare-scenario-trump-fires-comey-one-man-who-would-stand-himMake no mistake: The firing of James Comey as FBI director is a stunning event. It is a profoundly dangerous thinga move that puts the Trump-Russia investigation in immediate jeopardy and removes from the investigative hierarchy the one senior official whom President Trump did not appoint and one who is known to stand up to power. One of the biggest dangers of Comeys firing is that Trump might actually get away with it, ironically, because of Comeys unpopularity among Democrats and on the political left.
We warned about this danger immediately after the election.
On November 10, we wrote that that Trumps firing of Comey would be a a clear bellwether to both the national security and civil libertarian communities that things are going terribly wrong. At the time we wrote those words, Comey was deeply unpopular with both the Left, which blamed Hillary Clintons defeat on his eleventh hour letter to Congress, and the Right, which criticized his decision to recommend that Clinton not be charged over her handling of government emails. Whatever the merit of Comeys actions during the campaign, the fact that he managed to anger both sides of the political spectrum demonstrated his storied political independence. And that political independence, we argued, would serve as a critical check against any efforts on the part of President Trump to trample the rule of law.
The FBI Director serves a ten-year term precisely in order to insulate against the whims of a President who does not like whator whomthe FBI is investigating. While the President has legal authority to fire an FBI director, the fact that Trump has done so under circumstances of an active FBI investigation of the Presidents own campaign violates profoundly important norms of an independent, non-political FBI. The situation has no parallel with the only previous FBI director to be removed by a president: President Clintons firing of William Sessions, whose ethical misconduct was so extensive that it resulted in a six-month Justice Department investigation and a blistering 161-page report detailing his illicit activities, including flagrant misuse of public funds. Trumps firing Comey at a time when Comey is investigating Russian intervention in the election on Trumps behalf and the specific conduct of a number of people close to Trump undermines the credibility of his own presidency. And it deeply threatens the integrity of and public confidence in ongoing law enforcement and intelligence operations.
SNIP
Getting rid of Comey removes the guy who is running the Russia investigation. It removes the guy who can look Congress in the eye and say credibly that the FBI is investigating whether anyone in the Trump orbit was actively working with the Russians. It removes the guy who, in February, reportedly refused the White Houses request to publicly knock down stories about Trump and Russia while congressmen in key positions of investigatory responsibility allegedly complied. It removes the one person of stature (figurative as well as literal) in the government whom everyone knows willeven when hes wrongdo what he thinks is the right thing and damn the torpedos. It removes, in other words, the essential person for a credible investigation.
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LAWFARE: "The nightmare scenario: Trump fires Comey, the one man who would stand up to him" (Original Post)
pnwmom
May 2017
OP
C_U_L8R
(44,998 posts)1. There are millions of us.
Who will stand up to Trump.
kimbutgar
(21,130 posts)2. Until he orders his supporters to fire upon us
C_U_L8R
(44,998 posts)3. Then he loses
drray23
(7,627 posts)4. some of us might return fire.