Why did Obama appoint James Comey as FBI chief?

[yodermon]

20 years ago, James Comey was a deputy special counsel on the Senate Whitewater Committee. Yes, freaking WHITEWATER. Really? Well I'm sure he was just doing his job, ho hum. OH! Almost forgot, here's what he had to say in his report about Hillary:

In 1996, after months of work, Comey came to some damning conclusions: Hillary Clinton was personally involved in mishandling documents and had ordered others to block investigators as they pursued their case. Worse, her behavior fit into a pattern of concealment: she and her husband had tried to hide their roles in two other matters under investigation by law enforcement.

Taken together, the interference by White House officials, which included destruction of documents, amounted to “far more than just aggressive lawyering or political naiveté,” Comey and his fellow investigators concluded. It constituted “a highly improper pattern of deliberate misconduct.”

http://www.westernjournalism.com/wow-something-from-20-years-ago-is-a-major-clue-about-what-fbi-will-do-to-hillary/

Huh. Wonder if Comey ended up on the Clintons' enemies list after that? And Obama (or his advisers at least) certainly would have remembered this.

Guccifer exposed in March 2013.
Comey appointed in June 2013.

No biggie I'm sure, just seems curious.

[TM99]

1. For a Republican Comey is a pretty decent guy.

He was against NSA wire-tapping. He challenged Gonzales on the US Attorney scandal. He fought organized crime. He was quite accurate given Hillary Clinton's handling of the 'missing' Rose Law Firm documents which were subpoenaed. He seems to be a straight shooter with very little scandal or stupidity surrounding him.

Obama is a New Dem so it made sense for him to consider a Republican appointee especially one with Comey's credentials and standing. Obama did say don't do stupid shit. Comey is not one to do stupid shit unlike Hillary Clinton.

[Samantha]

4. Remember the lawyer who rushed into Ashcroft's hospital room to prevent the extension

of the warrantless eavesdropping program, which the DOJ had just found to be illegal. That was Comey. Everybody loved him for that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051500864.html

In vivid testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Comey said he alerted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and raced, sirens blaring, to join Ashcroft in his hospital room, arriving minutes before Gonzales and Card. Ashcroft, summoning the strength to lift his head and speak, refused to sign the papers they had brought. Gonzales and Card, who had never acknowledged Comey's presence in the room, turned and left.

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said. The domestic spying by the National Security Agency continued for several weeks without Justice approval, he said.
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"I was angry," Comey testified. "I thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me."

Sam

[TM99]

5. Yes, I do.

And I applauded any Republicans in particular who stood up against the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, warrantless eavesdropping, etc.

He has my respect for that.

[Samantha]

8. I do as well

He is a Republican, but everyone sees him as someone who abides by the rules. He did us all a favor by making sure that extension did not get signed.

Sam

[bjo59]

2. Very interesting and suggestive...

[2banon]

3. A number of Obama's appointments were curious to me.

on the other hand, Comey didn't appear to have a blatant conflict of interest at the time of his appointment like others did.

To be honest, I didn't remember who was investigating Whitewater, I could have sworn it was Kenneth Starr, but memories fade on some details.

And essentially I had a really hard time with the day in day out scandal, scandal, scandal, scandal, scandal, scandal, scandal 24/7.

Not looking forward to reliving that one again.

[2cannan]

6. Another interesting player is AG Lynch.

I've read on DU that Loretta Lynch is a Clintonite. But what's is interesting is that she and Hillary also have history of a different sort, kind of like Hillary's and Comey's.


Pro Publica: Hillary Clinton’s Top Five Clashes Over Secrecy
https://www.propublica.org/article/hillary-clintons-top-five-clashes-over-secrecy

snip

1) 1992: The Commodity Trades

During Bill Clinton's first run for the White House, his campaign declined to release all of the couple's tax returns. Later it emerged that the campaign had weighed requests from the press and decided not to do so, because a few of the returns showed Hillary Clinton's spectacular success in commodities trading, in which she made almost $100,000 from an initial investment of $1,000 in a matter of months for a return of almost 10,000 percent. Hillary Clinton threatened a campaign lawyer who had access to the material with retribution if she released the data: "You'll never work in Democratic politics again," the lawyer, Loretta Lynch, says Clinton told her. It wasn't until 1994, as the New York Times prepared to publish an article detailing the trades, that the Clintons made public the returns.

[FlatBaroque]

7. A person who has been obstructing justice

for over 3 decades and who is being considered for the Presidency is mind boggling.