01 Aug Why It Matters – The August 1st [Posting]
No show today (planned day off), but I just had to post a few thoughts in response to the news that the DOJ, presumably in the person of Bill Barr, has declined the recommendation Inspector General Michael Horowitz to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey for his deliberate leaks of certain confidential memos.
According to some versions of the story, the infamous ‘career professionals’ at the DOJ agreed that there was insufficient evidence that Comey intended to break the law (echoes of Comey’s rationale for excusing Hillary Clinton’s felonies).
On behalf of millions of American patriots, I’ll suppress the desire to scream. And even though I’m a lawyer, I’ll admit I’m not capable of the sophistry apparently necessary to understand these marvelous legal nuances.
The US Congress passes laws, and the President signs them, saying that it is a crime for public officials including federal law enforcement officers to leak confidential information. These laws are passed without knowing who in the future might violate them. The laws are simply intended to help the country protect from unauthorized disclosure information the government has deemed confidential. Unauthorized disclosure is presumed to be harmful to the country; that is why the statutes do not attempt a picking and choosing as to what kinds of confidential information are ok for unauthorized disclosure.
James Comey did exactly what is prohibited by law. Yet ‘career professionals’ read into the law a need for nefarious intent. Well, Comey’s intent was to protect himself and harm the President. Have our ‘career professionals’ decided that intent is not nefarious? Is the test of nefariousness now a matter of which political party the leaker intends to help or harm?
These are the decisions of a ruling class who view themselves to be our moral betters. The man or woman on the street has no trouble understanding that when the law says you can’t do X, then if you do X, you’re in trouble. But our betters tell us if you do X but you are an approved member of the DC ruling class, you’re not in trouble.
Friends, these are the actions of DC elites that prompted the American people to tell all of them to go to hell, and to elect President Donald Trump as the means of delivering the message. They are apparently going to do it again.
In fairness, Joe DiGenova—the former US Attorney for the Washington D.C. district—has had a decent run of commentary that suggests he is in an insiders’ loop with AG Bill Barr. And DiGenova believes the decision to decline prosecution of Comey for leaking is NOT an indicator that Comey is going to skate for all of his coup plotting and participation. DiGenova appears to believe that there are bigger crimes to prosecute involving a broader conspiracy among various higher ups, and that US Attorney John Durham is aggressively putting together one or more grand juries to go after them.
We can always hope. But for now, a decision to decline prosecution of Comey for what anyone with common sense understands to be a blatant and willful violation of law by a freaking former FBI Director is another blow to Americans’ trust in their justice system.