Part of the James Comey
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James Brien "Jim" Comey, Jr. (born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer
and the current Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI).Comey was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to December 2003, and subsequently, the United States Deputy Attorney General, from December 2003 to August 2005. As Deputy Attorney General, Comey was the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), and ran its day-to-day operations.
In December 2003, as U.S. Deputy Attorney General, Comey appointed the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, Illinois, close friend and former colleague Patrick Fitzgerald, to be the Special Counsel to head the CIA Leak Grand Jury Investigation also known as the "Plame affair", after Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself.
In August 2005, Comey left the DOJ and became General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2010, he became General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates, based in Westport, Connecticut. In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become a Senior Research Scholar and a Hertog Fellow on National Security Law at Columbia Law School in the city of New York. He served on the Board of Directors of HSBC Holdings until July 2013.[2]
In September 2013, Comey was appointed Director of the FBI by President Barack Obama.[3] In that capacity, he was responsible for overseeing the FBI's investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy. His role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, particularly with regard to his public communications, was highly controversial, and has been claimed as a factor in Clinton's electoral loss to Donald Trump.
FBI Director
In May 2013, it was reported,[50][51] and in June 2013 it was made official, that President Barack Obama would nominate Comey to be the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, replacing outgoing director Robert Mueller.[52] Comey was reportedly chosen over finalist Lisa Monaco, who had overseen national security issues at the Justice Department during the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012.[53][54]Comey was confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2013, for a full ten-year term running the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[55] He was sworn in as FBI director on September 4, 2013.[56]
Police and African Americans
In February 2015, Comey delivered a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., regarding the relationship between police and the African American community.[57][58]Comey said. “At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo — a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups,” including his own Irish ancestors. Law enforcement often treated the Irish unfairly and often regarded them as drunks and criminals in the early 20th century, he said. “The Irish had some tough times, but little compares to the experience on our soil of black Americans.”[57] Deep-rooted societal problems often lead young black men to crime and create tensions with law enforcement, he said.[57]
“Police officers on patrol in our nation’s cities often work in environments where a hugely disproportionate percentage of street crime is committed by young men of color,” Comey said. “Something happens to people of good will working in that environment. After years of police work, officers often can’t help be influenced by the cynicism they feel. A mental shortcut becomes almost irresistible.”[57]
In October 2015, Comey gave a speech raising concerns that body worn video results in less effective policing, contradicting the President’s public position.[59] Days later, President Obama met with Comey in the Oval Office to address the issue.[60]
Comments on Poland and the Holocaust
In April 2015, Comey spoke at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, arguing in favor of more Holocaust education.[61] After The Washington Post printed a version of his speech, Anne Applebaum wrote that his reference to "the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary" was inaccurately saying that Poles were as responsible for the Holocaust as Germans.[62] His speech was also criticized by Polish authorities, and Stephen D. Mull, United States Ambassador to Poland, was called to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[63] Applebaum wrote that Comey, "in a speech that was reprinted in The Post arguing for more Holocaust education, demonstrated just how badly he needs it himself".[64]Ambassador Mull issued an apology for Comey's remarks.[65] When asked about his remarks, Comey said, "I regret linking Germany and Poland ... The Polish state bears no responsibility for the horrors imposed by the Nazis. I wish I had not used any other country names because my point was a universal one about human nature."[66]
However, Abraham Foxman, then director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that while Comey "could have been clearer in the way he expressed his point, President Komorowski [of Poland] protests too much". While many Poles saved the lives of Jews, including Foxman himself, "the public in most European countries, Poland included, too often acted as bystanders and sometimes even as accomplices".[67]
OPM hack
In June 2015, the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that it had been the target of a data breach targeting the records of as many as four million people.[68] Later, Comey put the number at 18 million.[69] The Washington Post has reported that the attack originated in China, citing unnamed government officials.[70] Comey said: "It is a very big deal from a national security perspective and from a counterintelligence perspective. It’s a treasure trove of information about everybody who has worked for, tried to work for, or works for the United States government."[71]Hillary Clinton email investigation
Main
article: Hillary Clinton email controversy
On
July 5, 2016, Comey announced the FBI’s recommendation that the United States Department of
Justice file no criminal charges relating to the Hillary Clinton email controversy.[72]
During a 15-minute press conference in the J. Edgar Hoover Building,
Comey called Secretary Clinton's and her top aides' behavior "extremely
careless", but concluded that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring
such a case".[72]
Comey's public comments came after Attorney General Loretta
Lynch announced that she would "fully" accept the
recommendation of the FBI regarding the probe. It was believed to be the first
time the FBI disclosed its prosecutorial recommendation to the Department of
Justice publicly.[72]
On July 7, 2016, Comey was questioned by a Republican-led House committee
during a hearing regarding the FBI's recommendation.[73][74]Letters to Congress
In light of this Congressional hearing, Comey proceeded down a path of transparency that turned out to have far-reaching ramifications for the presidential election which was underway.[75]In late October, Rudy Giuliani, a Donald Trump surrogate and advisor, told Martha MacCallum of Fox News that "a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next two days" was coming from the Trump campaign.[76] Giuliani later said that he did not have insider FBI information.[77] Later confirmed by a second law enforcement source, an unnamed government source told Fox News that the email metadata on the computer in question contained “positive hits for state.gov and HRC emails,”[78] however, at the time Comey sent his letter to Congress, the FBI had still not obtained a warrant to review any of the e-mails in question and was not aware of the content of any of the e-mails in question.[79]
On October 28, 2016, less than two weeks before the presidential election, Comey announced in a letter to Congress that the FBI learned of the existence of emails that appeared to be pertinent to the investigation of Secretary Clinton's email server and that the FBI would take steps to allow investigators to review these emails "to determine whether they contain classified information as well as to assess their importance to our investigation". Director Comey stated in the letter that he was writing the letter to "supplement his previous testimony" before Congress.[80]
Comey's announcement was inconsistent with Justice Department policy and he was warned by lawyers at the Department of Justice against proceeding with his letter to Congress. According to FBI officials, Comey was aware of the policy, but considered it "guidance", rather than an ironclad rule. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, as well as both the Clinton and Trump campaigns called on Comey to provide additional details.[81] The fear that information about the newly discovered e-mails would be leaked to the press influenced, in part, Comey's decision to inform Congress about the relevance of the new emails to the Clinton investigation,[82] and he said that not doing so "would be misleading to the American people" despite not knowing the emails' contents and despite the risk of being misunderstood.[83] On October 30, 2016 The New York Times published an op-ed by Richard Painter, a chief White House ethics lawyer for the George W. Bush administration, stating that he had filed a complaint against the FBI with the US Office of Special Counsel, which investigates possible violations of the Hatch Act, and with the Office of Government Ethics, in connection with the letter sent to Congress.[84]
On November 6, 2016, Comey wrote in a second letter to Congress that, "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July". He thanked the FBI investigators who worked "around the clock" on the emails.[85]
Senator Al Franken of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a press conference to demand congressional hearings into Comey's actions.[86] Comey was broadly criticized for his actions, on editorial pages from both the right and the left,[87] as well as in an open letter signed by a bipartisan group of 99 former senior Justice Department officials and federal prosecutors, including former Attorney General Eric Holder.[88] According to the Clinton campaign, the letters effectively stopped the campaign's momentum by hurting Clinton's chances with voters who were receptive to Trump's claims of a "rigged system".[89] Statistician Nate Silver said that Comey had a "large, measurable impact on the race"[90] and that Clinton's marked drop in the polls after Comey's first letter was consistent with a burst of negative news coverage as opposed to a gradual decline.[91] Voters who made up their minds in the final week of the race broke strongly against Clinton, which Silver said was enough to cost her Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania (and thus the election).[90]
On January 12, 2017, the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General announced a formal investigation into whether the FBI followed proper procedures in its investigation of Clinton or whether "improper considerations" were made by FBI personnel.[92]
Russian election interference investigation
On March 20, 2017, in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey said the FBI has been investigating possible coordination between the Donald Trump election campaign and Russia, and whether any crimes were committed.[93]Government surveillance oversight
In his July 2013 FBI confirmation hearing, Comey said that the oversight mechanisms of the U.S. government have sufficient privacy protections.[94] In a November 2014 New York Times Magazine article, Yale historian Beverly Gage reported that Comey keeps on his desk a copy of the FBI request to wiretap Martin Luther King, Jr., "as a reminder of the bureau's capacity to do wrong".[95] After Comey's letter to Congress in October 2016, CNN and the Irish Times pointed out the similarities between Comey and J. Edgar Hoover in "influencing" elections.[96][97]He and his agency were criticized for their request to Apple Inc. to install a "back door" for U.S. surveillance agencies to use. Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden stated: "Jim would like a back door available to American law enforcement in all devices globally. And, frankly, I think on balance that actually harms American safety and security, even though it might make Jim's job a bit easier in some specific circumstances."[98]
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