Mike Huckabee: Comey's Remorse Can't Rebuild FBI's Reputation
Former FBI Director James Comey’s newfound sense of remorse over his botched Russia collusion probe won’t repair the damage he has done to our Constitution, and Comey knows it.
During a recent interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, Comey admitted that he should not have defended the FBI’s abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process to secure permission to surveil one of Donald Trump’s associates, acknowledging that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz had correctly identified the problem in his recent report.
“He’s right, I was wrong,” Comey told Fox News host Chris Wallace, adding that he was “overconfident, as director, in our procedures.”
Which procedures were those? The ones intended to safeguard against bias and abuse by our nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency, or the ones followed by corrupt FBI officials to weaponize the bureau against a presidential campaign?
Does Comey regret that his inattentiveness enabled wrongdoing, or is he just upset that he didn’t do enough to cover their tracks?
Just days after claiming that the IG report had exonerated him, Comey seems to have had a change of heart. Now, the disgraced FBI boss claims that “it’s important that a leader be accountable and transparent,” and says that FBI Director Christopher Wray is right to be worried about “systemic” problems within the bureau.
Of course, Comey is only acknowledging guilt for his handling of the Russia investigation because the IG report has left him with no other option.
Horowitz found that the bureau made “17 significant errors or omissions” when submitting its FISA application and that mistakes were made by “three separate, hand-picked [investigative] teams.”
Shockingly, the FBI used a discredited dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to justify its surveillance of the Trump campaign, despite widespread concerns about the accuracy of the document. Comey, who famously downplayed the dossier’s role in securing the warrants, is still trying to spread that fantasy, despite the fact that Horowitz described the opposition research as “central and essential” to the FBI’s FISA applications.
To make matters worse, the IG report revealed that an FBI lawyer had blatantly altered emails to mislead the FISA Court. In other words, the FBI knowingly lied to a federal judge, exploiting a process meant to protect America from international terrorists in order to carry out a coordinated hit job against the Trump campaign.
The inescapable conclusion is that Comey turned the FBI — once the most respected law enforcement agency in America — into a political pawn serving the interests of the Democratic Party.
At best, Comey lacked the backbone to keep the FBI independent from politics; at worst, he orchestrated the bureau’s abuse of power.
Even the intelligence briefings that were set up with candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign turned out to be a charade — Horowitz revealed that they were actually used to gather more information on Donald Trump and his top advisors.
So now Comey’s admitting he was wrong. Wow, but he’s only doing so because he got caught red handed. He was actually caught a long time ago. So what are the consequences for his unlawful conduct. Could it be years in jail? Where are the apologies to me and others, Jim?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2019
“So now Comey’s admitting he was wrong,” President Trump tweeted in response to Comey’s remarks.
“Wow, but he’s only doing so because he got caught red handed. He was actually caught a long time ago. So what are the consequences for his unlawful conduct. Could it be years in jail? Where are the apologies to me and others, Jim?”
President Trump is right — the entire country deserves an apology from James Comey. But even if the former FBI director understands the full magnitude of his unforgivable mistakes, his remorse won’t be enough to fix what he broke.
Comey shattered the American people’s trust in the FBI, and that trust can only be rebuilt when the perpetrators of this scam are held accountable for their actions.
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