Fired FBI Director James Comey recently sat down for a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, a significant part of which dwelt on how he handled the separate FBI investigations of the two 2016 presidential nominees, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.
From The Hill:
Comey at one point spoke about a meeting he had with former President Barack Obama just one day after the 2016 election, during which the then-director revealed his personal feelings — and perhaps inherent bias — toward the incoming president-elect.
Comey related that Obama had reassured him that he had handled the FBI investigation of Clinton as best as he could, a reassurance Comey took to heart as many other Democrats blamed him for Clinton’s loss.
“I said to him — ‘Mr. President,’ first of all, I said, ‘Thank you, Mr. President. It has been a nightmare. I’m just — I’ve just tried to do the right thing.’ And he said, ‘I know. I know,’ stated Comey, according to a transcript of the interview.
“And then I said, ‘I think my wife would kill me if I didn’t take this chance to thank you, and to tell you how much I’m going to miss you,’” he continued.
“And — and also to t — I told him that, ‘I dread the next four years. But in many ways, I feel great pressure to stay to try and protect the institution I lead,’” he added.
Comey replied, “Well, I had some sense of the nature and character of the new president of the United States. And I worried very much that there would be an effort to erode the independence of the FBI.”
“And I worried, given what I had seen during the campaign, that — that that effort to remain apart — might be challenged in — in a Trump administration. And — and I was right, but that’s what I worried about,” he added.
That admission right there — that Comey felt “dread” at the thought of working under President Trump — would seem to indicate a lack of impartiality on Comey’s part.
