Critic/Commentator (2:24)

Comey was one of the people. He wasn't the biggest, but he's a dirty cop. Comey's a bad person. He's a sick person. I think he's a sick guy, actually. He did terrible things at the FBI.

Narrator (2:36)

He posted, erased, and then posted again a message to his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, on September 20, demanding that she prosecute the former FBI director, among other enemies. And at the same time, we are talking about James Comey, the man who boasted about doing an end run around the White House counsel when he sent FBI agents to entrap Trump's first National Security advisor, Michael Flynn, in early 2017.

James Comey (3:09)

And in both of those administrations, there was process. And so if the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official. You would work through the White House counsel and there'd be discussions and approvals and who would be there. And I thought, it's early enough. Let's just send a couple guys over.

Narrator (3:31)

A man who built a case against Trump in their first face to face meetings, while deceptively assuring him he was not a target of the bureau's investigation. James Comey, a man who tells you he's a truth teller as he spins a gnarled yarn. His bureau led investigations into both presidential candidates in 2016, an unenviable position that Comey put himself directly in.

James Comey (4:03)

Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

Narrator (4:15)

And then, less than two weeks before the election, yet another controversy. On Friday, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to select congressional leaders announcing.

Critic/Commentator (4:25)

That the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's.

Narrator (4:27)

Private email server has been reopened. Comey reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton when FBI agents found more of her emails on the laptop of former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who was then the spouse of Clinton's chief of staff, Huma Abedin. That intervention harmed Hillary Clinton. Many believe it cost her the election. But Comey wasn't trying to get Trump elected. He felt terrible. So he ended up hobbling the presidency of the man who beat Hillary Clinton. On March 17, 2017, James Comey said this to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

James Comey (5:10)

I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. And that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts.

Narrator (5:39)

That was a true statement that fed a big lie. The FBI was investigating the Trump campaign, but the actual agents doing the investigation had sought to close the matter months earlier. The only reason why it remained open was through the intervention of Comey and his deputies. When the FBI director said this, the FBI itself had no case. But most of Washington didn't know that.

James Comey (6:07)

Hurricane Vladimir, if you will.

Critic/Commentator (6:08)

He has no idea that he's going down. The beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. You could feel the thread being pulled. You can feel the clothes starting to come off the emperor. I believe this is the beginning of the end. A dizzying 24 hours in the Russia investigation. No longer just inching toward the president. This morning, it is more like careening.

Narrator (6:30)

I think they're shocked that the noose is tightening.

James Comey (6:33)

Donald Trump, for the first time in.

Narrator (6:35)

His life, is cornered.

James Comey (6:36)

Think that he recognizes that Mueller is an existential threat to his presidency.

Critic/Commentator (6:41)

Donald Trump's done.

Narrator (6:43)

What they knew was that James Comey had personally briefed Barack Obama and Donald Trump during the presidential transition on a mysterious dossier compiled by a respected former British intelligence officer. And it said that Trump had colluded with Russia's efforts to steal and leak the Clinton campaign's emails. James Comey on March 17th cast a cloud over Donald Trump's presidency. The dynamic was set. Trump fired Comey Less than seven weeks later, the Justice Department appointed Comey's friend and predecessor, Robert Mueller to investigate what was now known as Russiagate. And the conventional wisdom hardened. The President was a traitor at worst and a foreign asset at best. In reality, he was neither. But all that said, the actual indictment of James Comey is deeply flawed.

Andy McCarthy (7:38)

The basic charge against Comey is that he lied to the Senate when he denied authorizing Andrew McCabe to leak information about the Clinton foundation investigation to the Wall Street Journal.

Narrator (7:57)

This is Andy McCarthy, a former U.S. attorney who served in the Southern District of New York with James Comey back in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Andy McCarthy (8:06)

It was Devlin Barrett, who's now at the Times, but he was at the Journal at the time. And the flaw in the case, the main flaw, the easiest way to explain this is that even Andrew McCabe agrees that Comey never authorized him to do the leak. Andrew McCabe admits that he orchestrated the leak. And his version of events was that he told Comey about it after. Not only after the leak, after the article by Barrett came out, Andrew McCabe.

Narrator (8:44)

Was Comey's deputy FBI director. This gets a little complicated, so let's go through the details. The testimony in question was from September 30, 2020. In the middle of the COVID pandemic, Comey was testifying by video link from his home in Virginia. And one of the reasons for all the drama was because the five year statute of limitations would have expired this week. Here is the critical exchange.

Critic/Commentator (9:09)

On May 3, 2017, in this committee, Chairman Grassley asked you point blank, quote, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation? You responded under oath, quote, never. He then asked you, quote, have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton administration? You responded again under oath, no. Now, as you know, Mr. McCabe, who works for you, has publicly and repeatedly stated that he leaked information to the Wall Street Journal and that you were directly aware of it and that you directly authorized it. Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true. One or the other is false. Who's telling the truth?

James Comey (10:05)

I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017.

Critic/Commentator (10:12)

So your testimony is you've never authorized anyone to leak and Mr. McCabe, if he says contrary, is not telling the truth, Is that correct?

James Comey (10:19)

Again, not going to characterize Andy's testimony, but mine is the same today.

Narrator (10:24)

Now, it's true that Ted Cruz mischaracterized what McCabe ended up telling the inspector general about those leaks to the Wall Street Journal. More on that in a bit. But Comey may still be in a little bit of trouble. Let's replay those last 10 seconds.

Critic/Commentator (10:41)

So your testimony is you've never authorized anyone to leak and Mr. McCabe, when if he says contrary, is not telling the truth. Is that correct?

James Comey (10:48)

Again, not going to characterize Andy's testimony, but mine is the same today.

Narrator (10:52)

What is this testimony from 2017 that we're talking about? Well, it's this.

Critic/Commentator (10:57)

Have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation.

Narrator (11:07)

Or the Clinton investigation? No, this was from 2017 and it is not prosecutable because the statute of limitations has expired. But make no mistake, Comey was lying full stop. And it wasn't the first time. You're listening to Breaking History. In this episode, we tell the story of James Comey, one of the most polarizing figures in recent American history. For maga, he is the mastermind of rusticate for the resistance. He is now a martyr. But the real James Comey is a man so enamored by his virtue that he became blinded to his vices. He believed he was saving the FBI only to pave a road to its ruin, the rise and fall of a hero in his own mind. After the break.

Poet/Rapper (12:01)

We can do it nice and slow. We can spy and check the line. That was good to be FBI on your phone in the lobby we got tapes of Cubanin. We got snaps and wiretaps. The who evaded income tax sounds like but just a phony that I struck. You don't know me. I'm the guy in the middle turning lies into riddles.

Narrator (12:46)

If you want to understand sanctimony, the excessive piety of a hypocrite Study the life and career of James Comey. Just look at the titles of his two memoirs, his first, A Higher Loyalty, his second, Saving Justice. If he gets around to writing a third, perhaps he should call it why Being so Right Is so Hard. In these autobiographical texts, he relies on a trick to earn the reader's trust, he admits, often in unsparing language, to relatively minor indiscretions and sins. This is a version of the humble brag. Call it the humble confession. For example, he explains that he was often asked as a young man whether he played basketball in college because he is so tall. He didn't, but he was asked so often he lied and said that he did.

James Comey (13:36)

This was a seemingly small and inconsequential lie told by a stupid kid, but it was a lie nonetheless, and it ate at me. So after law school, I wrote to the friends I'd lied to and told them the truth. They all seemed to understand. One of them replied, as only a true friend could, we knew you didn't play in college, and we didn't care. You're a great friend and a great player. Of course you suck. For other reasons.

Narrator (14:01)

His memoirs are filled with these moments of minor self reflection and maximum self mythologizing, in the tradition of I was a sinner, but Now I'm a saint. At the same time, Comey offers no contrition for his role, casting a cloud of suspicion over an elected president's first term or announcing the reopening of the Hillary Clinton email investigation right before the 2016 election. Instead, he cops to bullying a kid his freshman year of college at William and Mary or stealing the judge's sneakers for his first clerkship after law school, when he took off for an unsanctioned beach day in the middle of the summer. Comey's story, as he tells it, begins in Yonkers, New York. Born in 1960 to an Irish Catholic family, his grandfather rose to become a chief of police for Yonkers, and his father plied his trade in commercial real estate. Comey had wonderful parents. His mother woke him up every morning by snapping the shades and saying, time to rise and shine and show the world what you're made of. Years later, when he was nominated to be deputy attorney general under George W. Bush, his parents gave him a snow globe with the scales of justice inside and the words Rise and shine inscribed on its base, according to his first memoir. And while he was bullied in middle school, after his parents moved from yonkers to Allendale, New Jersey. He led a relatively placid suburban life until October 28, 1977. He was in his room working on an essay for his high school's literary journal when a home intruder, wearing a knitted cap and holding a gun, broke into his family's home. The thief was a dangerous criminal known as the Ramsay rapist. Because he had been terrorizing young women in the nearby New Jersey town of the same name, Comey had to endure bone chilling terror. He saw his younger brother Pete laying on the bed with the intruder's gun pointed at his temple, and he soon had the gun aimed at him. He was forced to reveal at gunpoint where his parents kept their valuables. And he really believed in that moment that his life would soon be over. This is how he describes it in A Higher Loyalty.

James Comey (16:15)

My encounter with the Ramsay rapist brought me years of pain. I thought about him every night for at least five years. Not most nights. Every night. And I slept with a knife at hand for far longer. I couldn't see it at the time, but the terrifying experience was, in its own way, also an incredible gift. Believing knowing in my mind that I was going to die and then surviving made life seem like a precious, delicate miracle. As a high school senior, I started watching sunsets, looking at buds on trees, and noticing the beauty of our world. That feeling lasts to this day, though sometimes it expresses itself in ways that might seem corny to people who fortunately never had the experience of measuring their time on this earth in seconds.

Narrator (17:05)

That sounds like a superhero origin story. And in a sense, at least at first, it was.

Critic/Commentator (17:11)

So it ended here, in the backyard of a Brooklyn restaurant. Carmine Gallenti was the victim of a few men with guns. But the beginning of the end started only recently, here in New York City. Gallenti, it seems, was the victim of a bad time in the courts and a lot of bad public relations.

Narrator (17:28)

In 1987, James Comey was ready for the big leagues. Armed with a law degree from the University of Chicago, he got a job working as a junior lawyer for the Southern district of New York in its golden era, the late 1980s. Now, in this period, the FBI and the justice department was finally winning the war on organized crime. We tend to have a romantic view of the mafia in 2025, but for most of the 20th century, the mob controlled not only the rackets, but major construction, the unions, municipal services, the airports and seaports in major cities throughout the eastern seaboard.

Andy McCarthy (18:05)

And by the time I started in the office as an intern in around 1982, 83, we had cases on all five of the new York Mafia families, the major ones in the United States. A case against the Commission of Cosa Nostra, and a case against the Sicilian Mafia, the Pizza Connection case that I worked on. And it was all successful.

Narrator (18:30)

Again, this is Andy McCarthy.

Andy McCarthy (18:32)

And by the time it was over, the Mafia, which was an institution in New York that nobody ever thought, institution in the United States, but headquartered in New York that nobody ever thought we could really make a dent in, it was an epigon by the time that series of prosecutions was done. And it really did restore the sense that the FBI was a competent premier law enforcement agency. And if I could just like put a coda on it, Eli, I would say if they had stayed with that, history would have been very different.

Narrator (19:12)

The man leading the war against the Mafia in those years was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rudolph Giuliani. Now there's of course, an irony here. In the Trump era, Rudy would be targeted by Comey's FBI. But back in the late 1980s, Comey looked up to him.

James Comey (19:31)

Prosecutors almost never saw the great man in person. So I was especially pumped when he stopped by my office. Early in my career, shortly after I'd been assigned to an investigation that touched a prominent New York figure who dressed in shiny tracksuits and sported a Nobel sized medallion around his neck. The state of New York was investigating Al Sharpton for alleged embezzlement from his charity, and I was assigned to see if there was a federal angle to the case. I had never even seen Rudy on my floor, and now he was at my very door. He wanted me to know that he was personally following the investigation and knew I would do a good job. My heart thumped with anxiety and excitement as he gave me this pep talk standing in the doorway. He was counting on me. He turned to leave, then stopped. Oh, and I want the fucking medal, he said, and then walked away. But we never made a federal case. The state authorities charged Sharpton and he was acquitted after a trial. The medal stayed with its owner.

Narrator (20:31)

Comey's star turn would happen a few years later in 1993, when he looked into being co lead counsel in the US prosecution of John Gambino, who served as a channel between the Gambino crime family in New York and the Sicilian Mafia. His co counsel on that case was John Fitzgerald, a close friend who is now representing Comey. In the false statement charge filed last week at the Eastern District of Virginia. Comey and Fitzgerald won. Their prosecution laid bare an international conspiracy that connected the American and Italian crime families in a wide range of felonies. And Giuliani won two. He would ride the Mafia's demise all the way to Gracie Mansion. Comey's star was on the rise as well. In 1996, he served as deputy to Whitewater special counsel Kenneth Starr. This was the first congressional investigation into the Clinton family finances, and that probe eventually turned up the evidence of Clinton's affair with his intern, Monica Lewinsky. Then Comey was given a senior job for the Eastern District of Virginia. Eventually, he would get Giuliani's old job as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. And in 2003, George W. Bush made him deputy attorney general at the apex of the war on terror. After the break. When the team player becomes a whistleblower Running a business comes with a lot of what ifs, but luckily there's a simple answer to them. Shopify. It's the commerce platform behind millions of businesses, including Thrive Cosmetics and Momofuku. And it'll help you with everything you need, from website design and marketing to boosting sales and expanding operations. Shopify can get the job done and make your dream a reality. Turn those what ifs into sign up for your $1 per month trial@shopify.com specialoffer.

James Comey (22:43)

I was concerned that given how ill I knew the attorney general was, that there might be an effort to ask him to overrule me when he was in no condition to do that.

Narrator (22:52)

That was James Comey testifying before the Senate in 2007. He was the senior vice president and general counsel for defense contractor Lockheed Martin at the time, but he was recalling his brief stint as John Ashcroft's deputy. At issue was an NSA surveillance program known as Stellar Wind. After 9 11. The program, which gave the U.S. government extraordinary access to all electronic communications that traveled through the United States, was provisionally deemed legal. But the Justice Department no longer believed this warrantless surveillance was constitutional. The Bush White House and in particular Dick Cheney disagreed. On top of all of this, the attorney General, John Ashcroft fell ill with pancreatitis just as the White House was seeking Justice Department approval to extend the program in early 2004. It's March 10th that year. Ashcroft is in the hospital recovering from having his gallbladder removed. Comey is alerted by his wife that a team of White House officials were coming to his room to seek the signature of a barely sentient man. It felt like a scene out of the West Wing. Cheney's top lawyer, David Addington, and Andrew Card, Bush's chief of staff are in the room. And with his last bit of strength, Ashcroft points to Comey, who is also there to say that he now is the Attorney General. The White House team regroups and drafts new papers to reauthorize Stellar Wynn, this time removing the section for the Attorney General's signature. And then there's another showdown at the White House. Comey prepares to resign. So does then FBI Director Bob Mueller and most of the senior officials at the Justice Department. In a one on one meeting with President George W. Bush, Comey takes his stand. As a general rule, Comey would say that he didn't think it was honorable to threaten resignation in an internal policy debate. Debates should be won on their merits, he reasons. So instead he informed the President that everyone else would resign if he reauthorized the surveillance program.

James Comey (25:03)

I wanted to find a way to help Bush. This man whom I liked and wanted to see succeed appeared not to realize the storm that was coming. The entire Justice Department leadership was going to quit. And just as he was running for re election. An uprising of that sort hadn't even happened during the worst days of Watergate. I had to tell him to warn him, but I didn't want to break my rule. So I clumsily tried another approach. You should know that Bob Mueller is going to resign this morning, I said. He paused again. Thank you for telling me that. He extended his hand and showed me back to and across the Oval Office. I walked out past the clock and went immediately downstairs where Bob Mueller stood waiting for me in the West Wing lower level. I had just started to describe my conversation with the President when a Secret Service agent approached to say the President wanted to see Mueller upstairs immediately.

Narrator (25:56)

Bush ended up backing off. Comey is once again the hero of his own story. But is he really? I don't understand how it was morally different to inform the President that others would resign if he approved Stellar Wind as opposed to threatening to resign himself. What's more, this was a legitimate legal and policy debate in 2004. America is still very much at war. There is a real concern about sleeper cells in America. Comey's adversaries in this debate are not motivated by avarice or ideology. They believe the surveillance program is necessary for preventing more terrorist attacks. Comey paints his adversaries as bullies ignorant of constitutional limits on the executive branch. Also, it's worth pointing out that Congress ended up authorizing most of the program. Comey's objection was not that it was wrong for the government to have these vast surveillance powers. It was that it should adhere to a legal process. During the long war on terror, this approach was adopted by Comey's most consequential patron, Barack Obama. He ended up droning more terrorists in more countries than George W. Bush. There was an intricate legal process, however, that made the drone war palatable. There's a final irony here. James Comey lost his powerful position at the DOJ because he opposed warrantless surveillance. And yet, when he was FBI director, his bureau repeatedly gamed the surveillance court to wiretap Americans through equal quasi legal process. After Bush won the 2004 election, he did not ask Comey's direct boss, John Ashcroft, to return as his attorney general. Comey, however, was kept on. He chose to leave and took a job with lockheed Martin. In 2013, Bob Mueller's term at the FBI, which had been extended by two years, had come to an end. Barack Obama chose Comey as his successor. Here is how Comey described the job interview.

James Comey (28:00)

Turns out he had a different conception of the FBI director than either I or most partisans assumed. He said, I don't want help from the FBI on policy. I need competence and independence. I need to sleep at night knowing the place is well run and the American people protected. Contrary to my assumption, the fact that I was politically independent from him might actually have worked in my favor. I replied that I saw it the same way. The FBI should be independent and totally divorced from politics, which was what the 10 year term for a director was designed to ensure.

Narrator (28:35)

Famous last words after the break. James Comey throws himself in the center of a political storm.

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James Comey (29:06)

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Narrator (29:16)

By Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts. James Comey's first entry into electoral politics came on July 5, 2016. That is when he announced the results of the FBI's probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State. She was running for President that year and James Comey tried his best to walk a fine line. On the one hand, he said this.

James Comey (29:41)

None of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system. But their presence is especially concerning because all of these emails were housed on unclassified personal servers. Not Even supported by full time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government, or even with a commercial email service like Gmail.

Narrator (30:04)

On the other hand, although there is.

James Comey (30:06)

Evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

Narrator (30:17)

Now, Comey was way out of his lane. It's not the job of the FBI Director to decide whether or not to bring charges against someone. That is for the Justice Department. The FBI investigates, the U.S. attorney prosecutes. But Comey was also in a difficult spot. Barack Obama in October 2015 minimized the email scandal on 60 Minutes.

Critic/Commentator (30:42)

I can tell you that this is.

James Comey (30:43)

Not a situation in which America's national security was endangered.

Narrator (30:49)

The Attorney General, Loretta lynch, instructed Comey and the FBI to refer to their investigation as a, quote, matter.

James Comey (30:59)

At one point, the Attorney General had directed me not to call it an investigation, but instead to call it a matter which confused me and concerned me.

Narrator (31:07)

Matter does not actually exist as a formal category for FBI probes. Comey felt he had to distance himself from Loretta lynch and Barack Obama to preserve the public's trust in the FBI. So he called a press conference and announced his decision. But there was a catch. Later in July, Comey promised Republican lawmakers that if there were any developments in the email probe, he would inform them right away. Well, there was a development. Anthony Weiner's alleged teen sexting scandal now getting the attention of federal prosecutors.

Critic/Commentator (31:44)

A subpoena just issued for the former.

Narrator (31:46)

Congressman'S cell phone record. Anthony Weiner, the former congressman married to Clinton's chief of staff Huma Abedin, was under the FBI microscope for sexting to minors. He shared a laptop with his wife and some of Hillary's emails were found on that computer.

Andy McCarthy (32:05)

James Comey, the FBI Director, sending this to Congress that the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, is back on.

Narrator (32:13)

This led Comey to announce he was reopening the investigation on October 28, 2016, less than two weeks until election Day. That was very bad for Hillary Clinton, even though Comey closed it again two days before the election. But this is only half the story. The other half is that Comey's FBI largely protected Hillary Clinton during his tenure. This is because of another investigation involving the Clinton Foundation.

Critic/Commentator (32:42)

It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton foundation ends and the State Department begins. It is now abundantly clear that the Clintons set up a business to profit from public office. They sold access and specific actions by, and really for, I guess, the making of large amounts of money.

Narrator (33:13)

A little background After Bill Clinton's presidency ended in 2001, he established a nonprofit that was intricately mixed in with his own buckraking. One of the emails hacked from Hillary's campaign during the 2016 election goes into excruciating detail about how two of Clinton's aides would solicit six figure speaking fees from clients for Bill Clinton who would also then contribute to the Clinton Foundation. The FBI wanted to know whether this was pay for play. Was the foundation a way to purchase influence in a future Hillary Clinton administration? Was it a way of purchasing influence when she was Secretary of State? When Hillary first began running For President in 2015, three FBI field offices had launched investigations into the Clinton Foundation. But Comey's deputy, Andrew McCabe and the justice Department put the brakes on these investigations. On February 16, 2016, McCabe ordered the agents in charge of these probes to take no overt investigative steps without approval from headquarters. Now, this relates to that McCabe leak that we spoke about in the beginning of the episode from 2016 to the Wall Street Journal, the leak that Senator Ted Cruz incorrectly stated had been authorized by comey. This was McCabe's own reputation management. He had a subordinate pushback on the idea that he had stifled the investigations, placing the blame on the Justice Department. McCabe's wife ran for the state Senate in Virginia that year as a Democrat and received a lot of money from the party to do so. There was more to this, though. When FBI agents learned of the attempts of two foreign governments to contribute to Hillary's campaign in 2015. In 2014 and 2015, they opted to provide Clinton's lawyers with what is known as a defensive briefing so that her campaign would be aware of an effort to corrupt it. When the bureau heard secondhand that the Russians might have some compromising material on Clinton from an Australian diplomat recounting a conversation he had two months earlier with a junior Trump staffer named George Papadopoulos, the FBI launched a full investigation that was known as Crossfire Hurricane. These distinctions matter. Intrusive techniques like seeking a surveillance warrant or recruiting informants were prohibited in the Clinton investigations. For Trump, the FBI offered no defensive briefings. It sent undercover agents to surreptitiously record Trump campaign staffers. It obtained a surveillance warrant to tap the phones and read the electronic communications of Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page. And later, Comey ignored a public offer from Page to come in for an interview. The double standard in 2016 was galling. Here is how special counsel John Durham described it in his 2023 final report.

Critic/Commentator (36:15)

The speed and manner in which the FBI opened and investigated Crossfire Hurricane during the presidential election season, based on raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence, also reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached approached.

Andy McCarthy (36:31)

Prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election.

Critic/Commentator (36:35)

Interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign.

Narrator (36:38)

The opening of Crossfire Hurricane is a scandal unto itself. But after Trump won the election, Comey's FBI set out to undermine his presidency even before it started. There are several reasons for this. Let's start with something known as the Steele dossier, named for a retired British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, who put it together. This was unverified opposition research commissioned by Clinton's campaign that alleged Trump's campaign conspired with Russian interference in the 2016 election. This is the document that claimed the Kremlin possessed Kompromat on Trump. He allegedly paid prostitutes on a visit to Russia to perform a golden showers routine in a hotel room at the Ritz Carlton. The bureau's own investigators knew that the allegations in that dossier were false. For example, an informant who approached Carter Page reported back that Page had never met former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. The Steele dossier alleges that Page and Manafort were coordinating with Russia's hack and leak operation against Hillary Clinton's campaign. CIA analysts who looked at the dossier concluded it was garbage. More to the point, by January, FBI agents interviewed the man Steele contracted to collect the rumors in the dossier, and he backed away from almost all of it. Here is what Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said about the dossier. In 2019, the Crossfire Hurricane team obtained information from Steel's primary subsource in January 2017 that raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steel reporting. This was particularly noteworthy because the FISA applications relied entirely on information from the primary subsources reporting to support the allegation that Page was coordinating with the Russian government on 2016 US presidential election activities. However, the FBI did not share this information with department lawyers, and it was therefore omitted from the last two renewal applications. In other words, the FBI knew that the allegations in the Steele dossier were false, and they still used it as the primary evidence to obtain a surveillance warrant for Carter Page, which they renewed three subsequent times.

James Comey (38:59)

He's right. I was wrong. I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice had built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough. It's incredibly hard to get a fisa. I was overconfident in those because he's right. There was real sloppiness. 17 things that either should have been in the applications or at least discussed and characterized differently. It was not acceptable. And so he's right, I was wrong.

Narrator (39:22)

Does that sound like an honest broker? The Trump administration was run out of headquarters. The Crossfire Hurricane team was hand selected by Comey's deputy, Andrew McCabe. To claim, as Comey does, that he was seven layers removed strains credulity. What's more, Comey pushed to include the Steele dossier allegations in the 2017 intelligence assessment on Russia's interference in the election. And then there's Comey's own play. After he is fired, remember, he takes notes of his face to face meetings with President Trump. He was compiling a record, doing his own investigation. And after he was fired, he shared those notes with his friend and Columbia Law professor Daniel Richmond, who in turn shared them with the New York Times. Indeed, an FBI interview with Richmond, declassified over the summer, says that he was a special government employee who often spoke with the press about sensitive matters to help shape the public narrative about Comey and the FBI. So let me stipulate leaking is a tradition in Washington that goes back to the Washington administration. As a journalist, leaks keep me in business. But when the FBI director is a leaker, it's dangerous. The FBI is charged with investigating national security leaks. Comey's FBI went after Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information, as well as so many others. And yet, what we've learned in recent years from the inspector general of the Justice Department is that the FBI leaks all the time. It's not just McCabe or Comey. A 2020 report from the inspector general concluded that dozens of FBI officials leaked to the press and socialized with the media. One leak investigation that has never found a culprit involved Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. He was a brilliant army general, transforming how our military targeted terror networks in Iraq and Afghanistan. As he transitioned to civilian life, though, he made some bad choices.

Critic/Commentator (41:28)

We we do not need a reckless president who believes XI is above the law. Lock her up. That's right. Yes, that's right. Lock her up.

Narrator (41:51)

He took on a lobbying contract while advising Trump's Twitter 2016 campaign to represent Turkey and failed to register it under the more stringent Foreign Agents Registration act, opting instead to register under a less onerous law known as the Lobbying Disclosure Act. And he accepted a speaking arrangement in Moscow in 2015 at the annual gala for Russia's state propaganda network, RT. But Washington, after Trump's election was in the midst of a moral panic when it came to Russia. A routine call he made during the presidential transition to Russia's ambassador was leaked at first to the Washington Post, and it portrayed Flynn as trying to soften recently imposed sanctions on Moscow, Perhaps part of a corrupt bargain. Flynn, for the blue states at least, was now a traitor.

Critic/Commentator (42:41)

Here's what happened. After Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia for messing with our election, Flynn called the Russian ambassador, discussed the sanctions, and allegedly signaled the Kremlin to expect a reprieve when Trump took office. And if that wasn't signal enough, they got the hint when Trump signed his first executive order. Now, very sweet.

Narrator (43:06)

That's very sweet.

Critic/Commentator (43:06)

We need a buddy now. At first, Flynn denied all of this, but he got caught. Because turns out, we listen in on every phone call to the Russian ambassador.

Narrator (43:18)

Who knew?

Critic/Commentator (43:19)

Evidently not the National Security Advisor, you dummy.

Narrator (43:25)

So how did this happen? Here is Comey's explanation. In 2018 to Nicole Wallace at the 92nd Street Y.

James Comey (43:32)

He came to our attention in the early part of January when there were statements made by the Vice President in public about interactions that Flynn, as the National Security Advisor designee, had had with the Russians. And we knew those representations were very different than what the facts were. And given that we already had a case open to understand whether any Americans were working with the Russians as part of their effort to undermine our democracy. Trying to figure out what was going on there was very important to us.

Narrator (44:06)

Comey here is not telling the whole truth. What he left out was that in the beginning of January 2017, the case was about to be closed on Flynn, who the Bureau had investigated since August as part of Crossfire Hurricane. But the agent sent to close the file made a mistake. It was still open. And with that, Comey authorized two FBI agents to interview Flynn on his first day on the job as National Security Advisor about his call with the Russian ambassador. This was a setup. The agents didn't tell Flynn that he was under the microscope. So when they asked him about his call with Kislyak, Flynn didn't share every detail. He outranked them in the administration. He did not feel he needed to. Because of that interview, Flynn was charged and eventually pled guilty to lying to the FBI. Special Counsel Robert Mueller threatened to go after his son for a lobbying violation. Flynn was broken. He had to sell his home. Later, Flynn would withdraw his guilty plea, and Trump pardoned him in 2020. So what exactly did the transcript of that phone call say? The public didn't see it until it was declassified in 2020. What it shows is a fairly routine bit of presidential transition diplomacy. Flynn wasn't promising to relieve the sanctions that Obama imposed in his last weeks in office. He wasn't offering to invite back the Russian spies and diplomats that Obama expelled. He was asking the Russian ambassador not to escalate the situation. Here is the relevant section.

Liberty Mutual Advertiser (45:37)

Listen, a couple of things. Number one, what I would ask you guys to do and make sure you. Make sure that you convey this, okay? Do not allow this administration to box us in right now, okay? We have conveyed it. And, yeah, it's if very, very specifically and transparently, openly. So, you know, depending on. Depending on what actions they take over this current issue of the cyber stuff, you know, where they're looking like they're gonna dismiss some number of Russians out of the country. I understand all that, and I understand that the information that they have and all that, but what I would ask Russia to do is to not. Is. Is, if anything, because I know you have to have some sort of action to. To only make it reciprocal. Make it reciprocal. Don't. Don't make it. Don't go any further than you have to, because I don't want us to get into something that has to escalate on a, you know, on a tit for tat. You follow me? Ambassador, I understand what you're saying, but, you know, you might appreciate the sentiments that are raging now in Moscow. I know. I. Believe me, I do appreciate it. I very much appreciate it. But I really don't want us to get into a situation where we're going, you know, where we do this, and then you do something bigger, and then, you know, everybody's got to go back and forth, and everybody's got to be the tough guy here.

Narrator (47:09)

You know, Comey turned that phone call into a political time bomb, and it exploded in Trump's face and destroyed Flynn. I'm not saying that Comey leaked it, but it's telling that the transcript, which was generated by the FBI and distributed widely within the government, did not bother to redact Flynn's name. This is the man who is now tasting his own medicine. It's tempting to give in to the schadenfreude of it all, but we should not mistake vengeance with justice. And even as vengeance, this gambit will fail. Trump has given Comey a gift. He is now a martyr.

James Comey (47:51)

My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live on our knees. And you shouldn't either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant. And she's right. But I'm over here, and I hope you're not either.

Narrator (48:17)

Now, I realize that Trump and many of his allies, from Michael Flynn to Peter Navarro, have been the targets of warped justice as well. And the Democrats and liberals now clucking about due process and judicial independence said nothing when the targets were their political enemies. But last year's election was only 11 months ago. Trump's famous mugshot in the Fulton County Courthouse in Georgia did not sink his chances of becoming president. No, it went viral. The lawfare against Donald Trump and his allies supercharged their campaign when his estate in Mar? A Lago was raided, was the end of any credible primary challenge inside the Republican Party. What makes Trump think his own revenge prosecutions won't have a similar effect? I worry for our country. Will this be our new normal? Sham investigations, Politicized prosecutions, weaponized justice? Repeat this cycle over time, and the America we know today will cease to exist. Presidents will now have a powerful incentive to never acknowledge a lost election, because after they leave office, their successor will turn the Justice Department and FBI loose on them. And Americans will lose faith in the very institutions we need to live by the rule of law. In this respect, the prosecution of James Comey is un American. Until the Trump era, the party in power did not nakedly prosecute its opposition. But we should also acknowledge this indictment is not unprecedented. The cycle began when James Comey's FBI used Hillary Clinton's opposition research to build a fictitious case against Donald Trump and his campaign. He deserves shame for that. Instead, he will be celebrated as our republic continues to unwrap.

Poet/Rapper (50:26)

We can spy and check the line that's good to be FBI on your phone in July we got James of Jubian we got snaps and wire taps and who I made it income tax sound sp Just a phony that I struck you don't know me I'm the guy in the middle Turning lies into riddles Politicians first pick up then fingerprinting and then we wait they lie up, we find a stitch to tell our stuff and then we wait beyond this day with the sils bin go and break lay it cool, keep it warm in the room I take notes when I laugh at your jokes But I swear by an oath of my home that they give.

Liberty Mutual Advertiser (51:58)

Sa.