“James Comey Role Recalls Hoover’s F.B.I., Fairly or Not”

Bless the New York Times for this!

I’m being a trifle sarcastic, since the NYT should have published this article when Comey made his first improper announcement and took personal swipes at Hillary Clinton.

Maybe if the paper of record had been more forceful, Comey wouldn’t have done what he has done, days before the election.

Though Mr. Comey acted publicly, while J. Edgar Hoover maneuvered in secret, Hoover was the last F.B.I. director to be accused of trying to influence a presidential election.

Source: James Comey Role Recalls Hoover’s F.B.I., Fairly or Not – The New York Times

I quoted Stephen Gillers letter to the Times editors (why didn’t the NYT give him a opinion column at that time?) and am quoting and bolding him from this article, because he states the essence of this ethical mess.

Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law who specializes in legal ethics, said Mr. Comey would have been justified had he simply announced that the Clinton investigation was over. But his first mistake, Mr. Gillers said, was to go further and criticize her sloppy handling of email.

“If you decide not to go ahead with a case, you don’t say bad things about a person you have been investigating because there is no forum in which that person can defend themselves,” said Mr. Gillers, a Democrat. “He made a terrible, terrible error.”

With his recent statement, Mr. Gillers said, Mr. Comey again exceeded his authority and “got himself in deeper.” He should have said nothing, Mr. Gillers said. Instead, “he injected himself into a political campaign.”

And by the way–although it’s hardly “by the way;” it really is the way–I’m categorizing this one as the American war on women. As Todd Gitlin pointed out, when he diagnosed the Hillary Hatred Syndrome.

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