There were plenty of takeaways from former FBI Director James Comey’s interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” this week. None of them were terribly good, at least if you’re James Comey.
One of the more objectionable moments came at the end of the interview, when he tried to deflect blame for ruining Carter Page’s life by positing that, well, the FBI had it way worse.
Comey was responding to a clip from President Donald Trump from one of his rallies: “They’ve destroyed the lives of people that were great people, that are still great people. Their lives have been destroyed by scum, OK? By scum.”
“I’d like your response to that, and I’d like you specifically — because you said the other day, ‘Where does former FBI lawyer Lisa Page go to get her reputation back?’” Wallace said, referring to the FBI lawyer who became controversial for exchanging cryptic, biased texts targeting Trump with her then-lover, former FBI agent Peter Strzok.
“Where does Carter Page go — the target of these [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrants and surveillance — where does he go to get his reputation back?” Wallace asked.
And cue the rhetorical prestidigitation.
“It’s a great question. Carter Page was treated unfairly, most significantly by his name being made public,” Comey said.
Firstly, I don’t want to spoil things for you if you haven’t watched the video yet, but any time someone begins an answer like this with “it’s a great question,” just listen and see if this rule ever fails: They will never answer the question.
Secondly, fair enough, it was Congress who leaked Page’s name. You know why they knew it? Because the FBI obtained FISA warrants using applications with 17 inaccuracies — inaccuracies which Inspector General Horowitz said were the result of either gross negligence or intentional misconduct.
But let’s get back to whether or not Comey actually answers the quest– oh wait, I already spoiled it for you. Never mind.
“He’s a United States citizen, and it never should have been made public, and that’s an outrage,” he said.
“But that statement is just a continuation of the lies about the FBI. The FBI is an honest, apolitical organization. Remember the treason; remember the spying; remember all of us going to jail. That was false information that your viewers and millions of others were given.
“My own mother-in-law was worried I was going to jail. I kept telling her, ‘Look, it’s all made up, it’s all made up. Don’t worry about it.’ But I couldn’t say that publicly for two years. Well, now I’m saying it on behalf of the FBI. It was all made up, and I hope people will stare at that and learn about what the FBI is like, human and flawed, but deeply committed to trying to do the right thing.”
Oh, clapback. However, this is really dependent on what you consider “do[ing] the right thing.” Really dependent.
Even if the 17 mistakes identified in the FISA warrant applications from the IG report were gross negligence — an example of tunnel vision and believing they had their man, no matter what any contradictory evidence told them — that’s still not people “deeply committed to trying to do the right thing,” at least those who were in charge of the Carter Page investigation.
This is especially true when you consider one of the salient facts in this case — that Carter Page had been working with the CIA and that the CIA had informed the FBI of this — was completely ignored because it didn’t fit the narrative investigators had already established about Russian collusion with members of the Trump campaign.
In the meanwhile, when asking about where Carter Page can go to have his reputation restored, well, after three sentences that question was forgotten. Instead, the poor little bureaucrats at the FBI are the real victims here — especially Lisa Page, once you forget about all those text messages.
Forget about the collateral damage all of this “sloppiness” — Comey’s excuse for the problems with the FISA warrants — caused. Forget all of the people who’ll now be considered Russian agents for the rest of their lives because of this investigation. The real victims are the people who investigated them.
And, after all, the only real problem is that people know Carter Page’s name.
This has nothing to do with the fact there was a massive investigation into him conducted as if guilt was a fait accompli. It has everything to do with the fact that, in the course of the investigation, his name was linked.
These are James Comey’s priorities.
Rest assured this isn’t the end of his potential problems — there’s always John Durham’s investigation, after all — but restoring Carter Page’s reputation simply isn’t on the agenda, even though the FBI could find no evidence he was a Russian agent.
After all these years, Comey can’t even do that much.
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