Dana Mathewson

Many of those on our side have thought that AG Barr's decision to (apparently) let Jim Comey skate on his leaks to the media was caving in, as Republicans usually do. But Joe diGenova, a bulldog lawyer if ever there was one, says no, he's doing the right thing, and it doesn't mean that Comey is getting a Get Out Of Jail Free card, only that he's off the hook for the time being, not forever.

The decision not to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey over his deliberate leaks to the media isn’t a sign of weakness or lack of will, but of the professionalism and well-reasoned restraint of President Trump’s Department of Justice.

Attorney General Bill Barr’s number one goal since taking the helm at the DOJ has been to restore the impartial and professional ethos that has characterized that agency for more than 200 years.

He is working diligently to cleanse it of the stain of politically driven vindictiveness that Obama-era officials created by grossly mishandling the Clinton email investigation, and then, even more egregiously, orchestrating the series of events that led to the Russiagate witch hunt.

Before this "investigation of the investigators” is over, there will undoubtedly be many cases of misconduct that warrant criminal prosecution. Comey’s, however, was not one of them.

What Comey did -- release private memos made in the course of his employment as FBI director to politically damage the president of the United States, who had just fired him for unrelated misconduct -- was absolutely outrageous, and totally unbecoming of the leader of this country’s premier criminal investigatory agency. It speaks volumes about Comey’s corrupt character and further illustrates why both President Trump and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded that Comey was no longer fit to serve in that role.

In this case, however, even that deplorable conduct did not rise to the level that was possible to prosecute criminally. The career prosecutors assigned to the case told Fox News that this "wasn’t a close call,” and I can see why. The confidential nature of the memos was too ambiguous. The intent element was too hard to prove.

Attorney General Barr made the right call. This would have been the first major charging decision of this investigation, which is not the time to go all in on a "maybe” case. To do so would create exactly the appearance of political vindictiveness and retributivist prosecution he is working so hard to dispel.

That does not mean, as some are now claiming, that the decision not to prosecute in this particular case is a vindication of Comey, a defeat for the president, or an end to the inquiry surrounding these leaks.

 

There's more here -- a lot more. And if Joe diGenova says it, well, it's worth reading, here: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/joe-digenova-barr-james-comey-leaks-decision

If I were Jimmy Comey -- Thank the Lord I'm not -- I wouldn't be planning any out-of-country trips for the next few years!

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Dana adds more here:

Brit Hume shares a ‘very smart thread’ on why James Comey was not charged

Note: You have to wade through a few Tweets here. This may not be your cup of tea, but increasingly it's the way information is shared these days.

Brit Hume ✔ @brithume

Very smart thread on why DOJ decided against prosecuting Comey (for now). https://twitter.com/johnwhuber/status/1157034985393668102…

Undercover Huber @JohnWHuber

For those asking: here is the reason @Comey (sadly) won’t be prosecuted by DOJ for leaking one classified memo as reported by @jsolomonReports

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Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

Recap: I identified Comey breaking the law and the *specific* memo he leaked over a year ago. And more recently that he lied to Congress about it:

Quote Tweet

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

· Apr 20, 2018

Here is the proof that @Comey leaked CLASSIFIED information in violation of federal law (18 USC § 793) to his friend Daniel Richman - who then was an anonymous source to the @nytimesCC: @ChuckGrassley@DevinNunes@RepGoodlatte

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4:06 PM · Aug 1, 2019·Twitter for iPhone

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Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

Replying to

@JohnWHuber

The standard DOJ use when deciding to proceed with a prosecution like this (or decline) isn’t "did Comey break the law?” (which he did) The standard is: "can I *prove* Comey broke the law *beyond a reasonable doubt* to the satisfaction of a jury?” & DOJ didn’t think they could

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

Proving beyond a reasonable doubt would be difficult, because Comey was very clever in doing the leaking and attacking Trump: —He didn’t leak all the memos —He didn’t give the memos to the press but selectively had some of their contents read out by his "lawyers”

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

Comey also didn’t leak certain contents of the memos that remain secret to this day - e.g. whether Flynn was under a FISA, Trump’s calls with Putin etc These are still redacted by the FBI and we don’t know their content To a judge/jury that would show Comey was being selective

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

Also the classified memo was *retrospectively* classified by the FBI after Comey had already leaked it His defense here would be that he didn’t know it was classified at the time Comey can also say he himself classified some memos at SECRET level - and *didn’t* leak them

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

The law Comey broke doesn’t *require* any intent, but does require "gross negligence”

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

Comey would quite easily be able to argue that *at worst* he was negligent, but not grossly because he did protect some content of the memos he leaked, didn’t leak entire memos and they weren’t classified at the time (and where he should have classified them he attempted to)

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

Now I personally don’t agree with any of those defenses, but that’s irrelevant. Comey’s defense team would have a decent shot at introducing *reasonable doubt*, endangering the success of a prosecution. Prosecutors want the thing watertight up front

Undercover Huber

@JohnWHuber

·

Aug 1

Disappointing but to end on a positive - that the IG referred Comey for potential criminal prosecution is a good sign AG Barr/DOJ declining is only a good sign if they’re saving their ammunition for more a more watertight case involving Comey. That, we’ll have to see...

'Nuff said?

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at August 03, 2019 06:47 AM (ScrwI)

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at August 03, 2019 06:58 AM (ScrwI)

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at August 04, 2019 01:44 PM (0FCbZ)

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at August 04, 2019 03:48 PM (rIYC+)

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