On the firing of James Comey

Andrew C. McCarthy: The Bipartisan Case against James Comey  . . . "The memorandum issued by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to explain Comey’s dismissal Tuesday is well crafted and will make it very difficult for Democrats to attack President Trump’s decision. Rosenstein bases the decision not merely on Comey’s much discussed missteps in the Clinton e-mails investigation — viz., usurping the authority of the attorney general to close the case without prosecution; failing to avail himself of the normal procedures for raising concerns about Attorney General Lynch’s conflict of interest. He goes on specifically to rebuke Comey’s “gratuitous” release of “derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal prosecution.” That “subject,” of course, would be Mrs. Clinton. " . . .   Full article here.

Krauthammer: ‘Highly Implausible’ To Claim Comey Was Fired for How He Handled Clinton Investigation

"On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s claim that FBI Director James Comey should be fired due to his mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails is “highly implausible.”

"Krauthammer said, “[A]ccording to the letter by the deputy attorney general, this is about something that occurred on July the 5th. This,  it’s — so we start out with something that is highly implausible. If that was so offensive to the Trump administration, what you would have done is, in the transition, you would have spoken with Comey, and said, we are going to let you go. That’s when a president could very easily make a decision to have a change. That’s not unprecedented. But to fire him summarily with no warning, in the middle of May, because of something that happened in July, is almost inexplicable.”

"He continued, “Do we really believe that Donald Trump, after all these months, decided suddenly he had to fire this guy because he damaged Hillary back in July? Another implausible conjecture.' ”   Ian Hanchett

In Firing Comey, Trump Shows He's Afraid of No One  . . . "World leaders, ever since the days of President Reagan's air traffic controller's debacle have long noted how a U.S. president behaves on domestic mattters as their cue to how to act with the U.S. leadership. Part of holding power is knowing how to use power. Trump knows how to use power and his firing of Comey shows that he is not afraid of powerful people." . . .   Including this guy at the right?  Caricature by Deviant Art


James Comey Didn’t Sink Hillary . . . And even if we concede that Comey’s letter to Congress helped sink Clinton, Clinton deserved that letter and Comey had no choice but to send it."

Volokh Conspiracy: ". . . that’s not why he’s being fired"  . . . "And then he is fired — for the very thing (his mishandling of the Clinton investigation) that had made him so valuable to Trump. It seems awfully neat and tidy. I guess we’ll know more about whether this is actually about Russia when we see who Trump nominates as Comey’s replacement. Stay tuned."