{"id":2437041,"date":"2025-05-20T14:29:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T18:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/comeys-recent-behavior-confirms-hes-our-worst-fbi-director\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T14:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T18:31:32","slug":"comeys-recent-behavior-confirms-hes-our-worst-fbi-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/comeys-recent-behavior-confirms-hes-our-worst-fbi-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Comey&#8217;s Recent Behavior Confirms He&#8217;s Our Worst FBI Director"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcomeys-recent-behavior-confirms-hes-our-worst-fbi-director%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2437041&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>James B. Comey, the former FBI director, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hallmarks-self-described-king-of-gay-christmas-wont-comment-on-candace-cameron-bures-marriage-remarks\/\" title=\"Hallmark\u2019s Self-Described \u2018King Of Gay Christmas\u2019 Won\u2019t Comment On Candace Cameron Bure\u2019s Marriage Remarks\">recently sparked controversy<\/a> by posting a photo on instagram of seashells arranged to read &#8220;86 47,&#8221; which some perceived as a threatening message aimed at the 47th president of the United States. Despite Comey denying any intent of violence, the Secret Service is investigating the matter. This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-men-arrested-for-illegal-possession-of-firearms-in-chicago-all-released-on-bond\/\" title=\"3 men in Chicago arrested for illegal possession of firearms, released on bond.\">incident raises questions<\/a> about Comey&#8217;s judgment, notably considering his past actions against President Trump, which have drawn criticism for compromising the FBI&#8217;s credibility.<\/p>\n<p>The article critiques Comey&#8217;s initiation of a counterintelligence inquiry into Trump&#8217;s campaign based on a report from an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/even-cnn-cant-help-but-admit-the-biden-admin-just-got-steamrolled-by-china\/\" title=\"CNN reluctantly acknowledges Biden administration&#039;s defeat against China.\">allied ambassador<\/a> regarding a conversation with a Trump aide and a Russian contact. Critics argue that proceeding with such an investigation based on a secondhand rumor constituted an abuse of power. The investigation, motivated by scant evidence, disrupted Trump&#8217;s presidency and has been characterized as an error of meaningful historical consequence.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Comey&#8217;s involvement in the surveillance of Carter Page and his handling of the Clinton email investigation are highlighted as missteps. He is accused of usurping the role of prosecutors and failing to follow proper protocols, leading to serious questions about the justifications for these investigations.<\/p>\n<p>The author, Thomas J. Baker, concludes that whether or not Comey faces charges for his recent actions, he will be remembered historically as one of the worst FBI directors due to the damage he inflicted on the agency and the country. Baker draws from his extensive experience as a former FBI agent to support his assertions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>James B. Comey posted on Instagram a photo of seashells arranged to read &ldquo;86 47,&rdquo; which could be interpreted as a threat against the 47th president. Comey has since denied that he intended violence; nonetheless the Secret Service is reportedly investigating. This posting may have been a lapse of judgment on Comey&rsquo;s part or something more nefarious.<\/p>\n<p>Comey&rsquo;s conduct in this instance, however, fits well with his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Fall-FBI-Agency-Became-Democracy\/dp\/1637586248\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previous<\/a> anti-Trump behavior and demonstrably poor judgment. His judgment has been a serious concern for many of us who were proud to serve in the FBI and care about the bureau&rsquo;s credibility and reputation. In his book and elsewhere, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/james-comey-no-treason-no-coup-just-lies--and-dumb-lies-at-that\/2019\/05\/28\/45f8d802-8175-11e9-bce7-40b4105f7ca0_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a> the sole origin of the FBI&rsquo;s counterintelligence investigation of Trump&rsquo;s first presidential campaign as based on a report &ldquo;from an allied ambassador&rdquo; of an encounter in London between a Trump adviser and &ldquo;a Russian agent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s Comey&rsquo;s characterization of George Papadopoulos&rsquo; meeting with Joseph Mifsud, a pan-European academic. Mifsud told the then-Trump aide the Russians had &ldquo;dirt&rdquo; on Hillary Clinton. Comey has piously huffed that it would have been &ldquo;dereliction&rdquo; not to proceed with a counterintelligence investigation based on that report. But to proceed with such an intrusive investigation on so little was an abuse.<\/p>\n<p>A secondhand rumor should never be enough to justify opening a counterintelligence investigation of any American, much less a presidential candidate. This off-handed conversation initiated a counterintelligence case that disrupted Trump&rsquo;s first term as president. Like directors before him, Comey should have said, &ldquo;We need more probable cause&rdquo; before moving forward with an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>In the encounter Comey cited, there was no mention of emails. Only after the WikiLeaks disclosures was an assumption made by both Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer, Comey&rsquo;s &ldquo;allied ambassador,&rdquo; and Papadopoulos, that the &ldquo;dirt&rdquo; was in Hillary&rsquo;s emails.<\/p>\n<p>Comey&rsquo;s indignant complaints about Trump are an effort to distract from the dangerous and faulty decisions made on his watch. His initiation of the counterintelligence investigation against Trump was an error of historical proportions.<\/p>\n<p>Comey has tried to justify the spying &mdash; electronic surveillance &mdash; of Carter Page, a U.S. citizen, by writing that a federal judge granted &ldquo;permission.&rdquo; We now know the FISA Court was seriously misled by Comey&rsquo;s FBI.<\/p>\n<p>Comey grossly usurped the prosecutor&rsquo;s role in virtually declining prosecution in the Clinton email investigation. That usurpation was spelled out in Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/memorandum-for-the-attorney-general-from-rod-j-rosenstein-recommending-the-termination-fbi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">memo<\/a> justifying Comey&rsquo;s firing. Comey also had further muddied the waters by announcing the reopening of the Clinton email investigation just days before the 2016 election.<\/p>\n<p>Comey tried to deflect from his responsibility in the Russian collusion fiasco by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1yfXxeJn3Tc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claiming<\/a> it all happened &ldquo;seven layers below&rdquo; him. That is simply not true. The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >deputy assistant director<\/a> for counterintelligence, Peter Strzok, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/white-house\/499586-new-fbi-document-confirms-the-trump-campaign-was-investigated-without\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drafted and signed out<\/a> the communication initiating that probe. Strzok&rsquo;s texts demonstrate he answered to Andrew McCabe, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-joe-biden-slips-and-refers-to-kamala-harris-as-president-elect-saying-quiet-part-out-loud\/\" title=\"WATCH: Joe Biden Slips and Refers to Kamala Harris as \u2018...-Elect\u2019\u2026 Saying \u2018Quiet Part\u2019 Out Loud\u2019?\">deputy director<\/a> and Comey&rsquo;s direct report. It was McCabe who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-flynn-entrapment-11544658915\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">set up<\/a> the interview to entrap General Michael Flynn, and it was Strzok who conducted the interview. These people were not seven layers down from Comey. They were his inner circle, mere steps away from him on the seventh floor of the J. Edgar Hoover Building.<\/p>\n<p>It was Comey himself who wrote a memo of his initial conversation with President-elect Trump and then leaked it. He, and only he, did that. What was he thinking? Here was the FBI director trying to incriminate the president.<\/p>\n<p>Throwing everyone else under the bus, Comey claimed that FBI procedures failed him. But it was Comey who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/crime-and-justice\/commentary\/warrants-spy-trump-campaign-lacked-probable-cause-doj-admits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">signed<\/a> three of the four applications for FISA coverage on Carter Page. And it was Comey who set the tone by declining to brief the Congressional Gang of Eight about this significant counterintelligence investigation. When Comey served as FBI director, he led the investigation of one or more American citizens without sufficient basis. The lack of justification for initiating these investigations is what truly matters.<\/p>\n<p>The former FBI director may or may not be charged for this seashell threat on the president&rsquo;s life, but James Comey will be condemned by history as the worst FBI director for the damage he has done to the FBI and our country.<\/p>\n<p><em>Portions of this article come from the author&rsquo;s book &ldquo;The Fall of the FBI.&rdquo;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Thomas J. Baker is an international law enforcement consultant. He served as a FBI Special Agent for 33 years in a variety of investigative and management positions facing the challenges of crime and terrorism. He is the author of &#8220;The Fall of the FBI: How a Once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Comey shared a photo on Instagram that some see as a threat to the 47th president, but he denies any violent intent. The Secret Service is investigating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1463,"featured_media":2437042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Comey86.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[23264,50645,50402],"class_list":["post-2437041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-comey","tag-fbi-2","tag-leadership-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Comey86.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1463"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2437041"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2437045,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437041\/revisions\/2437045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2437042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2437041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2437041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2437041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}