Former FBI director James Comey has piped up about the bureau’s investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying it is “idiotic” to have a “shot clock.” His critics, both left and right, were not amused.
The FBI opened a background investigation into Kavanaugh - his seventh - on Friday, after the White House humored the demands of Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and one Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona). Though initially fine with the investigation wrapping up by this Friday, the Democrats are now asking it to be unlimited in time and scope - and Comey, writing in the New York Times, agreed.
A number of people quickly observed that Comey doesn’t have a leg to stand on, given that he actually admitted putting a “shot clock” on the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton’s email use, due to the 2016 presidential election.
Comey also claimed FBI agents could do the job in a week, because they are good at sorting out lies from truth. Or are they?
The former FBI director also echoed a Democrat talking point of “obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a yearbook,” calling them a “flashing signal to dig deeper.” This got him flak from Republicans - but also from Democrats who argued he was lending legitimacy what they called “an illegitimate process.”
For some conservative commentators, Comey's op-ed was proof of his partisanship, as they brought up his role in promoting the “Russiagate” narrative and using the Steele Dossier to obtain a spying warrant for a Trump campaign adviser - issues that are still being investigated by both Congress and internal inspectors at the Department of Justice.
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