COMEY’S FIRING – SLOPPY BUT NECESSARY

As every Democrat and Fake News Airhead in the country has their hair on fire over President Trump firing FBI Director Comey, cooler heads are focusing on who was responsible for Trump’s decision.

That would be Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.  His Memo of yesterday (5/09) to Attorney General Sessions, “Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI”, was sent to the President, upon which the decision was made.

 Here are two points to consider regarding the Deputy AG.

Rod J. Rosenstein has integrity. Even the hyper-leftist publication The Forward described the 52-year-old Rosenstein as “the least partisan figure” Trump has appointed.

Noting that Harvard Law School graduate Rosenstein was the longest-serving U.S attorney, the article reported that he had worked in the Bill Clinton Justice Department before serving as the U.S. attorney for Maryland under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Hardly a cheerleader for President Donald Trump, the newspaper quoted law professor Carl Tobias praising Rosenstein’s “independence” and “professionalism.”

All this was written on March 3^rd, well before the Senate’s recent overwhelming confirmation of Rosenstein to be deputy attorney general under the contentious and barely-confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

President Trump in January had picked Rosenstein as acting attorney general after Trump had sacked acting AG (and Obama holdover) Sally Yates January 30 for insubordination. Yates a few days ago testified disingenuously. All this brings us to:

Democrats supported Rod J. Rosenstein to be deputy attorney general. On April 3 the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 19-to-1 (this is not a typo) to report the Rosenstein nomination to the full Senate. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is no shrinking violet, praised Rosenstein’s “reputation of integrity that’s unusual for this administration’s nominees.”

And two weeks ago the U.S. Senate confirmed Rosenstein’s nomination by the razor-thin margin of 94-to-6.  At that time, the right-wing extremist, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer noted that Rosenstein “had developed a reputation for integrity.”

That was then, this is now. Remember it was just a few months ago that assorted prominent Democrats wanted Comey’s scalp. And even this week Comey again made a fool of himself with his “mildly nauseous” conditional mea culpa, explaining that if he had to do it all over again, he would still exercise bad judgment and demonstrate incompetence.

Now, the Dems are aghast that Trump fired Comey abruptly, when presumably he should have done so earlier. Hence, there must be a sinister motive. When Democrats were on the networks last night charging a cover-up, they were asked for proof and offered none.

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin, who alternates at the network between political kibitzer and legal analyst, said the firing of FBI Director James Comey is an “extraordinary abuse of power” and a “dark day” for America. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews finds the Comey firing to be “a little whiff of fascism.” Toobin has termed yesterday the “Tuesday night massacre” that will “disgrace” Donald Trump.

For balance on CNN even Richard Nixon’s lawyer John Dean, who threw his client under the bus, said comparisons to Nixon’s firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox as part of the “Saturday night massacre” were overdrawn. And we’re not just talking day of the week.

In contrast, Alan Dershowitz last night on CNN said that Jim Comey lacked the credibility to be the FBI Director and should have resigned because neither Democrats nor Republicans have confidence in him.

Dershowitz, himself a liberal Democrat, said that Trump had previously and appropriately replaced Acting AG Sally Yates; Dershowitz saw no connection between the two firings (Yates and Comey). Indeed, Dershowitz suggested his fellow liberals take a deep breath and monitor who Trump names as Comey’s successor.

What a concept — see if Trump appoints a political hack as FBI Director; or perhaps he will appoint someone greatly respected for probity in the mold of, well… Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein?

If you believe Toobin and Matthews and the pervasive hysteria among the liberal media (a redundancy), then you have to assume that Rod Rosenstein, quite implausibly, is part of the conspiracy to obstruct justice, that is, to scuttle the current Department of Justice investigation into the Trump-Russia allegations and to cover-up the cover-up.

That is like knowing when to sell your stocks before the crash, and also when to get back in the market precisely before it recovers.

After all, Jeff Sessions recused himself, so Rosenstein is the point man in a sensitive, potentially explosive investigation involving the president of the United States and those around him, so are we to assume that Rosenstein is not the honest man and consummate professional, so acknowledged repetitively and contemporaneously by even Democrat partisans?

What’s more, President Trump in his letter to Comey firing him, cited not only AG Sessions but Deputy AG Rosenstein. Again, it is Rosenstein’s two-page memorandum to Sessions that makes the masterfully succinct case against Comey. It is well worth reading (linked above).

To summarize, Rosenstein notes that FBI Director Comey on July 5, 2016, usurped the Attorney General’s authority when he (Comey) concluded the case against Hillary Clinton should be closed without prosecution. Quite simply, this was not his decision to make.

We all recall the bumbling charade, where Comey explained all the reasons why Hillary should be indicted and prosecuted, and we waited for the punch line. But it seems that Comey had unilaterally concluded and now said she should not be prosecuted — thus also taking off the hook Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who had recused herself, after her awkward meeting with Bill Clinton, the possible criminal defendant’s spouse, on the airport tarmac.

Absent Comey’s mind boggling acrobatics, the DOJ would have had to make the call on Hillary.

In the Rosenstein memorandum, which is receiving insufficient attention, Rosenstein noted that Comey’s news conference with its “derogatory information” about Hillary was “a textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do.”

There is much more — quite simply, the memorandum will be memorialized in history as the definitive judgment on why Comey should have been replaced by President Trump at the outset.

But he wasn’t. And the timing of his firing seems curious. What we do know is that the matter is sloppy. Clearly this has been in the works for a while — days, a week, two weeks? The Rosenstein memorandum was perhaps proofread and finalized on May 9, but surely the AG knew it was in the works. No leaks, here!

By all account, Trump, Sessions, Rosenstein, et. al. were playing such inside baseball they did not even know Comey was in Los Angeles. When you’re going to fire someone high profile, part of the plan is how to do it. It is unclear at this writing how the (now former) FBI director found out.

The Trump stalwarts often say the press is out to get Trump. That may be true, but the administration provides its adversaries in the media with plenty of inspirational material.

We’re talking about the FBI and the Department of Justice. If you want to fire the FBI Director, then replace him with a solid, impeccable choice. And bring closure to the Russian stuff by letting Deputy AG Rosenstein’s credible investigation run its course, rather quickly.

That way, when you fire someone who should have been fired in January the Dem’s spin of an ulterior, ominous motive will have far less credibility.

Arnold Steinberg is a political strategist and analyst. He wrote the two classic graduate texts on politics and media.