It might seem like ages, but eight years ago, Donald Trump saw James Comey as a political ally. In fact, in January 2017, just two days into his first term, the president appeared to literally blow a kiss at the then-FBI director at a White House event, thanks in part to Comey’s role in undermining Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy.
The affection did not last long. Days later, Trump told Comey he expected “loyalty,” and after Comey instead did his job, the president fired him in the hopes of derailing the FBI’s investigation into the Russia scandal.
When Comey, a lifelong Republican, went public with his concerns and criticisms about Trump, the president came to see the ousted FBI chief as one of his most important enemies, and as far back as April 2018, he started demanding that Comey be prosecuted for crimes that Trump struggled to identify.
It took seven years, but the president finally managed to orchestrate the results he’s long sought. MSNBC reported:
A federal grand jury in Virginia on Thursday formally charged former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding, days after President Donald Trump forced out the U.S. attorney who had opposed bringing the case and publicly urged his attorney general to prosecute it.
Erik Siebert, the Trump-nominated U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, refused to pursue this case, insisting that it lacked merit. Career prosecutors explained in detail and in writing that the evidence didn’t support charging Comey. By some accounts, Attorney General Pam Bondi herself was not on board with this indictment and voiced concerns behind the scenes.
Even John Durham, a Trump-appointed special counsel, reviewed the allegations and opted not to follow through on them.
So why did the prosecution happen anyway? Because Trump fired the prosecutor who insisted on following the law, ignored the career prosecutors who did their job, dismissed the concerns of his sycophantic attorney general and used an unqualified loyalist, just days into her tenure, to exact revenge against a former ally who dared to cross him.
MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian reported that within the Justice Department, many insiders believe this is “among the worst abuses” in the history of the institution. Describing the circumstances as “shocking,” Dilanian added, “It’s hard to overstate how a big a moment this is.”
Indeed, among the most striking things about the Comey indictment is that it is plainly what it appears to be. There’s barely a pretense of propriety. A failing, desperate and unpopular president wanted a critic to be charged, without regard for merit; he publicly demanded the indictment; and he found officials who were willing to feed his appetite for revenge.
Trump and his confederates aren’t hiding their weaponization of the criminal justice system, they’re flaunting it. They want everyone to notice. They need other White House critics to be afraid, and other federal prosecutors to understand that they’ll soon be unemployed unless they play ball the way newly installed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan did. The corruption is the point. There might be half-hearted denials, issued with winks and nods, but by design, everyone should already be painfully aware of what is plainly true: The authoritarian crisis has arrived. We now live in a country where the president’s political opponents are prosecuted at his command. Alan Rozenshtein, a former department official who now teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School, told The New York Times, “What we are seeing is the almost wholesale collapse of the Justice Department as an organization based on the rule of law.” As Trump brags about his handiwork, indifferent to appearances, there is no reason to believe that Comey will be the last to suffer this fate.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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