The Inspector General report that addressed James Comey’s leaking of memos was so damaging that even the usual media suspects, such as CNN and the New York Times, only offered token cover. 

The report indicated that Comey knowingly and egregiously leaked worse than the Titanic, setting his own interests above those of the FBI while setting a terrible example for the agency he headed. 

America’s most insufferable blowhard translated this as complete vindication, tweeting, “I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a “sorry we lied about you” would be nice.” 

Caricature by Donkey Hotey

That is among the most out-of-touch tweets ever sent.  Comey purposely and intentionally attempted to nullify the votes of about 63 million Americans by trying to frame a president for impeachment on a trumped up obstruction of justice charge.  He orchestrated a sham investigation by Robert Mueller and his merry band of partisan pitbulls that cost taxpayers nearly $32 million.  An apology is certainly owed, but not to Comey.       

So, why did he do it?

I believe he did this as an act of political penance to Democrats, the deep state establishment, and the leftstream media.  He was likely always on Hillary Clinton’s side so it was difficult for him to accept criticism that he cost Madame Nightmare the election, particularly since all he was trying to do was run interference for her.

Her crimes were so outrageous that he had to do something or face a potential revolt from within the FBI ranks.  So, he spoke sternly about Clinton’s “extremely careless” conduct before whitewashing the BleachBit queen’s crimes that would have landed military members in prison, saying that “our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”        

With election day looming and Clinton under a dark cloud, she needed a miracle to clear her.  As Die Hard movie villain Hans Gruber once observed, “you ask for miracles, Theo.  I give you the FBI”…or at least the arrogant, corrupt, insufferable head of that agency and his fellow conspirators.   

Clinton was smiling like the Cheshire Cat at the time, sure that the last hurdle to her ruling the deplorables from on high had been removed by Sir Comey, her knight in shining armor.

But, history has a way of intruding on the best laid narratives.  After Clinton had thrown the last lamp in the room at anyone within range, Comey took a lot of the blame, both from Clinton and her devastated supporters.  This likely consumed the self-righteous Comey with guilt since it interfered with his ability to see himself as a hero.  Within this context, he leaked FBI memos with “sensitive investigative information” via an intermediary to the New York Times. 

Comey increasingly reminds of the character Wormtongue from the Lord of the Rings, the archetypal worm in the court of the king who grovels and poisons those around him with his actions and words while seeking approval from the evil establishment.  With liberals holding the cultural heights, there is a strong incentive for weak men and women to grovel before them.  A worm like Comey can’t resist that temptation.   

Had such an act been done against a Democrat, that leaker would already sport a bright orange wardrobe.  Nonetheless, it was ironic that the IG report reached almost the exact same conclusion about the ethics king as Comey did about Clinton, proving that birds of a feather commit crimes together.    

Of course, this is just one part in what is among the most explosive scandals in U.S. history, an attempted administrative coup enabled by media complicity that makes Watergate look like child’s play.    

We now await Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses, which promises to be very enlightening, and for whatever federal prosecutor John Durham eventually does.  This story, which will produce plenty of Maalox moments for the media, is just getting started.   

It’s important that we don’t lose sight of the forest through the trees as each piece of this story rolls out.  We already know most of the key details of what happened:

• One political party actively and continuously spied on the rival party’s campaign through the use of wiretaps and informants.  This is where the FISA abuses come into play.  Not satisfied to stop at spying on a rival campaign, a major political party and the liberal government bureaucracy attempted to overthrow the results of a national election by setting a series of traps and legal landmines and manipulating the appointment of a hand-picked special counsel.
• Andrew Weissmann’s team of partisan pitbulls, with Robert Mueller as its figurehead to add gravitas, focused almost entirely on obstruction since the team likely knew right from the outset that no Republican collusion existed.  It was always about setting the stage for impeachment on an obstruction of justice charge.  The game was for this Democrat all-star legal team to relentlessly pursue and harass President Trump on charges that both they and the president knew to be false, and then for the politicians to swoop in for the impeachment kill when he fired the harassment team.  It’s a minor miracle that President Trump didn’t oblige.  The best these hacks could do was to say the president thought about obstructing their investigation of a fabricated crime.  They literally tried to get him on obstructing an obstruction investigation with no underlying crime.  
• There was a truckload of Democrat collusion with multiple foreign powers, to include Russia, on display for all to see, which was of no interest to Comey or the Weissmann team.  None of it was investigated because this was never about investigating collusion. 
• While the news this week focused on Comey, there were plenty of other key government figures involved in this coup attempt.  Some of the worst collaborators are John Brennan (former CIA Director), Hillary Clinton, James Clapper (former director of national intelligence), Peter Strzok (FBI), Bruce Ohr (FBI), and Andrew McCabe (former acting FBI director).  This was a plan hatched at the highest levels of the intelligence apparatus and almost certainly included people higher still.  “By the book” unmasker Susan Rice’s memo pointed to that almost certain reality.     

If justice isn’t done, this will happen again.  One of President Barack Obama’s worst legacies was the weaponization of the government bureaucracy, to include the law enforcement and intelligence agencies, against political opponents.  Once you create that “fully armed and operational Death Star,” it is hard to imagine that somebody else won’t put it to use in the interest of their perceived “greater good” unless it is dismantled through real justice.

While they will be under tremendous pressure from the media and liberal bureaucracy to move on from this in the interest of the country, Attorney General William Barr and federal prosecutor John Durham need to do all in their power to see justice done.  If the worst offenders escape with a slap on the wrist, half of the country will never trust these institutions again and will forever believe that the U.S. has a two-tiered justice system.                      

Fletch Daniels blogs at deplorabletouchdown.com and can be found on twitter @fletchdaniels.