In 1908, Attorney General Charles Bonaparte established the FBI during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency. Since then, it has been a revered force for eliminating some of America’s deadliest domestic threats.
The FBI has been responsible for taking down the Unabomber, John Dillinger, Al Capone, John Gotti, Bonnie and Clyde and several Ku Klux Klan figures, among others.
However, the FBI has lost its long-revered identity because of former FBI Director James Comey’s inability to “check his political devotions at the door,” as well as his mistreatment of the Hillary Clinton investigation.
One of Comey’s most disturbing missteps was his failure to recommend criminal charges for former Secretary Clinton’s failure to use a secured server for classified emails. She transmitted 110 emails containing classified information, some of which contained information marked as “secret” or “top-secret.” Her inability to use a secured server for numerous secret and top-secret emails could have made the U.S. vulnerable to foreign hackers, thereby putting our national security at risk.
Also working the Clinton investigation was then Chief of the Counterespionage Section of the FBI Peter Strzok, a counterintelligence expert who changed the language of the draft from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless,” which prevented the filing of criminal charges against then Secretary Clinton. Though former director Comey didn’t change the language, he was familiar enough with the investigation to know what the language should have been, and his mistake prevented justice from being served against a political dynasty for endangering our national security.
In the intelligence community, two things are sacred: partisan independence and confidentiality. Director Comey violated both of these standards.
Director Comey recorded several of his interactions with President Trump into memos, which he later leaked to a friend to be given to a reporter.
It has recently been revealed that at least two of the memos he leaked were classified, which could endanger our national security. As the director of the FBI, you can’t let your political ambitions interfere with your job, and Comey did just that. Director Comey has said on record that President Trump is “morally unfit” to be the president of the United States, and he leaked these memos to oust President Trump.
Lastly, in the former FBI director’s book, “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey includes several remarks about the president that a former member of an independent governmental organization should never make.
“His face appeared slightly orange, with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and (had) impressively coiffed, bright blond hair, which upon close inspection looked to be all his…As he extended his hand, I made a mental note to check its size. It was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so.”
Military personnel, the intelligence community and other independent bodies of the government should lead their lives during and after service as “silent professionals.”
Tyler Jordon is a senior political science major from Charleston, West Virginia.
