James Comey, former FBI director talks on his regrets and frustration on job!

Former FBI director, James Comey has some great achievements during his tenure in office. Does he have any regrets? He spoke to the National Press Foundation’s Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship class and here are his feelings on it.

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James Comey talks about inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email server

Former FBI director, James Comey has no qualms about conducting the inquiry into Hillary Clinton using her private email server for official communication. In fact, James is at peace with the decision even though it tilted the scales in favor of the Presidential election win for Donald Trump. James stated:

“I’ve thought about the decisions I’ve made, a thousand times is probably not enough,”
“And I’m very proud of the way the decisions were made and I’m comfortable with the decisions even though I see thoughtful people who see it differently, and that’s OK. So, I’m at peace with those decisions… (It) was never my goal to be famous.”

The personal frustration of James during Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Florida resort search in 2022

James stands by the decision to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Florida resort in 2022. This was during the FBI inquiry regarding the former president allegedly retaining unlawfully certain classified documents there. But James was not happy that the explanation for this search was not given immediately to the public. That silence period gave the public a chance to talk ill about FBI. Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed that action only three days after the search. But the damage to FBI image was done. James says:

“If I’m going to maintain the faith and confidence of people, I got to show them the work,”
“It’s the reason I was so frustrated watching the silence that followed the court authorized search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. Three days of silence, except not silence, because a lot of lies were told about the FBI and the Justice Department, yet those organizations were silent.”

He added:

“And I am not in touch with those leaders, so I don’t know what their thinking was. But I remember thinking from the sideline: ‘You got to get out there. You’ve got to explain to people why you’re doing what you’re doing because in the absence of your voice, that spot is being filled.’”

James’ regrets

James feels that the public fight he had with Apple Inc. was not right and could have been avoided. This event happened when FBI required the technical help of the company to unlock the encrypted iPhone that belonged to an attacker in the 2015 mass shooting at San Bernardino, California. He states:

“I screwed up the public beginning of the encryption debate,”

It was taken as a personal fight between him and Apple chief, Tim Cook. He continued:

“And so that’s an easy narrative for people to follow and to write about instead of what it should have been, which is a much more complex and nuanced and difficult conversation where I share values on both sides of that equation. And so, I totally screwed it up.”

But James is optimistic of the USA. He said:

“The justice system at the federal level I think is going to be fine. …. I believe there are quality people leading the United States Department of Justice now, people of character and integrity. I would do things differently in terms of interacting with the public. I think I just made that clear. But these are quality people who care about getting it right, but it’s under attack in a frontal assault like I’ve not seen in my lifetime…”

But he asserted that Donald Trump should not become the American President again for the sake of the nation.

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