Today a grand jury in northern Virginia indicted James Comey on two criminal counts that I take to be essentially the same. This is the brief indictment, in its entirety:
The indictment has nothing to do, at least directly, with Comey’s misconduct in connection with the Russia Collusion Hoax. He deserves to go down in history as a betrayer of his office and of the American people for that shameful conduct. Here, he is charged with a single misdeed: lying when he told a Senate committee, in response to a question from Ted Cruz, that he did not authorize someone at the FBI to be an anonymous source.
A source on what? I am not certain, but I believe the question related to the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump. No doubt this will be made clear in days to come.
The grand jury was convened in northern Virginia, presumably because it would be impossible to get a conviction in the District of Columbia, and possibly hard even to get a grand jury to indict Comey. But I seriously doubt whether the government can get a conviction in northern Virginia, either.
The U.S. Attorney who is bringing the charges against Comey is Lindsay Halligan, who has just been sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virginia, has no experience as a prosecutor, and has little experience, period. She appears to be another instance of Donald Trump’s fondness for good-looking women lawyers. That isn’t going to get her far in this case.
News reports indicate that the grand jury balked at bringing a third count that did relate to the Russia Collusion Hoax.
To me, this shapes up as a worst-case scenario. Yes, elements of the base will be gratified that James Comey has been criminally indicted. But the case has little or nothing to do with the evils that Comey actually perpetrated, and for which he deserves to be infamous. And the prosecution, in all likelihood, will fail. The press will portray that failure as a vindication of Comey and a repudiation of what we all know about the worst scandal in American history.
So I fear that President Trump and his minions have traded short-term gratification for long-term fiasco.
