The Future of FBI Director James Comey - The Atlantic

I couldn't agree more with James Fallows, as I have previously commented.  FBI Director James Comey's first intervention in the election was his press conference and denunciation of Hillary Clinton as "extremely negligent".  That was followed up by his appearance at Congressional hearings.  Most recently he released a letter to Congress suggesting he was about to re-open the email investigation.  He also released the investigation file on Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich.  Now he has said there is still no criminal offense.  But millions voted this week - before he again declared Hillary Clinton free of criminal conduct. There is a word to describe countries where the police directly intervene in politics: police state.  The damage is incalculable but it is very real.  - gwc

The Future of FBI Director James Comey - The Atlantic
by James Fallows

With his ill-advised intrusions into this year’s election, FBI Director James Comey has already damaged U.S. interests and the fabric of American democracy more grievously than Hillary Clinton’s harshest critics could contend that her email-policies have done.

Damaged, how? I made the long-term case a week ago, after Comey’s reckless announcement about the Anthony Weiner emails. The shorter-term case is evident right now: No one will ever know how the 2016 election would have turned out—in ultimate victor, in margin and “mandate,” in the way specific states go, in down-ballot and Congressional effects—were it not for Comey’s ill-advised decision to put himself in the middle of charge and counter-charge.

We won’t ever know, because some 40 million people have already voted. We won’t ever know, because his latest last-minute announcement comes too late to be fully digested by the time everyone else votes on election day.

I have no reason to believe that Director Comey was operating out of base motives. He probably thought he was doing the right thing for the right reasons. But he was mistaken, and the results were damaging—to the country, to the political process, to the FBI and the Department of Justice, and to Comey himself.