Now that President Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey, the "gloves are off" for the leftist media and politicians who are suddenly touting how terrific Comey had been. Others see the reality that Comey was a lousy FBI Director.
Comey will inevitably be remembered for the controversial role he played in the 2016 presidential election, where his agency conducted surveillance of the Trump campaign as well as investigated the Clinton camp for mishandling classified materials, giving both sides arguments for how the FBI ultimately swayed the vote.
But even before the 2016 campaign, the FBI endured a number of humiliations under Comey's tenure. Most damning were revelations that the FBI was generally aware of almost every terrorist who successfully struck America over the last eight years.
Here are 10 of Comey's biggest embarrassments at the FBI:
Before he bombed the Boston Marathon, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev but let him go. Russia sent the Obama Administration a second warning, but the FBI opted against investigating him again.
Shortly after the NSA scandal exploded in 2013, the FBI was exposed conducting its own data mining on innocent Americans; the agency, Bloomberg reported, retains that material for decades (even if no wrongdoing is found).
The FBI had possession of emails sent by Nidal Hasan saying he wanted to kill his fellow soldiers to protect the Taliban -- but didn't intervene, leading many critics to argue the tragedy that resulted in the death of 31 Americans at Fort Hood could have been prevented.
During the Obama Administration, the FBI claimed that two private jets were being used primarily for counterterrorism, when in fact they were mostly being used for Eric Holder and Robert Mueller's business and personal travel.
When the FBI demanded Apple create a "backdoor" that would allow law enforcement agencies to unlock the cell phones of various suspects, the company refused, sparking a battle between the feds and America's biggest tech company. What makes this incident indicative of Comey's questionable management of the agency is that a) The FBI jumped the gun, as they were indeed ultimately able to crack the San Bernardino terrorist's phone, and b) Almost every other major national security figure sided with Apple (from former CIA Director General Petraeus to former CIA Director James Woolsey to former director of the NSA, General Michael Hayden), warning that such a "crack" would inevitably wind up in the wrong hands.
In 2015, the FBI conducted a controversial raid on a Texas political meeting, finger printing, photographing, and seizing phones from attendees (some in the group believe in restoring Texas as an independent constitutional republic).
During its investigation into Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified material, the FBI made an unusual deal in which Clinton aides were both given immunity and allowed to destroy their laptops.
The father of the radical Islamist who detonated a backpack bomb in New York City in 2016 alerted the FBI to his son's radicalization. The FBI, however, cleared Ahmad Khan Rahami after a brief interview.
The FBI also investigated the terrorist who killed 49 people and wounded 53 more at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Despite a more than 10-month investigation of Omar Mateen -- during which Mateen admitting lying to agents -- the FBI opted against pressing further and closed its case.
CBS recently reported that when two terrorists sought to kill Americans attending the "Draw Muhammad" event in Garland, Texas, the FBI not only had an understanding an attack was coming, but actually had an undercover agent traveling with the Islamists, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi. The FBI has refused to comment on why the agent on the scene did not intervene during the attack.
Here's the simple truth as to why sleazoids like Senator Chuck Schumer and many other Democrats are freaking-out:
Chuck Schumer is dirty. People like him are dirty. Comey was dirty.
Schumer wants a special prosecutor because he knows that his dirty buddy is now out, and cannot stop investigations against Hillary, DNC, Pedogate, UraniumOne, etc.
So, his only move is to hope that he and his dirty colleagues can get one of their dirty buddies in as a special prosecutor, to stop any real investigation that way.
A couple of facts:
(1) Dems are claiming that the TIMING of firing Comey is suspicious because "Comey was going to testify before Congress in just two days!" That's true, but they are trying to make it sound like maybe Comey would have some dirt on Trump so Trump fired him. Nope. Comey, and ALL OTHER HEADS of various departments, were/are going to testify about their BUDGETS, so that Congress can figure out what to budget for next year. It was a BUDGET hearing, which is done each year.
(2) The reason for the firing NOW is because Attorney General Sessions has recused himself from any Trump investigation, since he is part of the administration. So, the DOJ has a new guy, who was just confirmed by the Senate 94-6 two weeks ago, and THAT guy started investigating the various investigations and determined that Comey was OBSTRUCTING, by refusing to investigate Democrats, while letting a bogus "investigation" about "Russian-Interference in the election" continue on Trump so the media can play it to help Democrats.
That is the real reason of the firing -- Comey was blocking real investigations. Dems WANT that, and with Comey gone, they can only hope for a special prosecutor that is one of them (they don't have any other hope).
So, Dems are once again lying their asses off on TV to push propaganda at the American people. It won't work.
Comey is lucky he got out by being fired. In the next few weeks, others won't be so lucky because the previously-stifled investigations will move ahead and result in Indictments of certain powerful elected elected officials and, ultimately, Prison for them.