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Truth, torture, Trump and more: James Comey's eventful career (Book Review) |
Title: A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and
Leadership Author: James Comey Publisher: Pan MacmillanPages: 305 Price: Rs 799
As an Assistant US Attorney in New York in the early 1990s, James Comey was part
of the anti-mafia campaign and became well versed about how its top bosses
perceived themselves, the people who worked for them and the world. As FBI chief
a quarter of century later, he saw the same worldview -- in newly-elected
President Donald Trump.
Recounting a meeting where he seemed to have angered Trump by contradicting him,
Comey tells us that the encounter had left him "shaken" for he had "never seen
anything like it in the Oval Office" under the previous two presidents he had
served.
"As I found myself thrust into the Trump orbit, I once again was having
flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob. The silent
circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The
us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in
service to some code of loyalty that put the organisation above morality and
above the truth," he writes in his autobiography.
And as we go on to find out in the book, this is another aspect of the
significant role that Comey would play in the 2016 US Presidential Election,
apart from his decisions on "the matter" (the word is significant, as we learn)
of Hillary Clinton's email server being perceived as having damaged her
campaign.
These interactions with Trump, where Comey's "loyalty" was sought in the wake of
the probe into Russian support/links against his campaign team and he was even
purportedly told to drop the case against a recently-resigned aide (National
Security Adviser Michael Flynn), could have far-reaching consequences -- for the
new President.
While Comey was unceremoniously fired, his claims would lead to a Special
Counsel investigation that has reached uncomfortably close to Trump -- Luke
Harding's "Collusion -- How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House" shows how.
But while around half of Comey's book is devoted to his decisions and
experiences in the Clinton and Trump episodes, it has much more than these two
major issues, and is certainly not an explosive, tell-all account -- he is too
principled and conscientious a lawyer and public servant to reveal what is the
court's domain to the public.
But it does clarify his position in the Clinton matter, where he seeks to
explain what the issue was all about, and what lay behind him telling Congress
in October 2016 -- a few days prior to the election -- that the probe was being
reopened.
As he reveals, the decision hinged on whether to inform Congress -- which could
influence the election -- or conceal it -- which could have been as problematic
for the FBI if evidence of prosecutable criminal activity emerged later. "Put
that way, the choice between a 'really bad option' and a 'catastrophic option'
was not that hard a call," he argues.
This is Comey's memoir with the parts on Clinton and Trump the highlights, but
the good lawyer he is, he builds up to them, showing why he acted the way he did
by detailing his formative influences and his career.
These include the childhood experience when a criminal burst into his home and
threatened him and his brother, a wise boss at the department store where he
worked part-time, bullies at school, and encounters with the Mafia bosses and
killers as US Attorney.
Then, as Deputy Attorney General in the George W. Bush Presidency, there was the
"Stellar Wind" surveillance -- where he had to forestall two senior
administration officials trying to obtain a hospitalised Attorney General's
concurrence -- and torture of terrorists and terrorist suspects by the CIA, and
being appointed FBI chief by Barack Obama in 2013.
While the comparison of the three Presidents -- and their cabinet colleagues --
is well brought out and extensive (say, their political styles to sense of
humour -- or lack thereof), the main point is their attitude to justice, or
rather to those tasked with ensuring it. As we learn from history, and
increasingly from the news, there is no doubt what the rankings will be.
This, along with Comey's observations on the ethics of leadership and the
pursuit of justice free from any political considerations, is what makes this
book more than a political memoir.
TAGS:
A Higher Loyalty: Truth,
Lies and
Leadership,
book,
book review,
James Comey,
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