James Comey cut an unorthodox path as FBI director, time and again compelled by what he described as strongly held convictions to speak with unusual candor and eloquence about the bureau’s work.
It’s a combination of qualities that may come back to haunt the president who fired him.
Comey’s ouster Tuesday, while his FBI led an investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, raises the potential that a man long defined by his independent streak, willingness to buck protocol and even a flair for the dramatic could resurface to publicly rebut White House efforts to smear his reputation.
“He’s not shy, and he’s got a tremendous moral compass,” said former FBI assistant director Jim Yacone. “Above all, he will want to see the truth come out.”
Comey’s reputation for independence predated his tenure as director and famously manifested itself in a 2004 hospital room clash with fellow Bush administration officials over a domestic surveillance program. It was a moment in history that he recounted three years later to a captivated congressional audience.
At the FBI, he occasionally got ahead of Obama administration messaging or sometimes split with it altogether, by injecting himself into weighty public policy discussions.
And Comey’s reputation most obviously, and most damagingly, was borne out last summer with his unusual public announcement that the FBI was not recommending criminal charges against Hillary Clinton in an email server investigation.
The news conference was held without Justice Department approval, strayed from standard protocol and led to criticism of Comey’s moral certitude and go-it-alone inclinations.
Democrats lambasted him for it, and for his equally unorthodox move to alert Congress just before Election Day that the FBI was revisiting a once-closed investigation.
His testimony to Congress this month that he would make the same decisions again was cited in a Justice Department memo that laid the groundwork for his firing, though Trump has since said he had already made up his mind to dismiss Comey.
“I think he showed us again and again, ‘I’m independent, damn it, and that’s what you want me to be,’ ” said Ron Hosko, another former FBI assistant director. “And I know some will interpret that as he got too big for the job – certainly with this president.”
Only one other FBI director, William Sessions, has been fired, with President Bill Clinton citing “serious questions” about Sessions’ conduct and leadership. That dismissal took place in 1993. Clinton spent the final seven-plus years of his presidency at odds with Sessions’ successor, Louis Freeh, but never moved to fire him. FBI chiefs are appointed to 10-year terms on the theory that can remove them from political sway.
Comey’s outspokenness sometimes rankled Obama administration officials. The president himself in a November interview implicitly criticized Comey’s actions in the Clinton email case by asserting that when it comes to investigations, “we don’t operate on innuendo” and “incomplete information.”
Into the mix came Trump, an attention-grabbing leader who, in addition to professing frustration with “this Russia thing,” apparently loathed sharing the spotlight with Comey. In explaining the firing, the president told NBC News he considered Comey a “showboat.”
Comey declined an invitation to testify at a closed Senate committee hearing Tuesday and it’s not clear when he’ll speak publicly. But elements of his accounts are emerging.
Comey said that Trump requested that he pledge to the president his loyalty during a January dinner, according to a person close to the former director. Comey offered honesty instead. When Trump then asked for “honest loyalty,” Comey told him he would have that, said the Comey associate, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The White House has disputed that characterization.
The firing has roiled the FBI, where Comey was generally well-regarded and praised for his leadership. And while it’s not yet known what Comey himself plans to do in his post-FBI life, he’s unlikely to retire from public view.