He lied to Congress, and this is not a "constitutional crisis."
James Comey is out at the FBI, and the sky is not falling.
Last week, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the director of the FBI gave patently false information. So false as to be unavoidably a lie. And he did so to justify his announcement of an investigation that Hillary Clinton had said just days before robbed her of the presidency.
(Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
James Comey testified under oath that Clinton aide Huma Abedin had forwarded "hundreds and thousands" of State Department emails to her husband, Anthony Weiner's, laptop computer. Comey called it a "regular practice."
That claim was used to justify the months-long investigation of Clinton, and the supposed need to go public with information about the investigation less than two weeks before last November's election.
Hillary Clinton says -- rightly or wrongly -- that that James Comey announcement cost her the presidency. That it tipped the scales in a free election and cheated democracy.
That it was something of a coup d'etat.
And James Comey lied about it to a committee of Congress.
Lying to Congress is, according to U.S. Code section 1621 of Title 18, a crime. A felony crime. Punishable by up to five years in prison. It is a "high crime" for which a federal officer can be impeached.
Yesterday, at almost the same time he was fired, the FBI sent a clarifying statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying that the "hundreds and thousands" claim had been in error, and that the quantity could more accurately be described as a "small number."
Last week it was a smoking gun, this week it was no big deal.
What the big deal is is that the head of the FBI lied about his reason for an investigation that may have influenced the choice of the leader of the Free World.
And that gets you fired.
The attorney general and his assistant were right to recommend the termination, and the president was right to order it.
And the Democrats are wrong to sieze upon it as one more step forward in their slow-motion civil war.
It became immediately clear in social media and on the news that the Democratic talking point was "constitutional crisis." In interview after interview, across the country, that's been the phrase.
Goebbels would have been proud.
But the claim is preposterous and false.
There is not, by any legal theory or fantasy, a constitutional implication of this matter.
The FBI and its director are not constitutional creations. The agency was initially formed by Theodore Roosevelt's attorney general under the authority of the president and the executive branch. The director of the FBI serves at the pleasure of the president, as Bill Clinton demonstrated in 1993 when he fired Director William Sessions. Presidents were given that specific authority by Congress in 1968.
A president's firing of an FBI director is both legal and constitutional.
Not only is there not a constitutional crisis, there is no crisis.
An officer of the executive branch has been removed according to law. An acting director immediately took his place. The work of the FBI, including the very large investigation of Russian efforts to influence our elections, continues with scores of agents involved in the effort.
Additionally, that very matter is the focus of two investigations in the Congress -- one in the House and one in the Senate. That constitutional oversight of the executive branch and its officers -- to include the president -- continues apace and unabated.
That is obvious and known by all.
And yet, so keen is the lust for political advantage, and so hungry are Democrats to destabilize this presidency, that progressives are mouthing lies of their own. And they are doing the nation great hurt.
Because just as it is wrong to yell, "Fire!" in a crowded theater, it is wrong to claim, "Constitutional crisis!" in a divided Republic.
It's almost as if they are willing to kill the beast in order to pick its bones.
So they, through dishonesty, create fake news.
When really the truth is simple and unremarkable.
He lied to Congress, and this is not a "constitutional crisis."