Comey's Book: 'It's Embarrassing Former FBI Director is Doing This' - Journo

Former FBI director James Comey has lashed out at President Trump in his new memoir called "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership." The book comes less than a year after Comey was fired by Trump. Sputnik discussed this with Doug Wead, political analyst, New York Times bestselling author, and former adviser to two American presidents.

Sputnik: What's your opinion then on the matter that the former FBI director is talking about matters which are part of an ongoing investigation?

Doug Wead: It's embarrassing to me and the word that just keeps coming to my mind is unprofessional. It's disheartening, discouraging to hear someone who is at the very head of our largest police investigative organization and to see him almost reduced to acting like a little girl on the playground arguing with the president, it's just very discouraging, I would hope our institutions, especially, our police institutions are operated with professionalism and without passion, but with just a total regard for fact. He just right now seems to be emotionally all over the place.

Sputnik: What impact can this have on the Mueller probe, that's more interesting, isn't it?

Doug Wead: It doesn't help, you can contrast Comey with Mueller. Mueller‘s quiet, he's professional, he doesn't take the bait when he's being punched or provoked by Trump or others politically, this is his best friend, this is the man who helped engineer him into position, that's James Comey, who made the leaks that helped Mueller get appointed. So it weakens Mueller. There are people who are accusing Mueller of being a partisan and having ulterior motives and having a bias, he's been quiet, he's been professional, he hasn't answered back, but now with Comey all over the place, I think it's weakening Mueller. There's a fear that this is what he's like if he were to be open and frank.

Sputnik: Perhaps you can tell us your thoughts on the fact that, obviously, James Comey is getting a lot of publicity to tour the country with the book that's trashing the US president?

Doug Wead: This is his opportunity to make money, that's clear. I guess he was waiting for a time in his life, thought he'd be FBI director for a full 20 years and retire with dignity and write books, be featured in movies for his accomplishments, and now all of a sudden panic sets in, and he realizes he's out, he's got to cash in now, so he's pushing the envelope, sometimes we use the expression — he's milking it for all he can — he's trying to make money, again it lacks dignity, it's too bad.

Sputnik: Now some experts have pointed out to Comey's past, stating that not many people seen to know who he is as they have named him a hero among liberals, what's your take on that? Is he part of the liberal establishment?

Doug Wead: It's becoming very clear that he thought that Hillary Clinton was going to win, and if Hillary Clinton would have won, he would have been set for life, and his deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, his wife had received $700,000 from the Clinton fundraising machine, he was solidly in their camp, these illegal things that were done with the dossier to try to hurt Trump that was funded by his political opponents, all of this would never been known, it would've been covered up, there would've been silence from the top floor of the FBI headquarters, but inside the FBI the message would've come down that the Democrats are running this place and if you want to have a future in this agency you will play ball with whatever Hilary Clinton wants. It could've been disastrous, so it could be worse, the fact that Trump won, a lot of this is getting exposed.

Sputnik: So reports have said that Comey's clashes with Trump are damaging the reputation of the intelligence agency, would you agree with that?

Doug Wead: Yes, it's totally devastating. I think we're going to feel the repercussions of this for many, many years to come. It's kind of opened the window on how these agencies operate, and even if they clean this up, if they have hearings and they expose every bias and every illegal act, even so, long into the future many people are going to be cynical about how these agencies operate, it's very clear now that they can be politicized one way or the other, either on the left or the right, but the fact that they're vulnerable to that, that they have no sense of professionalism and duty to their profession, that's going to last a long time.

The views of the speaker do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.